No longer the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, but of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty. The new Meloni government has renamed four ministries, as she announced yesterday by communicating her new government team. The Department of Agriculture finds a twin in France, inaugurated by President Emmanuel Macron himself “Ministère de l’Agriculture et de la Souveraineté alimentaire” and now led by Minister Marc Fesneau, in line, according to many observers, with the agricultural policies of beyond the Alps, traditionally liberal but also very attentive to national interests. Names aside, the concept of “food sovereignty” is not new in the policies of many countries and organizations in the sector, from Latin America to Canada, to the United Nations itself and to the FAO. In a document of the government of Quebec, the French-speaking region of Canada, dated 2013, food sovereignty was indicated in the first place, with the aim of putting at the center the satisfaction of people’s food needs and not the maximization of economic profit, to encourage the development of local realities and eliminate waste.
But what specifically does the concept of “food sovereignty” mean? There is no unanimous definition. For theARI (Italian Rural Association) is «the right of peoples to healthy food, culturally appropriate and produced with sustainable methods» and also «their right to define their own agricultural and food system». There Fao (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) explained it as the “right of peoples, communities and countries to define their own agricultural, labor, fishing, food and land policies, which are ecologically, socially, economically and culturally appropriate to their unique reality “. “It – continues the Organization – includes the true right to food and to produce food, which means that everyone has the right to healthy, nutritious and culturally appropriate food, the resources to produce it and the ability to maintain themselves and their society”.
In any case, to rename the four ministries that are changing their name, a “primary norm” will be needed, hence a law decree, which could also be the first measure of the new Meloni government. It is for this reason that at the ceremony at the Quirinale for the oath the speaker announced the ministries with their current names. To change its name, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture, will be three other departments with portfolios: the Ministry of Economic Development which will become Companies and Made in Italythe ecological transition (as Mario Draghi wanted it) will be transformed into Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security and that of Education will become “education and merit“. Instead, to entrust the delegations to ministers without a portfolio, a Dpcm will be needed. Here too there will be some news, compared to the Draghi government: the new ministry of institutional reforms and that of European affairs arrive, which also acquires territorial cohesion (today combined with the South) and the NRP. Of those already present in the outgoing government, the Youth Policies are transformed into the Sports and Youth Ministry, the policies of the Sea and the Family and equal opportunities are added to the South.
The choice of the new appointment was appreciated by the various categories of the sector. «In fact, it means a commitment to invest in the growth of the sector – commented the president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini -, extend the skills to the entire agri-food chain, reduce dependence on abroad, enhance the biodiversity of our territory and guarantee Italians the supply of high quality national food products ». “Food Sovereignty is a concept to which we look with absolute interest and which we hope will be appropriately translated into government actions because it is a topic dear to the world of production and agricultural communities”, added Gennaro Sicolo, president of Italia Olive growing. “Food sovereignty – he continued – means giving value to local productions and biodiversity, producing at home what can be produced and what we need, achieving autonomy and reducing dependence on superfluous imports that often damage Italian productions . It is an aspect that has become topical again following the effects on supplies due to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict ”.
Also Italy supply chain he stressed that the new name, “always requested by us”, brings back “at the center the enormous and irreplaceable value of national production with a view to opening up to international trade based on uniform and shared rules, acknowledging the defeat of a model of globalization without rules, the failure of which, from food to energy, is there for all to see ”. For Barbara Nappini, president of Slow Food Italia, the concept of “food sovereignty” is not synonymous with autarchy: “It is the right of peoples to determine their own food policies without external constraints linked to private and specific interests – he explained -, it is a broad and complex concept that enshrines the importance of the connection between territories, communities and food, and raises the question of the use of resources in a perspective of the common good, in contrast to a wicked use for the profit of some ». Already in 2008, food sovereignty was defined as “the right of peoples and states to democratically determine their agricultural and food policies”. According to Nappini, therefore, it is “a very current concept today”.