016, Milan, IFMeD, First World Conference on the Mediterranean Diet

In 2009, the international conference “The Mediterranean diet as a sustainable diet model" was organized in Parma, Italy, by the International Interuniversity Studies Centre on Mediterranean Food Cultures (CIISCAM), with the technical collaboration of FAO, the Italian National Institute of Food and Nutrition (INRAN), the Forum on Mediterranean Food Cultures, and the CIHEAM of Bari. On this occasion an international consensus was also reached on a new revised Mediterranean Diet pyramid in which, for the first time, biodiversity and eco-friendly products, with a lower impact on the environment, were inserted together with main Mediterranean diet characteristic foods. At this conference, the Mediterranean diet was analysed as a sustainable diet model, because of its nutritional, environmental, economic and socio-cultural dimensions at the core of the sustainability rationale .

As a follow up to it, from 2011 to 2014, through a participatory joint process, conducted with the FAO/UNEP Sustainable Food Systems Programme in collaboration with CIHEAM-Bari, Forum on Mediterranean Food Cultures, CIISCAM/Sapienza University of Rome, ENEA, CNR, INRAN, Bioversity International, and WWF-Italy, a first outline of a methodological approach to assess the sustainability of the Mediterranean diet was developed and published in the FAO/CIHEAM discussion paper “Towards the Development of Guidelines for Improving the Sustainability of Diets and Food Consumption Patterns in the Mediterranean Area”. It was presented at the International Seminar “The Sustainability of Food Systems in the Mediterranean Area”, jointly organized on the occasion of the 9^th Meeting of the CIHEAM Ministers of Agriculture, held in 2012 in Malta. This methodological approach was then further developed in a White Paper 5 "Mediterranean food consumption patterns: diet, environment, society, economy and health" prepared by CIHEAM-Bari and FAO-Sustainable Food Systems Programme for EXPO 2015 Milan Feeding Knowledge project to be presented on 14 May 2015 at the EXPO in Milan.

Dernini S., Meybeck A., Burlingame B., Gitz V., Lacirignola C., Debs P., Capone R., El Bilali H. (2013) “Towards a shared methodological approach to assess the sustainability of the Mediterranean diets and food consumption patterns”. New Medit; 3: 28-36.

Dernini S., Meybeck A., Burlingame B., Gitz V., Lacirignola C., Capone R., El Bilali H., Debs P., Belsanti V. (2012). “Towards the development of guidelines for improving the sustainability of diets and food consumption patterns: the Mediterranean diet as a pilot study”. A FAO/CIHEAM discussion paper. FAO, Rome.

Burlingame B. and Dernini S. (2011). “Sustainable diets: the Mediterranean diet as an example”. Public Health Nutrition: 14(12A), 2285–2287.

Dernini S., Berry E., Bach-Faig A., Belahsen R., Donini LM., Lairon D., Serra-Majem L., Cannella C. (2012) “A dietary model constructed by scientists: The Mediterranean diet.”. In, Mediterra 2012. CIHEAM–SciencesPo Les Presses, Paris; 71-88.

Bach-Faig A., Elliot M Berry E., Lairon D., Reguant J., Trichopoulou A.,Dernini S., Medina X, Battino M., Belahsen R., MirandaG., and Serra-Majem L. (2011) “ Mediterranean diet pyramid today. Science and cultural updates”. Public Health Nutrition: 14(12A), 2274–2284