Mother Earth Day: the importance of embracing regeneration from the FF ecosystem collective perspective

“Future Food is planting seeds to change the future by connecting the dots across the food ecosystem. All of the choices we make that are in service of both people and the planet, from big business to government to individual consumers, can make a positive impact on earth regeneration.”

Abby Frammartino – Managing Director, Future Food Americas

Today marks the 52nd International Mother Earth Day since it was first created by the United Nations to help raise awareness on important topics such as earth regeneration. Since its first celebration, Earth Day has pushed policymakers and people all around the world to adopt more sustainable behaviors to preserve our planet.

Being the change is the call that we are asked to embrace, a call that since its very beginning, has put the Future Food Institute in the front line to facilitate exponential positive change to sustainably improve life on earth through food.

Especially in the last two years, the disruptions affecting the Humana Communitas at large, have been calling us to reconnect with human values, to rebalance our lifestyles, to embrace a sense of responsibility, to implement an integral ecological approach.

Today, humanity uses 70% more resources than what our earth can produce.

This is one simple data point that exemplifies why working towards Earth regeneration is so essential and why it is also part of the Future Food mission. It is an alarm that we have to rethink our mindset, models, and indicators for more sustainable development.

“Regeneration of minds enables prosperity-driven decision making leading to sustainability in all aspects of the food system.

Chhavi Jatwani – Head of Design, Future Food Institute

International Mother Earth Day should be a reminder for everyone that saving our planet and also ourselves is only possible if we change our diets, change our conventional way of producing food and, most importantly, change our way of seeing things by adopting a prosperity thinking approach – going beyond user-centered design to human and planet-centered growth. This passes through education, an authentic act of nurturing minds, hopes, visions, and creativity.

“We must go back to re-thinking education and care as opportunities to regenerate the future and build a “New World.” A relationship with Others and with the Future cannot exist without Education.”

Sonia Massari – Future Food Academy Director

It is grounded on collaboration. Multilevel, multicultural, intergenerational collaborations.

“We will have to collaborate and not compete, we will have to recognize the identity and power of women’s leadership in the mitigation and adaptation to the climate crisis, we have to learn from young people and savor their inexperience while giving them opportunities to create new ones, we have to look at the regenerative value of diversity.  And in the process we will finally regenerate ourselves, as individuals aware of our own impacts, even the improper ones.”

Claudia Laricchia – Head of Institutional Relations and Global Strategic Partnerships, Future Food Institute

It is thanks to partnership that, in the last two years, we have had the chance to organize the Food for Earth regeneration marathon, a 24-hour virtual marathon that, from East to West around the world, collected the most important lessons on regeneration. It is through choral efforts that we are able to shape collective prosperity, the magic that, from innovation to educational programs, is possible only when togetherness and commonality prevail, when each of us opens up to the possibility of positively influencing and being influenced.

“It’s good to remember that the challenges we face cannot be mitigated in silos, but depend on creativity and shared initiative. Through the Boot Camp in Japan, we are working with Japanese food shapers to co-create and co-design best practices to trigger a mindset shift and facilitate the transition towards the regeneration of our food systems.”

Virginia Cepollina – Corporate Affairs, Future Food Ecosystem

And it is through its living labs in Pollica, Bologna, and Tokyo, that Future Food is creating on a daily basis a dialogue between the actors of the food system to implement regenerative practices and preserve natural ecosystems.

“During these weeks in Tokyo, for the FF Japan mission, I have been able to savor the beauty of contrasts. Living the contrasts, savoring the contrasts, reflecting on the contrasts. Understanding them in order to put in place the close relationships that can trigger multiple values and impacts on those who are within this ecosystem and on those who come into contact with it. Contrasts are an engine for regeneration.”

Alessandro Fusco – Japan Lead, Future Food Institute

These are the kind of connections, deeper connections, that can holistically regenerate the individual well-being, the social fabric, the natural ecosystem, that can restore our cultural heritage, grounding us into deep roots, to build together a solid and prosperous future.

“Our duty is to enable actors of the food system to implement regenerative practices and be the real stewards of nature. Hidden gems, like the continuous care for soil by Edmondo Soffritti, the love that Vittorio Rambaldo nurtures for the sea, the work that Rareche Cilento is doing to advocate for regenerative practices, that MedEatResearch is carrying out to collect ancestral knowledge, and that Climate Farmers are promoting to connect and support actors and farmers who regenerate our soils.”

Alessio Corti – Project Manager at Paideia Campus and Agri-Regeneration Lead, Future Food Institute

To build a better future, we must be able to connect with the planet and with other people on a deeper level. By looking at our world’s diversity, biological, agricultural, cultural, and human diversity, we have the chance to learn how to re-generate, generating something new, again, starting from the unique power of food.

“Food is in fact the emblem of transformation and re-generation: a seed then is turned into a plant, a plant into fruit and ecosystem services. Natural processes never die completely but constantly change forms and adapt. This is a process that extends also in terms of communication, research, and content dissemination. In this sense, regenerating means widening the field of evaluation, including different perspectives and visions, deepening and searching for new data and new lenses of evaluation, validating and questioning constantly.”

Erika Solimeo – Head of Initiatives, Future Food Institute

Awareness is the first needed step to start this regeneration process, but action – concrete, transparent, and tangible actions are the only way to make changes last long.

“Earth is asking for help, and we must act, not only with words. Big changes in history had been made with tangible actions. From our product development space (Food Alchemist Lab), we are creating healthier and more sustainable food alternatives. The future should be different, respecting the roots of the past and taking advantage of the scientific, cross-cultural and gastronomy knowledge we have nowadays.”

Francisco “Paco” Álvarez Ron – Manager of Food Alchemist Lab

It is a process that urges us to move from re-generation to RegenerAction.

“There are days when the complexity of our food systems can feel overwhelming, too big and too far reaching. The challenges inherent in real regeneration are connected to so many players, often in opposition to each other, that at times it seems a Herculean task. But for me, Earth Day is an opportunity to pause and to take stock. It is a day to recognize how far we have come, to appreciate the global community of food heroes who are all working towards a better future together, and to be energized by new people just awakening to this cause. While there is still much work to be done, I am also humbled to be a part of this movement and inspired to continue pushing for real and sustainable change.”

Sara Roversi – President of the Future Food Institute

Happy International Mother Earth Day!