We announce the second edition of unoconcinco, Sustainable Food Meetings in Spain

Aware of the importance of food for people’s health and its key role in building a fairer, more inclusive and ecological society, from the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation we announce the second edition of unoconcinco | Sustainable Food Meetings, a space to promote collaboration in favour of the transition to sustainable nutrition in Spain. In its second edition it will be held on June 27 by the Francisco Giner de los Ríos Foundation.

The second edition of this meeting will bring together a wide variety of actors in the food sector with the aim of addressing the challenges that exist today to achieve a sustainable food system in Spain. Promoted by the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation, this year’s edition will be held at the Francisco Giner de los Ríos Foundation in Madrid and can be attended in person or online. Access will be free, after registration on the website unoconcinco.org

Unoconcinco has as its main objective to share and continue discovering organizations and projects committed to the transition to sustainable food, in line with the common goal of our society to limit global warming of the earth.

Unoconcinco is also a meeting space to weave alliances and understand, share, discover and connect in order to build a fairer and more resilient food system. In this new edition, unoconcinco will have a large number of experts and professionals from the sector to generate dialogues, debates and workshops on the transition to sustainable food in Spain.. In addition, we provide networking areas to facilitate the exchange of connections and experiences between participants and attendees.

UnoConcinco, a platform for the transformation of the food sector

The first edition of unoconcinco, which took place in October 2022 at Casa del Lector in Matadero Madrid, brought together nearly 300 attendees including experts, actors and agents in the area who confirmed the need for a systematic transition in the food sector in order to curb global warming and achieve the SDGs. Some of the keys to achieving this are the transformation of public policies in Spain, influencing the younger population and betting on seasonal products.

During the first edition of unoconcinque, interesting exhibitions and round tables were held, of which the intervention of Alberto Garzón, Minister of Consumer Affairs, stands out, who pointed out that the time has come “to make major changes to comply with the Sustainable Development Goals”. In this sense, he assured that there is a “generalized consensus in the scientific field, but not in the public sphere, and that is where we have to be able to bring scientific evidence to promote the transition to healthy consumption”. In conclusion, the Minister of Consumer Affairs urged that “food as a commodity has to be overcome by food as a right”. And, to do this, it is essential to commit to healthy diets, responsible production and the reduction of food waste.

Also noteworthy was the intervention of Purificación González Camacho, Deputy Director General of Food Promotion of Spain of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, who stated that in Spain “we are moving away from the Mediterranean diet consumption model and we must focus on recovering the value of the food we have and the producers behind what we consume”. which is still present in the current scenario of controversy with the sector and demonstrates the priority in both the agricultural and economic agenda of our country.

Linked to the same topic, Carmen Pérez, president of the Spanish Society of Community Nutrition, stressed that fresh and local produce will always be a better alternative for the health of people and the planet, expressing that “it is necessary for consumers to have the healthy option at an affordable price and that, at the same time, the producer receives a fair price for his work.”

One of the areas of debate of unoconcinco is public policies as a lever to promote change towards a society with a sustainable food system. In the current national framework, one of the greatest challenges is generational renewal, an issue that Álvaro Areta, coordinator of Organizations of Farmers and Ranchers, put into conversation in the first edition of the meetings commenting on the data of a study that reveals that “70% of those newly incorporated into the agricultural sector say that one of the main issues is the profitability of their businesses, as well as bureaucratic procedures or access to land, a problem that is still present today.”

Undoubtedly, the first edition of unoconcinco was a unique opportunity to bring together a wide variety of expert voices working from different perspectives to weave alliances and work collaboratively. The entire team of the Foundation is excited to have generated a space for dialogue in which we will jointly face the challenges that we hope will be repeated in this second edition to achieve the main objective of unoconcinco: to achieve sustainable food in Spain.