The Network of Sustainable Food, From Planting to Eating
What we eat has a direct impact not only on our health, but also on the wellbeing and prosperity of our communities, and the health of our planet. This is a lesson we learnt at a young age at our parents’ family restaurant, and one which we now try to spread from the kitchen at El Celler de Can Roca and in our new role as Goodwill Ambassadors for Sustainable Development Goals.
One of these goals is fighting hunger and malnutrition, as well as improving the access of all people to a healthy diet. This is a significant challenge, considering, on the one hand, the terrible reality that nearly 800 million people are suffering from chronic malnutrition, and that there are nearly 100 million underweight children under 5 years of age in developing countries. On the other hand, we find a global food system that is unsustainable, that consumes too much land, too much water, generates too many greenhouse gases and overexploits marine resources. As the final element of this equation, we cannot forget that the global population is growing- it is estimated that by 2050 the global population will reach nearly 10 billion- increasing the strain on our planet and its limited resources.
In this complex situation, sustainable cooking can contribute to bringing about real and very positive changes. It is a type of cooking based on sustainable agriculture, small local producers and traditional production and conservation techniques. It allows us to access more varied and nutritional food, reclaim ingredients that have been all but forgotten and generate less waste. This support for local producers and family farms is also particularly crucial in the rural areas of many developing countries, as they are the biggest drivers of economic growth and generate employment opportunities for the population.
Ollivier Girard/CIFOR