The future of nutrition: how to combine health and sustainability
The idea of sustainable food involves several aspects related to the planetʼs health and its inhabitants. Joining efforts to build a more sustainable and environmentally friendly food system -healthful, safe and socially fair-, is one of the challenges of the 21st century. In this regard, the 5S nutrition (healthy, sustainable, safe, social and satisfactory) has to be accessible to all the population, a challenge that requires having the concepts of social equity and food justice quite present so as to not forget the most vulnerable population groups of society.
The idea of sustainable food involves several aspects related to the planetʼs health and its inhabitants. Joining efforts to build a more sustainable and environmentally friendly food system -healthful, safe and socially fair-, is one of the challenges of the 21st century. In this regard, the 5S nutrition (healthy, sustainable, safe, social and satisfactory) has to be accessible to all the population, a challenge that requires having the concepts of social equity and food justice quite present so as to not forget the most vulnerable population groups of society.
Promoting the debate and thought on the different dimensions of the concept of sustainable food are the main ideas of the sessions “The future of nutrition: how to combine health and sustainability”, an initiative to take place in the Aula Magna in the Historical Building of the UB on October 13 and 14, as part f the activities of Barcelona World Capital of Sustainable Food 2021. These sessions will be carried out face-to-face and online, and are promoted by the University of Barcelona, the Nutrition and Food Torribera Campus of the UB, the Public Health Agency of Barcelona (ASPB) and the Barcelona City Council.
Global health, planet health
The opening ceremony, which took place on October 13 at 4:00 p.m., counted on the participation of the rector of the UB, Joan Guàrdia; the councilor of Health, Ageing and Care of the Barcelona City Council, Gemma Tarafa, and the manager of the Public Health Agency of Barcelona, Carme Borrell. The sessions were live-streamed on UBtv.
Then, the vice-rector for Equal Opportunities and Gender of the UB, Montserrat Puig, chaired a session focused on healthy and sustainable nutrition in the agenda of public policies, with the participation of the experts Álvaro Porro, director of the project Barcelona World Capital of Sustainable Food 2021; Carmel Mòdol, secretary of Nutrition and Food at the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda of the Catalan Government; and Rafael Escudero, secretary-general for Consumer Affairs and Gambling Functions and president of the Spanish Agency of Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN).
Dieta personalitzada, dieta poblacional i dieta planetària: quina ha de ser la prioritat? is the title of the session presented by M. Carmen Vidal, professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences and director of the Nutrition and Food Torribera Campus of the UB. The session was given by lecturer Ramon Estruch, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the UB.
Eco-food: lights and shades
A roundtable on lights and shades of ecological food took place at 6:00 p.m., chaired by Rafael Escuredo, with the participation of the lecturer Francesc Xavier Sans, principal researcher of the research group on Agroecology and director of the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the UB; Victoria Castell, head of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Catalan Agency for Food Safety of the Catalan Government; Marta Garcia Sierra, from the Institute of Regional and Metropolitan Studies of Barcelona (IERMB), and lecturer Rosa M. Lamuela, director of the Institute for Research on Nutrition and Food Safety (INSA-UB), located in the Nutrition and Food Torribera Campus.
The paradigm of agroecology in agri-food systems will be treated in the session presented by the lecturer Gustavo Llorente, rectorʼs delegate for sustainability, and the researcher Marta Guadalupe (CSIC). Then, the expert Carles Ariza (ASPB), will present the session on climate change and food systems which will count on the participation of Professor Enric Tello, from the Faculty of Economics and Business of the UB.
Food sustainability, territory and quality
On Thursday 14, at 3:00 p.m., Carles Ariza led the session on food sustainability and equity, given by the expert Hector Silveira, from the Observatory on the Right to Food in Spain (ODAE). The sessions were live-streamed on UBtv.
Maribel Pasarín, director of Promotion of Health (ASPB), chaired the roundtable on perspectives of food vulnerability, with the participation of Ana. Moragues, from the Faculty of Economics and Business of the UB; Maria Izquierdo, from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the UB and the Nutrition and Food Torribera Campus; Josep Antoni Arroyo, operations manager in the project Alimenta, and Ana Fernández, from the Department of Community Health (ASPB).
Afterwards, the fight against food waste was the topic of the roundtable chaired by lecturer Jesús Contreras, from the Food Observatory (ODELA) of the UB. Among the participants were Rosa Flos, director of the Study Centre of the Food Bank (Banc dels Aliments de Barcelona); Berta Vidal, researcher and project expert at the Espigoladors Foundation, and Glòria Cugat, assistant director-general of Agri-Food Control and Inspection.
The session on the UB community and food sustainability presented the contest of challenges by UB students and the preliminary results of the survey on the perception and knowledge of healthy and sustainable food in the UB environment. The participants were the experts M. Luz Latorre, Oriol Comas, Ricard Celorio and Maria Clara de Moraes Prata, from the Nutrition and Food Torribera Campus.
Professor M. Carmen Vidal chaired the roundtable “Food sustainability and territory. Value of local foods”, with the experts Ujué Fresán (ISGlobal), Carlos González, from the Department of Nutrition, Environment and Cancer; Octavi Quintana, director of PRIMA Foundation, and Rosa Binimelis, from the Network for Food Sovereignty of Central Catalonia (XaSACC).
The last roundtable, “What do we do and what can we do at the institutions to reach food sustainability?”, was chaired by Carme Borrell, and will count on the participation of Lidón Matrat, operations coordinator of the Project of Barcelona World Capital of Sustainable Food 2021 (PEMB); Lourdes Altés, director of UB Saludable, and Pilar Ramos, from the Community Health Service (ASPB).
Afterwards, lecturer Oriol Commas announced the names of the awardees of the Challenge Contest “What do you do for food sustainability?”, a call aimed at bachelorʼs, masterʼs and doctoral degrees of the UB. The awardees were Martina Moreno Fina and Inés Batalla Ferrer-Vidal, from the Faculty of Physics (first prize), and Samanta Nosàs Herrero and Albert Carbonell Laguna, from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences (second prize).
The sessions finished with an institutional closing ceremony with the participation of Montserrat Puig, vice-rector for Equal Opportunities and Gender of the UB, and Carme Borrell, manager of ASPB.