II Jornada de la Cátedra UNESCO Sistema Alimentario Sostenible

	The II Conference of the Chair of the Triptolemos Foundation and UNED “Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development: Global Food Production and Safety “, for the sustainable, safe and sufficient production of food, held at the Law School of UNED, counted with the participation of Ricardo Mairal, vice chancellor of teachers, who moderated a table where he was accompanied by Esther Souto, vice chancellor for Research and Internationalization and José María Sumpsi, president of the Triptolemos Foundation.


	José María Sumpsi, president of the Triptolemos Foundation, highlighted the link between the Foundation and the university world “Triptolemos is very anchored in the university world, but it is not a university. We have joined the UNED, because we believe that the UNED is the right university to teach this Chair. Because of its academic quality, its territorial implantation and its teaching system. This Chair of the UNED, is therefore a co-management between the UNED and the Triptolemos Foundation. Another reflection that arises, is why a Chair of food with UNESCO and not with FAO? Triptolemos has a global food conception and food is not only a political or social issue … there is a close cultural relationship and UNESCO has to do with the culture of the people. UNESCO, we must remember, has as its intangible heritage of humanity, the Mediterranean Diet. Today’s event, of these II Conference of the Chair of the Triptolemos Foundation and the UNED “Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development: Global Food Production and Safety, is a sample of future joint activities, which we will undertake between the UNED and the Foundation “


	Esther Souto, Vice Chancellor of Research and Internationalization of the UNED, recalled how “el pasado año United Nations declared, as one of the objectives of sustainable development, the eradication of hunger in the world and the UNED, is a university fully aware of this situation, as demonstrated by this Chair. Also, within the Horizonte 2020, the second challenge, it is food and, therefore, this Chair of the Triptolemos Foundation and the UNED was indispensable, because Europe is looking for transfer in the university, and this transfer can only be done through a close relationship between the university and the universities. Business. Our work, that of the university, is to give visibility to this Chair from different pillars, such as teaching, research and dissemination. And also, of course, look for the adequate economic resources that facilitate a shared economic management between both. I thank the professors and researchers of the Chair for the selfless work they are doing, for what it means in their usual workload, but at UNED we know that the interesting and satisfying part of this effort is to leave the path for future researchers . Thank you all”.


	Ricardo Mairal, vice chancellor of the UNED, said that “this Chair meets and demands institutional cooperation, a priority. The university can not stay away from social challenges. The collaboration between the university and the company is an idea that, from the policy of European funds, is a reality. The university should not isolate itself in its ivory tower, it should return the best it receives from society. This Chair UNED-Triptolemos, speaks of a fundamental issue, priority; nutrition, and this is a central issue that worries the whole society. Our Chair works in different areas of knowledge, is a paradigmatic example of interdisciplinarity. We need to combine synergies; political scientists, economists, researchers … teachers are fundamental and I thank everyone for their collaboration and their work, a work that constitutes a model of modern research and the XXI century. To finish I want to refer to the poem by Mario Benedetti, which says ‘… .in the street side by side, we are much more than two …’ because, for this Chair of the UNED and the Triptolemos Foundation, institutional collaboration is essential “ .


	The Food System. Globalization, sustainability, security and food culture. Framed within the framework of the II Conference of the Chair UNED-Triptolemos Foundation, the presentation of the book took place El Sistema Alimentario. Globalización, sostenibilidad, seguridad y cultura alimentaria, prologued by Federico Mayor Zaragoza.In the act they intervened Jaime Lamo de Espinosa, Catedra Jean Monnet, Luis González Vaqué, China-European Union Food Law Working Party, Triptolemos Foundation, Ibero-American Association for Food Law and María Rodríguez, Ex-president of the Confederación de Consumidores y Usuarios (CECU).


