Quality Food: The Challenges of Law
University of Milan-Bicocca, February 14th and 15th, 2025
One of the challenges raised by climate change and the pollution of our environment in relation to
the human society is the access to a food that is sufficient, safe, nutritious and of quality. If climate
change and the pollution of the environment are partially caused by food production systems, they
also have a negative impact on food security and food safety. According to the second objective of
2030 UN Sustainable Development Goal (“Zero Hunger”), a sustainable food production system has
the following characteristics: (1) it reduces the use of pesticides and fertilisers, and their dispersion
in the environment and water courses; (2) it prioritises local food production and short supply chain;
(3) it minimises food waste at all stages of production and consumption; (4) it uses rationally water
and energy resources.
Therefore, we can no longer discuss quality without considering the concept of sustainability in its
broadest senses whether environmental, economic and/or social. For this reason, the conference
aims to address, on the one hand, the issue of how legal systems interpret the protection of the right
to healthy, safe and sustainable food and how they intervene to try to build tools formally aimed at
informing consumers and at the same time protecting producers and, on the other hand, the issue
of how economic and environmental transformations as well as technological development impact
on diets and food regimes.