Sustainable Nutrition: How to Feed the Planet and Safeguard the Environment

 

 

 

We had the privilege of debating on sustainable nutrition with some of the sustainability and human nutrition top experts. What are the policies to win the sustainable nutrition challenges?

Our speakers:

• Mariavincenza Chiriacò, Researcher at “Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici”
• Michelle Desilets, Executive Director at “Orangutan Land Trust”
• Francesco Visioli, Professor of Human Nutrition at University of Padua

 

According to Dr. Maria Vincenza Chiriacò, one of the most substantial topics that emerged from the discussion is that educating consumers concerning sustainability is not as easy.

Dr. Chiriacò exposed various reasons behind it. A clear example is when people have limited time to buy food, and they don’t really pay close attention to their labels and information. Experts agree, therefore, that the very first thing institutions and companies should do is work on education for consumers. They must be aware, as Dr. Francesco Visioli explains, and begin to take a sustainable diet.

“The real sustainable diet? Eat less and waste less food”.

How to attain this goal? Consumers and food producers should work together to create a more secure and efficient food system.

Fixing the supply chain and producing better food products, such as vegetables, are particularly main solutions which manufactures can adopt and that it

And sustainable palm oil is an integral part of sustainable nutrition strategies. It comes to no surprise that the Lancet Commission EAT has recently included palm oil in its “ideal diet”.

For many reasons, palm oil is the most sustainable fat in the world. Dr. Michelle Desilets guided us through this topic, highlighting potential examples of how banning this ingredient would be detrimental to the environment and biodiversity.

 

Dr. Maria Vincenza (aka Cinzia) Chiriacò

She is a researcher at the CMCC Foundation (Italy) working on the role of agro-forest ecosystems in the carbon cycle. She is an expert in the sustainable management of agroforestry systems in view of mitigation and adaptation to climate change; besides working on several national and international projects related to the sustainability of agricultural and forestry policies. She is also an expert on climate policies and tools of environmental sustainability such as the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) applied to agricultural areas and farming enterprises. Expert in GHG inventories of the land sector, Dr. Chiriacò is involved in the compilation of the National GHG Inventory Report of Italy (2018, 2019, 2020). She is one of the authors of the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

 

Michelle Desilets

Founder and Executive Director of Orangutan Land Trust, she has been working on the orangutan conservation for 26 years. Recognizing the devastating impact of palm oil on orangutans and their forest habitat, Michelle has worked on the transformation progress from the industry to the sustainable practices since 2004. She has also served on several working groups, task forces, and advisory panels for the RSPO and Palm Oil Innovation Group founded the PONGO (Palm Oil and NGO) Alliance and advised companies, zoos, schools, universities, and institutions globally on the issue and strategies for change.

 

Prof. Francesco Visioli

He is a Human Nutrition Professor at the University of Padua, Italy, and Senior Investigator at the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies (IMDEA)-Food. He was also Full Professor of Physiopathology at the Université Paris 6 “Pierre et Marie Curie”, where he directed the “Micronutrients and Cardiovascular disease”. Dr. Visioli earned a degree in Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Milan and a Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the University of Brescia (based on the work performed at the Louisiana State University Neuroscience Center).

Currently, his research concerns essential fatty acids, namely those of the omega 3 series, and natural antioxidants, as related to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. In particular, Dr. Visioli’s group discovered the biological and pharmacological properties of olive oil phenolics, including hydroxytyrosol.

Dr. Visioli has a publication record of approximately 250 papers and book chapters, which have been cited over 10,000 times, as well as being invited to lecture in over 100 meetings. Moreover, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids (ISSFAL). Presently, Dr. Visioli is the Editor-in-Chief of PharmaNutrition Associate Editor of Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes, and Essential Fatty Acids, other than being a member of the Editorial Board of several other publications. Dr. Visioli is also the leader of the “Fats and Human Health” division of Eurofed Lipid and a member of the EFSA GMO Panel.