There are many dossiers on the tables in Brussels that correspond to direct or indirect interests, often coinciding with those of multinationals that have decided to invest in Food.
So much so that the president of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen would seem to have met several times with Bill Gates, one of the investors in vaccines and synthetic meat and the second largest funder of the WHO.
But who follows the dossiers in Europe? And how many staff do the diplomatic representations in Brussels need to follow all the activities of the European Commission? The American one, so a non-EU country, has as many as 900 people on hand to look after U.S. interests, but Italy?
The difference is striking: in our representation, there are almost 160 people between MAECI staff, other administrations, and local contractors, while the number of diplomats is about 30, insufficient to cover all needs and under-numbered even compared to the other representations of member countries.
This makes it difficult to follow closely all the dossiers and proposals that emerge during administrative and legislative activities. MAECI Minister Antonio Tajani himself, as soon as he took office at the Farnesina in October, ascertained this staffing shortage and - from what AGEEI learns - the ministry is moving to increase diplomatic representation in particular, the one that strategically becomes crucial in decision-making and negotiation phases.
Suffice it to say that - according to the EU Commission's website - its employees who are part of the EU civil service number about 32,000 between permanent and temporary staff. These include officials responsible for different policies, researchers, lawyers, and translators.
Multinational corporations are increasingly investing in Food and Green, given an exponential increase in global population that could jeopardize when combined with environmental policies that lead to a decrease in agricultural production-food security.
According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture study compiled in November 2020, if Farm to Fork strategies were adopted in the EU alone, the number of food-insecure people would increase by an additional 22 million by 2030. The number would rise to 103 million in the intermediate scenario and 185 million with global adoption.
The consequence is not only Global Food Security but a real global power game related to Food whose match will be played out in the coming years and which starts from the very dossiers that are at the European tables today.