Catia Bastioli chair of the beacon panel of the European Commission's Mission Soil Health and Food at Ecomondo Double Digital Week

On the occasion of the Double Digital Week of Ecomondo 2020 the international Beacon Panel "The mission ‘Caring for soil is caring for life’ and the co-creation of a European green deal based on nature" was held on 4 November. The event was organized by the EU Mission Soil Health and Food in collaboration with the Ecomondo Technical Scientific Committee.

Catia Bastioli, Novamont CEO and member of the Mission Board Soil Health and Food, moderated the event, where the speakers discussed how soil and its regeneration are addressed in the context of different European policies. Experts also presented different case histories dedicated to soil health monitoring practices and good education and training activities to raise awareness among citizens on the importance of healthy soil.

Catia Bastioli also presented Re Soil Foundation, created by the University of Bologna, Coldiretti, Novamont and Politecnico of Turin to promote a participatory approach to innovation starting from soil protection and from the key concept of territorial regeneration.

The audience was finally invited to fill out the survey launched by Re Soil, aimed at investigating how much the issue of soil degradation  is perceived by citizens, what the main threats are, and above all what  it should be done to remedy this situation. The survey, which is inspired by the initiative launched by the Mission at an international level to involve citizens on complex soil issues, will remain open until November 15th at the link https://resoilfoundation.org/sondaggio-suolo/ 

The event was attended by the State Secretary for the Ministry of the Environment and Land and Sea Protection Roberto Morassut, Cees Veerman, president of the Mission Board for Soil health and food, Tassos Haniotis Director DG AGRI, Peter Wehrheim, Head of the Bioeconomy and Food Systems Unit - DG R&I, Giovanni de Santi Director for sustainable development of the JRC of the European Commission, Stefano Masini, Vice President of Coldiretti, Alfred Grand, Farmer and Member of the Mission Board for Soil health and food, Damiano Di Simine, Head of Legambiente soil protection, Fabio Terribile, Director of the Research Center CRISP and President of the Soil Morphology and Micromorphology Commission - International Union of Soil Science, Angelo Riccaboni, National Delegate of the European Commission Missions and Giuseppe Corti, President of the Italian Pedology Society - SIPE.