What we eat is as much a part of our identity as the way we dress, the music we listen to or the car we drive. We are what we eat. If at the individual level this statement is true, it is no less true at the community level. The gastronomy of each country is a feature of its national identity. Just think of the bad names we give each other based on what we eat. To the Italians we call them spaghetti, because of their fondness for pasta, and to the Germans, in English they are called krauts (cabbage), a word registered as an insult since the First World War. In Spain, we are horrified when someone puts chorizo ??in the pan, for example.
All this can change, according to the report Increasing resistance to climate change through sustainable practices, prepared by the European Institute of Environmental Policy (IEEP).
Climate change threatens, if measures are not taken, some of the agricultural productions with which some of these recipes and products that are part of the gastronomic identity of European countries are made.
Specifically, the report warns that the cultivation of potatoes, olive oil, carnaroli rice and wheat are seriously affected by drought episodes, rising temperatures, torrential rains and floods. In West Africa, a virus is decimating the cocoa crop, of which Europe is the main consumer.
To avoid all this, the IEPP proposes more sustainable farming practices, such as increasing crop rotations, which can have a positive impact on soil organic carbon, improve nutrient cycling and reduce the prevalence of pests and diseases, the filling of the fields, cover the soil with special films, with the aim of defending it from atmospheric agents; or using cover crops to protect the main crop in the case of olive trees, among other actions.
