The Mediterranean region is one of the most biodiverse in the world, home to a complex and intricate patchwork of cultures, climates, and cuisines. Food systems in the region -- represented worldwide by the "Mediterranean diet" -- are equally complex, demanding analysis across the political, social, cultural, economic and nutritional spectrums from landscape to table.

The ability of Mediterranean agriculture to sustain its peoples -- and the planet -- is now threatened by several issues:

• Unsustainable agriculture production and limited agricultural diversification;
• Overexploitation of natural resources, including loss of soil fertility and agricultural biodiversity;
• Water scarcity and poor water management;
• Limited agricultural diversification;
• Increasingly poor nutritional value of food products and diets;
• Food loss and waste; and
• Decline in food culture and food sovereignty, highlighting the struggle between modernity and tradition.