LOST IN TRANSLATION: LIFE OF A JAPANESE GIRL IN ITALY What does ‘natural’ actually mean in natural wine? With this question in mind, I visited Augusta, a natural wine fair in Turin. Now in its fourth year, the event brings together producers and visitors from Italy and abroad. Alongside wine, there were beers, ciders, chocolates, and fresh bread. It felt more like a festival than a wine tasting. The charming illustrations by Gianluca Cannizzo set the tone. Many visitors were

The government’s Be Ready campaign launched last month. It asks households to keep three days of food, water, and basic equipment at home. People took it seriously. Iceland reported tinned food sales rose 40% over the first weekend.Some shops ran short of bottled water, tinned beans, and wind-up radios. Polling released alongside the campaign suggested more than 40% of households lacked three days’ supplies. Reaching for simple cupboard staples is good.What we push back on is

Questions I Never Thought to Ask Living in Italy, there have been many moments when everyday life or problems with my body have made me wonder, ‘Why don’t we learn this at school?’ or ‘Am I the only one who doesn’t know this?’ Or perhaps I just forgot some of what I learned in school. By researching things for myself and trying them out, I have gradually begun to understand my own body and the way I live a little better. Understanding ourselves better also helps us care for o

Questions I Never Thought to Ask Living in Italy, there have been many moments when everyday life or problems with my body have made me wonder, ‘Why don’t we learn this at school?’ or ‘Am I the only one who doesn’t know this?’ Or perhaps I just forgot some of what I learned in school. By researching things for myself and trying them out, I have gradually begun to understand my own body and the way I live a little better. Understanding ourselves better also helps us care for o

What if the food that helped make us ill, the jab that treats it, and the ‘friendly’ ready meal you eat alongside the jab were all part of the same loop? It's not a conspiracy theory. It's just incentives. For decades, ultra-processed food (UPF) has been built for shelf life, cravings and profit, with nutrition coming last. Last November (2025), a Lancet series linked diets heavy in it to obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic problems. Then came the weight-loss jabs. Wegovy

LOST IN TRANSLATION: LIFE OF A JAPANESE GIRL IN ITALY Growing up in Japan, I only really had two uses for honey: taking a spoonful when I had a sore throat, or drizzling it over yoghurt. When it came to pancakes or French toast, honey always seemed a little too strong, so I would choose maple syrup instead. My criteria went no further than ‘honey or maple syrup?’, and I cannot remember ever looking at the name of a flower when choosing a jar of honey. I wonder what kind of fl

Sunday mornings are for slow coffee and big ideas. Here’s a simple one: school dinners are a political choice. The UK government just updated its School Food Standards for the first time in a decade. By September 2027, schools must serve actual food: whole grains, vegetables, lentils, and chickpeas. This policy targets the real enemy: ultra-processed products. It demands real ingredients on school lunch trays—something Movimento Metropolitano (MoM) has advocated for years. Go

Why soaring supermarket costs could be forcing a rethink of the weekly shop. When a basic weekly shop feels like a luxury purchase, consumer habits begin to shift. The Food and Drink Federation forecasts UK food inflation could peak near 6.4% next summer. A standard £100 basket heads towards £147.50. British households face a prolonged squeeze. Energy costs, climate patterns, and trade barriers keep supermarket prices high while quality stays the same. This pressure doesn’t a

When we think about healthcare, we focus on doctors, nurses, and medicine. We rarely think about food. Yet, for Movimento Metropolitano (MoM), nutrition is an essential part of medical care. We need to stop making nutrition sound like a complex scientific word—it’s not. It simply means the food we eat and how our bodies use it to stay strong. Certain foods are vital for healing, strength, and recovery and this vital information needs to reach people, giving more equal opportu

Britain’s food system rests on a fragile assumption. Water will be there when farmers need it. Recent heatwaves and drought exposed the weakness in that assumption. Smaller yields, earlier harvests, and higher prices are the immediate consequences. The bigger issue is whether Britain has the water infrastructure to produce food reliably. The message from the National Farmers’ Union is clear: ‘Water security is food security. Food security is national security.’ Eight days abo

