Sustainable Diets and the Decalogue for Sustainable Food and Nutrition in the Community

Sustainable food systems play an important role in increasing resource efficiency, more sustainable use of resources, and building resilience in communities responding to a rapidly changing global environment. Sustainable diets' notion links food consumption to production by taking into account nutritional requirements. The Decalogue for Sustainable Food and Nutrition in the Community provides a platform for community-based actions towards more sustainable diets, by reconnecting together within the community context the place of production and the space of consumption. This linkage between a dietary pattern and a geographic area has loosened with globalization. Within a period of radical transformation of the contemporary global scenario, the complexity of food security, nutrition and sustainability issues requires, within the people-centered development paradigm, new forms of community-based dialogues and actions. The Decalogue with its 10 points provides an operational ground for the development of meaningful discussions among communities towards a better understanding on how to integrate sustainability and food security and nutrition within their food systems. There is a need of more community-based sustainable food systems projects and intersectoral case studies for revitalizing local capacities. The Decalogue encourages the development of community-based projects and multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as the Island in Your Plate project, rooted in the cultural respect for the territory, in the sustainable management of natural resources, in the recognition and consumption of seasonal local products, and in the appreciation of the richness of local varieties and biodiversity. Connecting food security and sustainability to the nutritional well-being of the individual and of the community is the today challenge.