Promoter - Information technology, research and innovation

RICHES talks about food and cultural identity

On 18 June 2015, the enchanting countryside of Valdera (Pisa, Italy) was seat of an interesting international meeting, focussed on the role of food as element of the European cultural heritage (CH) and aimed at discussing how the changes within our society may have an impact on the wine & food traditions of a territory.

The meeting, organised by Promoter SRL, took place in the framework of RICHES, ambitious research EU-funded project investigating the relationship between culture and society. In particular a case study, centred on the relationship between food and territories, is currently underway on a European level, in order to understand how to realise social and economic development through the promotion of typical products, traditional cultivations and the discovery of foods from other countries we are coming in closer and closer contact with.

Prof. Moya Kneafsey (Food, Local Development and Human Geography), Prof. Ernest Taylor (Tourism Management) and Prof. Neil Forbes (lecturer of International Contemporary History as well as RICHES coordinator) from Coventry University (UK) intervened. The three scholars exchanged visions in a fascinating debate with Dr Tiziana Nadalutti, expert of agricultural science and operating for more than twenty years for the safeguard and promotion of environment and sustainable farming, and Dr Monica Zoppè, researcher at Pisa's CNR and interested in themes of environment protection, food and landscape as well.

During the afternoon Prof Marcello Buiatti too, lecturer of Genetics at Florence's University and expert in ethics and environment, joined the debate in a teleconference.
Results of the workshop will merge into a public document about the relation between food, culture, identity and sense of belonging in a multicultural context. The document will constitute the ground for a policy brief by the RICHES project, addressed towards the European Commission.

Further info on RICHES at www.riches-project.eu