Being the first on the continent who were hit by the coronavirus outbreak, the Italians may eventually become pioneers in overcoming the crisis and sharing their lessons with others.
According to Professor Riccardo Valentini from Italy’s Tuscia University, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his research on man-made climate change and is an expert on agriculture, forests, and ecosystems, after the pandemic is over, people all over the world will have to reconsider their approaches to farming, preservation of wildlife, and food consumption.
Sputnik: What is your take on the origins of COVID-19 and what kind of lessons do people have to learn from the pandemic?
Riccardo Valentini: Well, it’s a big question, and first of all we have to get out of the current crisis and current situation. This is the first time when we have a really global pandemic in many, many years – maybe since the Spanish Flu.
I think we have to learn a lot. The first reflection I have is “where did the virus come from”? I think we have to put this question in front. Not to blame anyone – we know that geographically it started in China, but how has this virus been transferred to humans?
This is very important because, basically, this is a genetic transfer from wild animals, like in this case – bats, into an intermediate agent, which is not yet clear – whether it’s a pangolin, or any other [being], but, for sure there is an intermediate agent that is more close to humans – which was used by humans for food or was in close contact with humans.
— United Nations (@UN) April 20, 2020
Riccardo Valentini: Our agriculture is increasingly intensive and we have now destroyed a lot of natural resources in the world to feed people. Our farms are closer to the environment, so it’s very common that wild animals are now closer to human farming.
They escape, like bats – bats need wild habitats, but [if] they can’t find these habitats, they go to live inside farms. Should we change this? Yes, for sure. We have to be healthier, more secure; our farming system has to be more secure.
We should not eat wild animals without any control, with all these animal markets. These are the most important things to learn. Because now we are producing vaccines, producing biotech, and the big hi-tech stuff, but the simplest solution is to eat safe.
Sputnik: You mentioned in one of your interviews that there was a growing demand for quality food. Now, with the pandemic, we see the World Food Programme issuing warnings about a doubling of acute hunger on the planet in 2020 and there seems to be more stress now globally on food supply. Has your opinion on the production of food changed in any way?
Riccardo Valentini: We have to continue to provide food, but good food, healthy food with good standards. Many small farms in rural environments, many farmers, are not supported by the government or by technology. They grow animals without particular attention.
So I think we have to really support farmers who do a good job, but I think we have to look also at other food systems. You know, my position [is] that there is a great potential in the Russian Federation to grow their own food – why do they have to go to get food elsewhere? We have to grow our food ourselves in our environment, under control. So, I think it’s maybe the first thing to re-think.
— Denis Bolotsky (@BolotskySputnik) April 23, 2020
Riccardo Valentini: The second question about food is about what we call comorbidity – a technical word meaning what we experienced in Italy, but, I think it’s everywhere. Most of the deaths in Italy at the moment – 80% of the deaths are due to additional pathologies. So, usually there are old people with diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, or tumours.
So, there is a strong correlation between healthy food and your health status. Diabetes, for example, and cardiovascular diseases are very much connected to our way of eating and diets. So, I think that this pandemic will also create better consideration that we are weaker against the virus if we don’t have good health. So we should fight the next virus with the transfer of genes, but also with good food for our health.
Sputnik: We’ve seen images of nature transforming in regions where people have gone on lockdown, including in Italy. Do you think that after the pandemic, people will be able to preserve the environment, or will it be contaminated again rather quickly?
Riccardo Valentini: This is actually a really interesting side. As humans, we have a footprint on the environment; we have real concrete results which show that nature is coming back. It shows that we were in the past putting a lot of pressure on the environment every day.
Also, humans are very quick, so I’m not so optimistic that this will remain for long. I think things will go back very fast. But this should give us some reflections on our activity on nature, and the pressure that we put on nature is very clear now.
Sputnik: Italy is one of the EU nations that has suffered the most from the coronavirus and saw the outbreak very early on. What are the trends that we might see in the Apennines in terms of people’s lifestyle when COVID-19 is eventually thwarted?
Riccardo Valentini: Things will change for sure in our way of living. For instance, I’m sure that we will have more multimedia meetings and “smart working”, as we are doing now. We, as academics, are giving lectures to our students, and our research projects are going on. A lot of things are changing from this point of view.
Maybe travel will change. There is a big discussion now in Italy, because we are going to open on the 4 May. And it’s not clear, because the government has not yet released the final plans. There are also a lot of discussions on how to maintain unity of the country, with different regional approaches. Also, transportation is a big problem because you have to keep people separated in trains, because workers will have to go to work after the re-opening of factories – how they commute and so on. There are some ideas for tracking people, because if you sit on the train at the same place – it’s much easier to detect your possible contacts.
Sputnik: In one of your interviews you said that there is a trend in Italy that young people are leaving the cities and moving to their own farms in the countryside. Now, when COVID-19 is triggering an economic crisis worldwide, will it push these people back into the cities to look for jobs, or do you think they will still prefer rural life?
Riccardo Valentini: I think more and more young people would choose that natural life, healthy food, I’m sure. In the end, if the economy goes down, it’s always been like this historically in Italy: the land was the last resort for the people.
And if it’s going to crash – people will go back to the land. I have to say that there has been an increase in the market of organic food in Italy. A lot of citizens are buying food online. And more and more small farms are present online. They are putting their products for sale and more and more citizens are buying online with delivery to their door. This has created another economy. There is an increase in online shopping and also for food – there is a new modality for the future.