	De izda a derecha, María Rodriguez, Luis González Vaqué y Jaime Lamo de Espinosa


	Jaime Lamo de Espinosa, Cátedra Jean Monnet, He quickly entered the subject, stating that “I have always believed that the agri-food system has been gaining strength over the years, as a piece of the global geostrategy. With the passage of time, with the sharp rise in prices, the agri-food sector has become aware, as a part of the global economic problem and the global geostrategy. There is a geostrategy of hunger, there is a geostrategy of food and linked to it, a geostrategy of water. What we are talking about in the book is that in the year 2050 we will be 9 thousand million inhabitants. Is it possible for the land and the sea to generate enough food? Do we have the right technologies? What will be the adjustment variables shared with climate change? … fertilizers … phytosanitaries … land. Are we going to have enough hectares to continue feeding on the expected population progression? Because the number of hectares of useful agriculture is decreasing, and we can not appeal to deforestation. Currently many countries invest in land, in farmland, water land. As for water as an insufficient future resource, its availability can lead to wars, to conflicts between countries that share watersheds … The initiative of Triptolemos, because with the publication of this book and the choice of its title, means a success, because everything will end up resolving itself with the expression ‘food culture’ that will encompass everything “.


	María Rodríguez, Expresidenta de la Confederación de Consumidores y Usuarios (CECU), se refirió al consumidor y al consumo del siglo XXI, señalando sus características “la disponibilidad de alimentos es fundamental, tiene que haber producción suficiente. Los alimentos son bienes escasos, por eso debemos impulsar un consumo responsable, y con el consumo de unos u otros productos, no debemos influenciar en el mercado. Otro aspecto fundamental para el consumidor es la capacidad de confianza que los productos puedan generar. En este momento estamos en una fase de responsabilidad social de las empresas, pero detrás de los alimentos se esconden políticas empresariales, económicas… y es el usuario el que puede hacer de equilibrio, con su consumo puede fomentar la creación de empresas innovadoras, consumir productos ecológicos… La información, es otro elemento fundamental para el consumidor, pero debe ser una información precisa, veraz, porque un exceso de información en el etiquetado, puede provocar desinformación y la política publicitaria, que es fundamental, debe ajustarse a la realidad, porque a veces la publicidad propicia sensaciones, no realidades y en el mundo de la alimentación, esto es arriesgado. El consumidor del siglo XXI, según los últimos estudios, tiende a ser crítico, informado y solidario. En su consumo busca un beneficio individual y un beneficio social, y destina un 50% de su presupuesto a alimentación, algo que no pasaba desde los años 60. Y la razón, no es porque se consuman más alimentos ahora que hace años, no. Es que ahora se consume menos en otros capítulos. La crisis económica ha tenido mucho que ver en esto”.

Luis González Vaqué, China-European Union Food Law Working Party, Triptolemos Foundation, Ibero-American Association for Food Law, summarized the contents of the book “The Food System. Globalization, sustainability, security and food culture ” warning that“One third of the food that is produced does not reach the consumer, and we run the risk, in Europe, of being isolated in plant genetic resources “.He stressed, as an idea to retain, “the green revolution”, which is addressed in one of the chapters of the book and the incorporation of the university, in the concept of the food system. A chapter in which Alejandro Tiana Ferrer, Ricardo Mairal Usón and Miguel Melendro Estefanía explain how the Unesco UNED-Triptolemos Chair can serve the objectives we have set for ourselves “Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development: Global Food Production and Safety”.

As a summary, it was referred to the introduction of the publication where it appears that “Each and every one of the chapters that make up this book have the same solid thread, a defined identity and, at the same time, they have very different characteristics and aspects. One of the constants in all of them is the availability of food, along with the concern for food security, understood precisely as the availability of food products, but also related to the problem of the economic accessibility of the citizen. They elect their leaders and expect them not only to organize subsistence and food training, but also to develop an effective collective program that guarantees sustainability for the protection of the environment … That is, they convey their concern and hope at the same time “.

At the end of the II DAYS OF THE UNESCO CHAIR “Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development: Global Food Production and Safety“, the professor of the UNED, Consuelo Escolástico and Elvira Esteban, of the UAM, presented Interuniversity Master’s Degree in Agro-environmental and Agrifood Sciences and Expert Course on Sustainable Food System.


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