With EWA — Empowering Women in Agri-food, EIT Food, Future Food Institute, and Dock 3 sow value through innovation

The FAO report, The Status of Women in Agri-food System, highlights the growing role of women in the agri-food sector. A presence so prominent that it has led the UN to coin the phrase “feminization of agriculture.” The sector, which is one of the primary sources of employment globally for women, is thus, a crucial tool for empowerment. But it can become so if — as the FAO report itself points out — «adequate resources, skills, and capacities for action» are available; that is, if an environment is in place that fosters access to these opportunities and enables women to make full use of their potential. Empowering Women in Agri-food (EWA), a program that EIT Food, Dock3, and Future Food Institute have been running, has supported ten women to develop their projects through training and mentoring, offering them an essential network for sharing ideas.

On October 22, we awarded our winners in an extraordinary setting: the stage of +Gusto at Palazzo Re Enzo in Bologna. We heard from the biggest names in world cuisine; we talked about gastro-diplomacy, public food and local food politics, genius and creativity, landscape and food and wine, traditions, and innovations. We also met Mexican chef Elena Reygadas, who’s, “cooking culture”, received the Best Female Chef Award and who has become a symbol of efforts to close the gender gap in her country. The audience thus prepared to welcome the winners of the EWA 2023 award.

On stage, Diana Zagarella, with Olivair, took first place by bringing innovation to a sector (olive growing) that is so important to the Mediterranean economically, environmentally, and culturally. Diana has been able to reinterpret the uses of technology in favor of caring for the land: a drone dedicated to harvesting olives that will make it possible to take care of the olive trees that rise in the steepest terrains (which account for 60 percent of all Italian olive groves). It is a tool that replaces traditional shakers, which are uncomfortable, heavy, noisy, polluting, and often harmful even to the plant.

Alongside her, in second place and with a special mention, Martina Riolino, who, with her Zoé Food Evolution, has introduced an extraordinarily slow concept more necessary than ever: curated, fresh, healthy, organic and, where possible, 0 km food in a fast food vegan kitchen where eating becomes an act of love.

Together with them, Serena Vacca, Tiziana Mori, Elena Umanità, Alessandra Loi, Stefania Sellitti, Isabel Marin, and Giorgia Volpe — all EWA participants, showed us once again that to bring innovative ideas to life requires not only skills and ideas but also passion and talent. However, skills, ideas, love, and talent need development interventions on women’s empowerment. The potential is clear, that according to FAO estimates, women empowerment could account for an increase in income for about 58 million people and “resilience” for another 235 million people.

For the second year, the Empowering Women in Agri-food program acted in this direction, supporting and training these young women to translate project visions and strategic plans into concrete and impactful actions. Once again this year, EWA helped an increasingly competitive market and united nine women who will be agents of change, spurring further development not only in the agri-food sector.

This award is for women’s empowerment, which brings diversity and richness. Protecting, enhancing, and giving voice to women in a sector that feeds our planet means sowing value for all. Because the future — which always starts from the earth — is not women or men: it must be “together”.

The Future Food Institute is an international social enterprise and the cornerstone of the Future Food Ecosystem, a collection of research labs, partnerships, initiatives, platforms, networks, entrepreneurial projects and academic programs, that aims to build a more equitable world through enlightening a world-class breed of innovators, boosting entrepreneurial potential, and improving agri-food expertise and tradition.

Future food advocates for positive change through initiatives in Waste & Circular Systems, Water Safety & Security, Climate, Earth Regeneration, Mediterranean Foodscape, Nutrition for All, Humana Communitas, and Cities of the Future as we catalyze progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Learn more at www.futurefoodinsitute.org, join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube. Or attend a program through the FutureFood.Academy!