Elena Di Bella and the Metropolitan City: "Food democracy passes through here".
«Food policies are governed by cities, such as the Metropolitan Turin. In 2030, the 70% of the population will live in agglomerations of at least 300 thousand inhabitants. The real choices, those that transform, both in terms of consumption and production, will be made by cities. They are the heart of democracy: citizens can express their consent, their ideas and there is a direct relationship with politicians ". It is the opinion of Elena Di Bella, manager of the Mountain Development Service, rural development of typical products, which is following the process of creating theFood Agenda and who will participate in the Festival of Food Journalism.
«If we think on a metropolitan scale, in Turin we have everything: ours is a medium-sized city with an immediate proximity to the territories they produce. A rather rare thing ".
From this awareness came the idea of creating a document on nutrition managed at metropolitan level. In the 2015 several meetings were held with over 150 operators. The result was a program that includes eight fundamental points: education and training, information and knowledge, distribution and creation of logistics platforms, public procurement, bureaucratic simplification, rewards and incentives to companies , territorial planning and the creation of new food governance.
"Thanks to the collaboration of all the actors involved, we have created an intermediate document, in which we have collected the points to be deepened and on which to intervene, but also the concerns and macro objectives".
For the 2016 the goal ofFood Agenda will be to work on the creation of a public council that involves different subjects of the territory, to discuss issues and interventions related to food and to increase educational moments: "We will have to look for funds through European projects. Another priority will be to focus on small distribution and catering, to improve attention to daily spending and what we consume at lunch, perhaps on the run and without asking the right questions about the quality of the products».
Il Festival of Food Journalism will be an opportunity to discuss how to communicate food issues, between potential and developments: "This event must create an alliance between a large group of key players, starting with the media, which must have the right information to give news and credit a job. Communicators must be real partners with whom to co-design. The Food Agenda has taught us that we can all work online».
