Sustainable Food Systems in Culturally Coherent Social Contexts: Discussions Around Culture, Sustainability, Climate Change and the Mediterranean Diet

In the developed countries, the large number of industrial processes and transformations of all kinds that food goes through before reaching the consumer generates in the latter a blind mistrust towards it. Actually, we can find an increasingly important movement from civil society, asking for more attention to be paid to local food and the sustainability of ecosystems and landscapes, in a context where climate change troubles are taking a leading role. In the Mediterranean basin, and from a local point of view and as a model of proximity consumption, Mediterranean food and diet can be a sustainable resource for the Mediterranean area. But this challenge requires a big effort and a very active and committed role of the public sector, combined with the private action.