News on Sustainability from Italy

The potato feeds over a billion people but faces disease and limited diversity. Investing in research, breeding, and farmer support is vital to improve resilience and productivity, ensuring it remains a key staple for global food security.

The aim was to create hydrophobic paper by exploiting the mechanical properties and water resistance of cellulose nanofibres, and so produce a sustainable, high-performance material suitable for packaging and biomedical devices. This involved a supramolecular approach, i.e. combining short chains of proteins (peptide sequences) that do not chemically modify the cellulose nanofibres.

Yellow and red kiwis are grown in the province of Cosenza in Calabria (Italy) by Aceto Agricoltura. Recently, the company has started the production of kiwi chips In order to reduce waste.

Members of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today endorsed the new Strategic Framework that will drive the Organization's efforts to transform agri-food systems and address hunger, poverty, and inequality over the next decade.