Gastronomy is Not About Haute Cuisine Across Europe, the word Japanese is becoming increasingly visible. In Japanese restaurants and matcha cafés run by Japanese people, words such as IKIGAI, ZEN, DŌ and WABI-SABI often appear. Together with Japanese ceramics, carefully designed interiors and thoughtfully curated spaces, they are presented as part of a single image of Japan. Yet something often feels incomplete. The words that are meant to represent Japan are all there, but t

The government’s new ‘Great British Summer Savings’ initiative cuts VAT from 20% to 5% on children’s meals. It makes eating out more accessible. But for MoM, it’s more than a subsidy for a cheaper meal. We live in an age of nutritional displacement. Corporate fast-food chains colonise our high streets. They serve food engineered for mass transit and shelf-life, not for seasonal nourishment. When we eat at these chains, we consume a product, not a meal. We end up participating

Gastronomy is not Haute Cuisine Every February, Japanese department stores are transformed into showcases for chocolates from around the world. Long queues form for Valentine's Day fairs. People are drawn to rare brands and the stories of celebrated chocolatiers, willingly paying premium prices for a single piece. In Paris and Brussels, jewel-like bonbons are displayed in elegant boutiques. In the United States, multinational companies have built entire theme parks aroun

The egg feels like one of the few things you can still rely on. It’s cheap, filling, and always there when you need it. That is exactly why it matters. Eggs are also one of the most straightforward sources of nourishment we have. They are full of protein, around 6 grams per egg, and give us essential nutrients like vitamin B12, iron, and selenium. For families, food banks and breakfast clubs alike, the egg is a reliable building block of a decent meal. The problem with eggs,

Issue Vol. 2 — Urban Food Systems and the Loss of Connection 1. Food as a Commodity — and the Loss of Human Connection Food should be treated as a human right: something everyone should access with dignity. But in many modern societies, it is treated more like a commodity - something to buy instead of something to be shared. Knowledge about food was once passed down through everyday life — from grandparents, neighbours, and local communities. People learned how to cook seaso

LOST IN TRANSLATION: LIFE OF A JAPANESE GIRL IN ITALY The world of bacteria is, in some ways, remarkably simple. Microorganisms, much like us, ‘eat’: they consume sugar and convert it into the energy they need to move and survive. We, in turn, consume the by-products of that metabolism. Since moving to Italy, I’ve become far more aware of this microbial world than ever before. Lactic acid bacteria feed on the lactose found in milk and produce lactic acid. Their speciality is

The table connects the city to the soil. For Movimento Metropolitano (MoM), Earth Day begins at this intersection. Every plate maps our bond with the land. When we protect the origins of our food, it means we defend seeds and local territories. MoM always stands with the guardians of biodiversity and honours Indigenous practices that treat the Earth as a living system, not just an inexhaustible resource. This year, MoM carries the Earth Day 2026 global theme—Our Power, Our Pl

By Andrea Rasca . This year, in all the noise and rush, I kept asking myself one simple question: what truly holds a society together? Economists point to GDP, politicians to strategies, tech experts to algorithms, all designed to glorify metrics. But for me, the answer is much simpler and profound. A society stands or falls by its rituals: the bread we break, the stories we share, and the wisdom we carry forward. I live in one of the wealthiest cities in the world, where we

2025 forces an uncomfortable reckoning with the industrial food system, a challenge our founder, Andrea Rasca , and the entire Movimento Metropolitano team have been confronting for years. We continue to strip away layers of marketing and misdirection, revealing that the roots of health lie not just in science, but in systemic and economic factors. This year's lesson reinforces what we’ve always known: the plate is political . True wellbeing depends as much on structural int

Hippocrates knew the final cost of a cheap meal long before the courts ruled against Bayer . His wisdom—‘ Let food be thy medicine’ —is no longer ancient history; it’s the fundamental and non-negotiable principle for modern public health. It seems that the only intelligent path forward is a full-circle walk back to this simplest truth. This truth is rooted in his simple observation: all health rested on the plate and the step taken each day. Hippocrates understood that the g