The meetings “The future of food: how to conjugate health and sustainability” underlined the importance of universal access to healthy and sustainable food

As one of the activities promoted by Barcelona World Sustainable Food Capital 2021, this initiative took place in the Aula Magna in the UB Historical Building on 13 and 14 October.

12/11/2021 - 15:05 h

One of the major challenges for the 21st century is for the 5S food system (sort, set in order, shine, standardise, sustain) to be universally accessible. This challenge calls for us to be well aware of the concepts of social equity and food justice so as not to leave the more vulnerable groups in society behind. This was the main conclusion drawn from the meetings.

The starting point was to foster debate and reflection on the different dimensions of the concept of sustainable food, which involves aspects relating to the health of the planet and of all its inhabitants. Joining forces for a fairer, healthier and more environmentally friendly food system is clearly one of the major challenges for our society today.

Adopting a face-to-face and online format, the meetings were promoted by the University of Barcelona, the UB Torribera Food Campus, the Barcelona Public Health Agency and Barcelona City Council.

Specifically, on 13 October, the director of the project Barcelona World Sustainable Food Capital 2021 and Commissioner for Social Economy, Local Development and Food Policy, Álvaro Porro, took part in a session on health and sustainable food in the public policies agenda. 

On 14 October, the operational coordinator of the project Barcelona World Sustainable Food Capital 2021, Lidón Martrat, took part in a round table entitled “What do institutions do and what can they do to achieve food sustainability?”, moderated by Carme Borrell.

The talks, debates and round tables were based around interesting concepts like the lights and shadows of organic foods, perspectives on food vulnerability, the fight against food waste, the value of local food and more. 

You can watch the videos of the live discussions here:

13 October

14 October