To date, 33% of soils are unproductive. At the same time, their role as a water and carbon sink is heavily jeopardised, as between 50% to 70% of the carbon stored in soil has been released in the atmosphere. Containing the expansion of arable land and reducing water stress, particularly in regions where these resources are already overused, represents a major challenge for farms of the future, that have to ensure food security to a growing global population. Equally, the current global pandemic is making even more evident the importance of reinforcing the global food-supply chains while protecting vulnerable farm workers.
[Mediterranean Foodscape]: Consumer choices can play an independent role in production and sustainability by increasing the demand for certain types of products according to their geographic origin and production process. Promoting planet-friendly diets, such as the Mediterranean Diet, rather than foods with high environmental costs is pivotal to slow down the effects of climate change.
[Waste & Circular Systems]: As a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic and interruption of global food markets, the US and Canadian farmers were forced to pour milk away, Indian farmers to feed their cows with strawberries, while Peruvian producers dumped tonnes of white cocoa into landfill because of the demand restriction from restaurants and hotels.
[Humana Communitas]: To ensure prosperity for all, we need to start redistributing the value that is created in the food chain, back to the producers. There is a need for innovation and market-based interventions that can ensure direct access from producers to consumers.
Starting from the intention to achieve global food safety and food security, participants will learn some of the most recent technologies in terms of climate-smart crop production, farm management software, and information technology, such as control systems, remote sensing technology, collection of Big Data, GPS-based soil sampling. Using such approaches, farmers can apply the optimal amount of input to each crop, to increase water and soil efficiency.