The Ecology of Deliciousness: Culinary Biodiversity and Climate Resilience in Italy

Thursday, December 17, 2026 (7:00-8:00 PM ET)

The global climate crisis poses an existential threat to food security, soil health, and cultural heritage, particularly in climate-vulnerable regions like the Mediterranean basin.  Conventional mitigation strategies often frame climate action around sacrifice or technical metrics, overlooking primary human drivers of food systems: culture and sensory pleasure.  Using Italy’s rich culinary landscape as a case study, this webinar considers how agro-biodiversity and deliciousness can serve as powerful mechanisms for climate resilience and adaptation.  As Europe’s most biodiverse nation, home to thousands of landraces, heritage grains, wild foods, and regional microclimates, Italy offers a real-world model of how preserving biodiversity can enhance both ecosystem resilience and gastronomic value.  We will examine how traditional Italian agricultural and sustenance practices, such as polyculture, pastoral transhumance, and sustainable seasonal foraging, preserve soil carbon while fostering hyper-regional culinary identities.  By (re)connecting deliciousness with agro-biodiversity, this webinar demonstrates that celebrating regional food cultures can be a vital, joyful strategy for climate adaptation and long-term food system sustainability. 
 

Catarina Passidomo is a human geographer whose research focuses on food systems and the relationships among food, place, nature, society, and power.  A 2004 graduate of W&L, Passidomo now teaches in the Environmental Studies Program. She has published over a dozen academic articles and book chapters and is currently at work on a book called Gastroimaginaries, which explores the socioenvironmental ruptures of placemaking through food in the American South. Her next project will examine the how olive producers in southern Italy are adapting to a changing climate, and what those adaptations mean for regional identity.