During the closing session, Elena Višnar Malinovská, Head of Unit of European DG CLIMA, stated that, “Globally, food systems are responsible for 60 percent of territorial biodiversity loss, around 24 percent of greenhouse emissions, about a third of degraded soils and full exploitation of at least 90 percent of commercial fish populations. We need to bring industrial farming to an end, to raise less cattle, to promote organic farming, and to take care of water retention in the landscape.” Shane Holland, executive chairman of Slow Food in the UK, pointed out that, “The COP26 world climate conference in Glasgow next November must give the world effective solutions. Slow Food has decided to run a strong campaign to keep civil society’s attention and expectations high between now and next November. The signing and dissemination of the Slow Food Climate Action Declaration is just the first step, the first act in an involvement that will range from influencing and inspiring changes in the behavior of individual citizens to putting pressure on governments and public institutions at all levels, whether local, regional, national or supranational, to adopt effective and concrete policies against the climate crisis at COP26.” Marta Messa, director of Slow Food Europe, added that, “Climate change and food are strictly interrelated, since the way we produce, process, distribute and consume food plays a key role. It can either contribute to climate change or help tackle it. Slow Food is a global movement with thousands of communities worldwide who put concrete solutions for sustainable food systems into action in order to help solve the many crises we are facing, as individuals, as communities and as a society.” The next event for the Slow Food Climate Action will be in Milan (Italy) on July 22nd at the G20 Youth Summit, the official engagement group of young leaders representing the G7 and G20 countries. Slow Food will participate in the Coffee Day panel discussion on Reflections, best practices and models in the coffee value chain. Emanuele Dughera, spokesperson of the Slow Food Coffee Coalition, will explain why coffee, the second most traded commodity in the world, plays an important role in climate impact. While coffee has so far played a relatively small role in global deforestation (compared to commodities such as palm oil, soy or extensive livestock farming), it is assumed that climate change will gradually push production into new geographical areas, often at higher altitudes, thus threatening some of our planet’s last intact forests and key biodiversity conservation areas. By 2050, global demand might triple, which would mean exploiting an additional 10-20 million hectares of land – a devastating scenario for local communities, both environmentally and socially. |