Italynews – Italy holds the world record for UNESCO awards in the agro-food sector. It has five out of the 68 allocated globally. Following are Morocco with four UNESCO recognitions, three for Turkey and Azerbaijan, and two for Belgium, France, Spain, Tunisia, Japan, Korea and Mexico.
The new UNESCO report on food and culture was presented at the UN conference in New York on the future of the Mediterranean diet.
The data were presented by the president of the UNESCO body of world experts Pier Luigi Petrillo
A world power in agro food
As regards the UNESCO recognitions for agro-food, “Italy, from this point of view, is a world power”, says Petrillo. He underlined the 5 assigned are a substantial share out of the 15 total given to Italy in different categories.
It is a significant record, explains Petrillo. This sector “has become highly challenging, especially if one considers that food is increasingly an instrument of dialogue and diplomacy. It is precisely by focusing on the cultural dimension of food, among other things, that can beat the absurd ‘traffic light’ policy on food which is highly harmful to our typical products”.
The Mediterranean Diet
This on the day in which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs launches the week of Italian cuisine in the world. The 5 awards concern: the Mediterranean diet, the art of Neapolitan pizza makers, the quarrying and hunting of truffles, transhumance, the agricultural practice of cultivating vite ad alberello’ (head-trained bush vines) on the island of Pantelleria.
