Agriculture has been the sector most influenced by the pandemic. It is high time to recognize humanity's integral connection to food, as evidenced by the global hoarding response that occurred during this emergency. The buyers’ panic buying attitude turned the focus on the distortions that exist daily in the food supply chain.
In Italy, many liters of milk were at risk of being discarded: yet, it was saved just because of its organized conversion into long-life milk. However, the system doesn't bode well: Italy imports fresh milk from France, while Italian ranchers lack a similar distribution platform, and with the lockdown, they risked discarding the finest quality raw materials. Italy had Spanish oranges in general stores, yet none from Sicily. From a positive perspective, the pandemic has catapulted the digital transformation of everything and has invigorated a new sort of aggregation between producers.
Currently, a significant exertion is being made to have the option to keep the ecosystem of global food innovation active. The coronavirus has been debilitating, breaking down networks, meetups, fairs, and other events, now at risk of vanishing due to changes in sociability and physical movement.
Today, the challenge is to make local, organic, and quality food available to everybody. World poverty levels will soar over the next few months, and the danger is that many will opt for low-priced products. The food that harms the most is the one that costs the least, leading to another dilemma of healthcare crises in the already strained healthcare system amid the recent pandemic. At that point, there's another glaring issue at hand: plastic. The pandemic diminishes the energy behind accomplishing zero plastic in 2021, given the extreme utilization of plastic, at the hands of pandemic-related needs. We should discover better approaches to invert this pattern, viable with the new normal.
The Future Food Institute Bridges The Gap
The Future Food Institute, an ecosystem and an organization that has been striving for a very long time to construct the universe of food to come - with branches in Italy, Japan, and the United States -also bolsters three pillars: most importantly knowledge, and specifically awareness about the relationship between food, climate, and sustainable development, followed by the creation of communities with activities, living labs, and spaces for startups, lastly innovation, comprised of research and development, from the enhancement of waste to the design of new food experiences. The Future Food Institute is established on the principles of an innovative “eco-systemic approach” of Future Food: Knowledge-Community-Innovation. Under its umbrella, Future Food Institute also includes a Living Lab, a space for prototyping new sustainable development models with the community.
Through the platform of FFI, the mastermind behind this ecosystem, Sara Roversi, thrived in organizing Food Innovation Global Missions. This mission worked by providing true world tours for participants to explore food system challenges in real-time while connecting with innovators and activists, inspiring them to make a difference in their communities. Sara is also an applauded thought leader who is known for the concept of “Prosperity Thinking” - a model established on the People-Planet-Prosperity paradigm. This model aims to create not only HUMAN-CENTERED but LIFE-CENTERED "Prosperity," all while considering the basic needs of man, community, and the planet.
The Future Food Institute is also a partner of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The FFI/FAO collaboration delivers a joint program focused on promoting food innovation as a lever to generate and accelerate social, cultural, economic, and environmental impact. The collaboration also bolsters FFI’s education, innovation, and community-building activities through the integration of FAO’s e-learning materials on sustainability, climate change impacts, water scarcity, gender, and rural development. FFI further promotes the reduction of food loss and waste by creating awareness about food-sustainability crises via its advocacy initiatives.