Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture

The seminar “Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture in the Euro-Mediterranean Area”, held in Rome on February 2 was organized within the IAI-OCP Strategic Partnership and had the sponsorship of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It brought together academics, policy-makers and representatives of civil society to discuss the topics of food security and sustainable agriculture in the Euro-Mediterranean region in preparation for EXPO 2015.

The seminar was structured around two sessions followed by a roundtable discussion. The first session dealt with the major challenges to food security and sustainable agriculture in the Mediterranean region such as food import dependency, deterioration of natural resource, biodiversity loss, climate change, water scarcity and urbanization. The second session provided a critical assessment of agriculture and food policies in the Euro-Mediterranean area, discussing the agricultural liberalization process, the role of European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform and the question of genetically modified food. To conclude, the roundtable discussion gathered prominent representatives from Italian government institutions, universities, civil society and international agencies to debate the opportunities to promote Euro-Mediterranean cooperation and common actions in the field of food security and agriculture.