Tag: environment

3 WWF tips for a more sustainable future – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

3 tips from WWF which continues to serve as a beacon in the search for practical solutions for a sustainable future, presenting new guides within the Sustainable Future campaign. Downloadable in PDF format, these three guides provide concrete ideas for improve both our health and that of our precious planet.

WWF’s 3 tips for a more sustainable future

A diet for your well-being and for the planet

The journey to one sustainable lifestyle starts at the table. The WWF guides offer us practical advice, from shopping cart choices to creating a small home vegetable garden. The guide A diet for your well-being and for the planet invites us to consider the environmental impact of our food choices, even when we eat out.

Goodbye to fossil fuels

The abandonment of fossil fuels, main source of climate-changing emissions, is essential to avoid uncontrollable global warming. The WWF guide Goodbye to fossil fuels offers practical solutions, promoting not only the fight against climate changebut also benefits such as the elimination of pollution and greater energy security.

Life in plastic isn’t great

Our daily actions, from choosing products to managing waste, influence our health and the environment. The guide Life in plastic isn’t great from WWF explains how reduce the use of plastic in everyday life through practical advice and insights.

The campaign for a more sustainable future

WWF’s goal of Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the environmental footprint by 50% by 2030 requires everyone’s commitment. The Sustainable Future campaign aims to reaffirm the central role of people in the transformation of economic and cultural systems, starting from daily choices up to collective action.

A look at the past and a commitment to the future

Over the last 50 years, development has had a devastating impact on nature and our health. However, WWF pushes us to reflect on our power to change direction. Reducing the use of fossil fuels, improving the food system and reducing the use of plastic are crucial steps. Only by transforming needs into concrete actions can we build a future where people and nature thrive together.

The WWF mission and the responsibility of each of us

The WWF challenges us to embrace a path towards a sustainable future, based on renewable energy, responsible food systems and natural solutions. Their mission is our daily mission: to restore harmony with nature through choices that preserve the well-being of the planet, its biodiversity and the climate. Only in this way can we build a more equitable and sustainable future for all.

Alain Ducasse, the interview: «Italian cuisine belongs to everyone – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

He loves Italy so much…
«I have always looked at Italy with great affection, it is no coincidence that my first book is called Alain Ducasse’s Riviera. It is my second country, the closest to my heart and taste. I always find it interesting, from south to north, each region with its identity, food, culture.”

It is no coincidence that in December he arrived in Rome where he opened his restaurants inside the Romeo hotel. Do you fear the capital?
«I have already been in Italy for ten years, at Andana, with the Moretti family, but Rome it’s Rome. We will create a cuisine that is part of the local one without touching the typical dishes of the city, otherwise it would be like competing with the pasta prepared by mother or with sushi in Tokyo. Rather, they will be flavors of the Mediterranean tradition, as I have already done in Monte Carlo at the Louis XV, the restaurant of the Hotel de Paris (three stars in the Michelin guide in 1990, the first hotel restaurant to obtain the maximum recognition of the “Red”, ed.). And it certainly won’t be French cuisine.”

How much does French cuisine influence Italian cuisine and vice versa?
«France influenced Italian cuisine in terms of technique, certainly not in terms of taste. We have the so-called professionalism. Do you think that in my school in Meudon (near Paris), I have people of 74 different nationalities and they all learn the basics; it’s like solfeggio for music, then everyone plays their own. We codified certain passages centuries ago, although it must be said that one of the first cookbooks in history with recipes is Italian (refers to‘Opera by Bartolomeo Scappi, he will tell me latered.)”.

And the Italian?
«Yours is a matriarchal cuisine, which comes from your mother….

True, but starred kitchens are mostly full of men…
«Ah, les machos! In France they are still very chauvinist, Italy follows, Spain is even worse! But the last are the Catalans!

Do you find that home cooking is the protagonist in so-called “haute cuisine”?
«Yes, except that you have to do everything perfectly, sublimate it. I remember a dough with brewer’s yeast and butter Riccardo Camanini. Rigor, perfection… I was seduced by simplicity and goodness at the same time. I love simplicity when it becomes absolute and transforms into perfection. Or, again, I think of “boys” as Davide Oldani who from a small restaurant in a small village has created a destination with uncommon professionalism. He does a very good job, very good! And let’s not talk about Maximò (Bottura), extraordinary! They were all with me in Monaco, even Gennarino (Esposito from Vico Equense).”

Plants that feed the world: what are they? 4 tips from FAO – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Even the lesser known and nutritious cereals, such as millet and sorghum, or grain-like and equally gluten-free alternatives, such as quinoa and amaranth, are on the rise. Minor, underutilized crops like these are now at the forefront of food trends, not only nutritionally, but also because many are beneficial to the environment.

Countries are becoming increasingly interdependent on crop varieties

With the climate crisis affecting precipitation patterns and global temperatures, some crop varieties no longer grow well in the places where they once thrived. For example, just a few years ago maybe not many would have predicted that corn would become difficult to grow in some areas of Africa. Yet, farmers in these areas are looking for other crops, such as millet, that are better suited to reducing rainfall. Changing climate patterns mean that countries will increasingly need to obtain plant varieties from other parts of the world to continue or improve their own production.

THE Climate change only increases interdependence, but countries have always depended on each other for crops that originate elsewhere. For example, the varieties of coffee from Africa have traveled around the world. While, when it comes to potatoes, South America has even more variety to offer than any other region.
In these contexts, the international treaty’s multilateral approach to collaboration between countries is increasingly important.

Tastes and fashions are also changing the demand for crops

L’evolution of tastes and trends is driving demand for new crop varieties from farmers looking to improve their livelihoods, whether growing quinoa or peas. But the new requests also come from other sectors, such as chefs, eager to explore the flavors and textures of traditional cereals, often more sustainable. For example, the Sierra Leonean chef, Fatmata Binta, has made a point of promoting fonio millet in her cuisine, which requires less water and is very nutritious. These voices were not part of the discussions when the international treaty was first negotiated, but now they are making themselves heard more and more.

Being the only one binding international agreement dedicated to the protection, conservation and exchange of plant genetic diversity that we grow and eat around the world, the international treaty plays an increasingly important role in our interdependent and ever-changing world.

The new report, which collects data relating to 355 crops, will play a critical role in informing policy discussions, including the update of the crop basket of Annex I of the international treaty. Thanks to the enormous amount of publicly available data underlying the study, it will also provide a key resource for researchers and decision makers globally. The report lays the foundation for humanity to explore the potential of thousands of other plants to meet our food needs in the future.

Source FAO