From September 6th to the 12th, 2021, the second edition of the “Food & Climate Shapers Boot Camp – Mediterranean Edition” will occur in Cilento. This innovative training project is dedicated to the themes of the Mediterranean Diet and integral ecological regeneration, organized by the Future Food Institute, in collaboration with the FAO eLearning Academy.
The program aims to train a new class of young activists with multidisciplinary profiles, and transfer specific skills to co-design strategies and tangible innovations that accelerate climate action, facilitating the transition of society towards the framework of sustainable development.
The protagonists of the 2021 edition are young people from all over the world with an average age of 20 years including about twenty Italian high school students, involved in the project Trame Mediterranee, as well as foreign students from Italy, Turkey, Austria, Ghana, Germany, USA, Colombia, Argentina, and the Dominican Republic who will live for a week in Pollica to discover the ecological transition and to acquire new skills in the battle against the climate crisis.
This award-winning program will focus on three fundamental themes:
Ecosystem Regeneration. How to regenerate soils, seas, and communities
Regeneration is typically a natural process of renewing or restoring to full function, but with climate change and biodiversity loss, our ecosystems need assistance to overcome human obstacles.
How can we support and sustain ecosystem regeneration, addressing the interconnected functionality among freshwater, soils, oceans, forests, and communities to protect and preserve natural biodiversity?
Nutrition for All. How to re-think nutrition as an ethically sound food pattern
Nutrition represents a multi-faceted challenge in which some lack access and others lack understanding.
How can we re-frame food in a way that preserves cultural identity, ensures equitable access, and delivers necessary nutrients for healthy communities while preserving the ecosystem that sustains us.
Mediterranean Diet. Lifestyle for a Sustainable Future
How can we engage the local community and make it a living example, an educational community from which to learn the concrete values of sustainability and Integral Ecological Regeneration?
The Mediterranean Diet provides a blueprint for healthy and sustainable people and environment. How can we amplify and extrapolate its lessons and models beyond its geographical origin?
How can we translate the integral ecology of this lifestyle so that it can be adapted in different contexts and cultures?
Participants will explore these themes while visiting representative sites, hearing from local food heroes, and trying their hands at local practices and customs. Learning events and excursions include visits to two local caves to explore the rich history of this region and the origins of the Mediterranean lifestyle. Participants will also meet with local beekeepers to explore facets of apiculture as well as local cheesemakers, small-scale fisheries and farms deploying regenerative agriculture practices.
The week-long experience culminates in a Hackathon event in which participants reflect on learnings, envision solutions to current challenges, and develop their own strategies for addressing the core themes of the Boot Camp.
Be sure to follow our Climate Shapers on their Mediterranean adventure on Facebook or Instagram. For more information on the details of this program, please visit the Pollica Boot Camp page.
