DESCRIPTION

The world population has reached the mind-boggling number of 8 billion people. Food production is running into an increasing demand for quantity and quality, but agro-livestock activity and the processing industry have a heavy impact on the environment and on Earth’s health. With this BIP, we aim at making students conscious of the problems that must be tackled from different perspectives: sustainable and healthy diets, environmental protection and other related aspects. These will be discussed from an environmental, food production, business, consumers and legislative point of view.

The program will be divided in five sections: the ecological, the food, the nutrition, the business/consumers, and the law modules. The ecological module supports students in understanding how the production of food may impact on environment and how to protect the environment while producing food. Students will be involved in case studies and a field trip presenting real case scenarios for which they will be asked to apply knowledge acquired during the BIP. The food module addresses the topics of sustainable food production integrating solutions for waste recovery, efficiency and sustainability of food production, food safety and food security, while also considering the environmental impact. The nutrition module will cover aspects related to the nutrition of food, including the relationship between healthy diet and sustainable consumption. Key issues of the business/consumers module will be the concept of transition in terms of potential contribution of innovative policies, localised production and distribution approaches, novel technologies and foods, and alternative consumption scenarios. The law module aims at familiarising participants with the holistic approach the European Union (EU) is undertaking towards food sustainability and novel foods regulation.