Aware of the significant potential of nascent biotechnologies, the European Economic Community (the predecessor to the European Union) was one of the first regions in the world to develop a regulatory framework for them. Back in the 1980s, the objective of Community member countries was to strengthen the standards of consensus and collaboration, and of environmental and health safety, as well as to promote an industrial sector of enormous potential. In spite of all effort, towards the end of the 1990s it was a widely accepted fact that a number of political and economic factors were blocking...

Different factors have contributed to what is known as the Contemporary Food Paradox. To express this more graphically, let us say that more than a third of the food in the world is wasted while almost 800 million people suffer extreme malnutrition. Now the Millennium Goals' deadline expired, we must set the targets for the Sustainable Development Goals for the next decades. Many national and international organizations point out the imperative need to give an adequate reply to this paradox.Food waste has important economic and environmental implications and, in addition, there is an...