Today I was part of launching a project I'm extremely proud to be a part of (see below), quite simply because it points to a key food future you want to live in. Let me explain:
- We all know that the Mediterranean diet is the best in the world. If everyone ate that way we would need far smaller healthcare budgets.
- In the South of Italy we have a food system consisting of far larger areas of land under small scale farming than in, say, Brazil or the USA. That means we have far more potential guardians of the planet.
- In the South of Italy, food is amazing (yes, you knew that). No consumption is more sustainable than the one that grows back again in an eternal cycle. Let's increase food consumption. Especially if it is as delicious as it is in the South of Italy.
- But in order to get all the value out from the South Italian food structures in a world that premiers industrial scale, mass-marketing, brands and retailer margins, we need to reinvent our food systems and bring tech, data, innovation and new thinking onboard.
- If we with the help of new thinking, innovation, tech, data, business models, etc. etc. can make sure that the world starts to re-engage with healthy and sustainable/regenerative food we have a model that can be expanded and solutions that can be exported. Globally.
- By combining tech and innovation from the North of Europe with food from the South, we should thus have a winner.
If I look at the type a life I would like to lead myself I always come back to what best could be described as a sustainable "La Dolce Vita". Amazing food and wine in the company of friends, connection with nature, work-life balance, great music and culture. But not by going back in time to some 19-century romantic ideal, but by going forward in time, utilizing all the opportunities of technology and modernity, novel understanding of how food affects me and the planet and with new ways of connecting to all the people contributing to this life. PEOPLE, not anonymous brands with stale, greenwashing slogans and that use real people as cogs in a big machine that leaks resources away from regions where people live and towards tax havens. I hope Smarterra will give me this.
A future food system that works for all is actually such a new way of life, that's far more attractive than the lives we're living today. When we create that we create the necessary pull that will make people change, not due to the sticks, but due to the carrots.
The project is called Smafine, it's financed by the EU and will operate under the label of Smarterra, which of course is a play of the words Smart and Terra. That's what we will get by connecting amazing tech and ecosystems from the North with bonkers amazing food and food systems from the South of Italy. Watch this space.
With: Iana Dulskaia, Dr. Philipp Rittershaus, Harry Ethan Justus, Gaia Cangini, Thomas Kösters, Harald Eisenhauer, Mariano Guzzetta, Antonia Escanilla Rythen and Mattia Basile
We are proud to launch Smarterra - Building Tomorrow´s Mediterranean AgriFood Ecosystems
Follow-us at https://lnkd.in/ePFGtzaz
Or www.smarterra.org
As DEEP Ecosystems we have successfully applied to the Horizon Europe call “HORIZON-EIE-2022-SCALEUP-02-01”.
Our consortium consists of 6 partners led by EY Italy. Part of the implementing partners are RootCamp - A SpinLab Company TechBBQ Comune di Matera and Sweden Foodtech .
Smarterra aims at the build-up of a solid innovation ecosystem in the South of Italy around food and agriculture, where we will implement a testbed involving a wide participation of national and international actors as incubators, accelerators, company-builders, innovation agencies, business clubs and networks, public and private VCs and their networks, national and regional authorities.
The project is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
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Crosslink Capital
1mosolid!!!!