The European Commission’s Research and Innovation Directorate has produced a good report with the title “Food 2030 pathways for action: Research and innovation policy as a driver for sustainable, healthy and inclusive food systems“. Starting from a systematic analysis of the food system and considering its various implications at the European and global levels, it shows how much has been done so far in terms of research and sets out the “pathways” to continue investing in. The report is explanatory, not exhaustive: it captures the subject of food in all its complexity, summarised in the figure below.
Ten Pathways are proposed framed according to Nutrition, Climate, Circularity and Innovation:
- Governance and systems change
- Urban food systems transformation
- Food from oceans and freshwater resources
- Alternative proteins and dietary shift
- Food waste and resource efficiency
- The Microbiome world
- Healthy, sustainable and personalised nutrition
- Food safety systems of the future
- Food systems Africa
- Food systems and data
The soil is included in the 1st and obviously in the 6th pathway. The first reads:
“Soil: An increasingly degraded and eroded non-renewable carbon sink resource (FAO). Soil regeneration and its organic content can be improved in a circular manner, through the controlled return of organic matter to agricultural land (SDGs 2, 13 and 15). Improved soil health and restored degraded soils make land more fertile, reduce soil erosion and capture greenhouse gas emissions.”
Gruppo Suolo Europa 