Russia feeds the world with 'grandma's food'

On June 2, Italian climatologist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Riccardo Valentini will speak at the St Petersburg economic forum.

The group of climate change experts, including Mr Valentini, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 "for his work on the effects of global climate change caused by human activity and on measures to prevent it".

Photo: Sputnik

The scientist shared the prize with former US Vice President Albert Gore. During his visit to Moscow, Riccardo Valentini gave an interview to Sputnik Italia and talked about the future of science, as well as the effects of global warming and how Russian cuisine will save the world.

"The task of science is to find solutions to the most pressing problems of our time, including global warming and environmental sustainability. It is important that this issue is raised at the St. Petersburg forum, because both of these topics are very important for Russia. Russian nature is rich and diverse, but the protection of ecosystems is inseparable from the creation and development of technologies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

There is another news - today Russia is the world's largest grain exporter, surpassing Europe. This is a very important factor - we should not forget that in the 1990s Russia was one of the largest importers. While the world's countries are reducing the amount of arable land, in Russia this figure is growing," - said Riccardo Valentini.

Riccardo Valentini heads the Pacific Region Climate Change Impact Research Laboratory at Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok. According to these studies, Russia will have around 40 million hectares of arable land by 2050 due to improved climate conditions. Italy and Russia have much to learn from each other.

People will always need fertile land, and Russia has such land. However, everything in Russia is done in mass production, while Italy and Europe pay close attention to the quality of products. It is necessary to find ways to create high-quality Russian products, open new production lines.

"From my travels, I think that these are the products called "Grandma's Food". That is, natural products, which Russians are accustomed to growing in their dacha gardens, picking ripe berries in the forest, cooking jams for storage, or authentic Russian cabbage soup. To connect tradition with innovation, I think we need Russian minds. Here we need high-quality agricultural technical progress, which the Italians can teach the Russians, plus traditional experience.

That is why we have opened an international multidisciplinary school: we combine economics and agriculture to create economic prospects, to provide students with new knowledge. Vladivostok is an important, strategic place, because the eastern part of Russia has what we in Europe lack – proximity to Asia.

We cooperate with the Euro-Mediterranean Climate Change Research Center with Chinese, Korean and Japanese universities. I hope that thanks to Russia we will be able to build a bridge between Europe and Asia," - concluded Mr. Riccardo Valentini.

According to Sputnik