Environment: Leading companies and research organisations together to save pasta, olive oil and wine from climate change

An alliance between scientists and big companies to preserve Italian food excellence such as pasta, olive oil and wine from the impact of climate change. It’s called MED-GOLD, the “Gold” of the Mediterranean, and it’s a European research project devoted to grape, olive oil and durum wheat, under threat by pests and shifting climate patterns due to climate change. Coordinated by ENEA, the project has three leading industrial partners: Barilla for pasta, the Spanish DCoop for olive oil and the Portoguese Sogrape Vinhos for wine. Funded by the European Union with 5 million euro, MED-GOLD foresees the development of highly specialized climate services for each of these crops, with the aim of optimizing timing and agricultural techniques  in the face of climate change.

“Agriculture is the sector most heavily influenced by climate variability and climate change. Hence the importance of innovative services providing information on the optimization of timing and agricultural techniques in the face of climate change”, Alessandro dell’Aquila, researcher at the ENEA Laboratory of Climate Modelling and Impacts, involved in the project development, explained. “This new type of climate service for agriculture allows to provide “tailored” information and act on a very long- term time span (several decades), as compared to the current weather forecasts which only go as far as two-three days, also in order to evaluate elements like agricultural yield,  assess the potential for adjustment and increase the resilience of the mediterranean agrifood system, making it more competitive and efficient”, he added.

“We will work with Barilla at understanding the impact of climate change on durum wheat production and its effects on quality and prices”, Luigi Ponti of the ENEA Laboratory for Sustainability, Quality and Safety of Agrifood Production, explained. “The increase in temperatures is also affecting the interactions between the olive and the olive fruit fly, altering the olive economy and the crop yields.  Knowing in advance if the following season will be extremely hot and dry or mild and humid would enable producers to put in place the necessary countermeasures”, he went on. Jointly with Sogrape Vinhos, a climate service related to seasonal temperature variations and the occurrence of rain or drought will be developed with the purpose of choosing the most suitable time to harvest, to enable viticulturists to plan winery activities in advance.

The last phase of MED-GOLD extends the scope of the methodology to another fast-moving consumer good, coffee, strenghtening the global dimension of the project and laying the foundations for providing climate services to the world’s most important agricultural commodity.

The Mediterranean Basin risks being one of the world’s regions more susceptible to the effects of climate change, which can put an area with  a very high level of biodiversity at risk, in addition to increasing its vulnerability to natural disasters and invasions from alien species harmful to our ecosystems.

For more information please contact

• MED-GOLD scientific coordination team: med-gold.project@enea.it
• Alessandro dell’Aquila, ENEA – Laboratory of Climate Modelling and  Impacts
• Sandro Calmanti, ENEA – Laboratory of Climate Modelling and Impacts
• Luigi Ponti, ENEA – Laboratory of Sustainability, Quality and Safety of AgriFood Production
• Matteo De Felice, ENEA – Division of Models and Technologies for the Reduction of Anthropic Effects and Natural Hazards
• www.med-gold.eu
• The list of all the 16 project partners is available at  https://www.med-gold.eu/who-we-are/
• Twitter: medgold_h2020