Marta Abbà
A pilot project is turning food education upside down: instead of learning about biodiversity through lectures, young pupils paint it on canvas. With I colori raccontano storie® per Nutrire la Biodiversità, art in Milan becomes a scientific tool to shape conscious ambassadors able to bring healthier, more sustainable choices into their families.
Of the 6,000 plant species cultivated throughout human history, only nine account today for 66% of global agricultural production1. Food biodiversity is shrinking at an alarming rate, and so is the quality of our diets. While many scientists raise the alarm and publish academic studies, someone has chosen a different path to denounce the trend: going back to school. Not to teach, nor to learn, but to ask children to paint possible solutions to the worldwide loss of nature now underway. The project, I colori raccontano storie® per Nutrire la Biodiversità (meaning “Colours tell stories to nurture biodiversity”), was conceived by Cristina Ciusa, an expert in ethical communication and biodiversity2.
Cristina Ciusa, a philosophy graduate, writes about culture, economics, marketing and cooking, and creates models for scientific dissemination. She has multidisciplinary experience in communication and develops creative concepts related to art and biodiversity. From digital transformation to personal transformation, she develops training programmes, supporting companies in their ethical and sustainable growth. She creates contemporary art projects and is currently a research fellow at the Laboratory of Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition of the Department of Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine at the University of Pavia.
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It began in November 2025, involving eighty pupils at the primary school in Via Bergognone in Milan3. By appointing them ambassadors of food biodiversity, Ciusa encouraged them to explore concepts such as “ecosystem”, “gut microbiota” and “Planetary Health Diet”4 through art and technology. The result? An eight-metre canvas painted by 160 hands, a collective manifesto suspended between the trees of an urban courtyard, and numerous responses to the question that obsesses nutritionists and policy makers: what is the relationship between what we put on our plates, the health of cities and the survival of ecosystems?
A large collective artwork
The initiative launched in Milan starts from a radical premise: even very young students possess an instinctive wisdom that can enrich scientific knowledge. As Ciusa explains:
«Contemporary art has the privilege of translating a complex concept through the simplicity of a sign, which then becomes form and substance».
I colori raccontano storie® per Nutrire la Biodiversità aims precisely to turn children into artists for a day: by entrusting them with the responsibility of freely expressing their ideas, primary school pupils manage to articulate the reasons behind their eating habits and to reflect on how adding variety to their plates can bring benefits for human health and, even more importantly, for environmental wellbeing.
Although set within the scientific framework of the National Biodiversity Future Center5, the project deliberately veers away from the usual tracks of academic research and takes an alternative route. Rachele De Giuseppe, a researcher in Food Science, admits it proudly.
Rachele De Giuseppe is a researcher at the University of Pavia, where she works in the Laboratory of Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition in the Department of Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine. She graduated in Biological Sciences from the University of Milan, where she also obtained a PhD in Biochemistry and a specialisation in Food Science. Her expertise in national and international research projects integrates dietetics, clinical nutrition and lifestyle medicine, with a life-course approach to health promotion and the prevention of non-communicable diseases, including obesity and cardiometabolic diseases. Her work focuses on the study of malnutrition in all its forms as a modifiable determinant of risk and disease burden.
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Starting from a concrete question — «what link exists between what we place on the plate, biodiversity and the health of city dwellers?» — the project seeks to translate complex notions such as ecosystems, environmental exposure and chronic non-communicable diseases into a shared experience. It is no coincidence that the lead institution, the Moisè Loria comprehensive school, stands in the heart of a metropolitan context. Various studies show that cities are becoming epicentres of food-related health crises6: childhood obesity, chronic illnesses, loss of food culture in multicultural communities. Milan may serve as an “urban laboratory”: as a signatory to the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact7, it aims — through this new project — to become a model for coexistence among food traditions from across the globe. Intervening now, with innovative tools such as I colori raccontano storie® per Nutrire la Biodiversità, means shaping a generation capable of making mindful dietary choices before habits become fixed. This is why targeting primary school pupils in Via Bergognone meets a fundamental educational need: it is never too late, but it is always better to begin early.
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Colourful science
Among paintbrushes and colourful markers, in a spontaneous and free environment, the organisers embedded rigorous scientific content. De Giuseppe identifies three key messages: «The first concerns biodiversity on the plate: there is no health without dietary variety. A diet that includes many types of cereals, pulses, fruit and vegetables, local species and forgotten varieties supports the gut microbiota, reduces the risk of chronic diseases and protects agricultural biodiversity. The second axis links food, environment and urban health: daily food choices in a city like Milan affect pollution, land use and waste. The project helps children link food to soil, water, pollinating insects and even the trees in the school courtyard».
«The third pillar is food literacy8: developing skills to read food, recognise its origin, seasonality and degree of processing makes it possible to choose critically not only what is healthy but also what is fair and sustainable».
Three guiding threads of equal importance, destined to withstand both present-day pressures and those directed at scientific knowledge — but only if kept tightly woven, now and in the future. This last aspect becomes especially significant given how, globally, the scientific community is increasingly the target of attacks and delegitimisation by those who feel threatened by the truths emerging from research. The decision to involve children aged nine to ten is therefore strategic in sowing new, more science-based generations. De Giuseppe defines this age as «a delicate and strategic window» because children already possess good abstract reasoning skills, begin to make independent choices outside the home, yet remain curious and willing to question their habits. Research on food literacy9 suggests that primary school is the key moment to build not only knowledge, but also attitudes and practical abilities that tend to consolidate over time. Calling them ambassadors is no rhetorical device: they can become multipliers of awareness, bringing their drawings at home, explaining to parents why they painted pulses next to trees, discussing why an all-beige plate is less appealing than a colourful one.
Art writing recipes
How does the project overturn traditional educational approaches?By welcoming children into an atelier-like space where they are free to observe, touch, mix colours and translate onto canvas what food, nature and the city represent to them. Art becomes a maieutic tool, replacing the usual combination of explanations and exercises with far more incisive modes. Imagination leads the way, and emotion becomes a cognitive vehicle: children are granted the freedom to question and be questioned, with the courage to admit what they do not yet know, with no need to conceal it. Reflecting on the experience, Ciusa highlights how the project shaped «a cognitive model that stimulates knowledge and memorability by posing doubts and questions, which then become colours co-created on a large canvas. A canvas that tells the story of everyone’s diversity». Compared with a traditional lesson, the artistic language offers specific advantages. It is multisensory: pupils paint, move, negotiate space on a shared canvas, and the whole body participates in learning. It is emotional and narrative: each child brings their own food story, cultural background and family dishes to the drawing, making the messages more memorable and inclusive. It is collective: the final work is a shared creation in which biodiversity also becomes a variety of perspectives, recipes and cultures. De Giuseppe confirms this with emphasis: scientific literature10 has long shown that school-based interventions are most effective when multifaceted, experiential and long-term — just what this project aims to become. Initiatives that combine colours, visual art and nutritional messages increase children’s ability to recognise healthy foods, diversify their plates and develop critical thinking about food offerings. Given the rich range of cultural backgrounds within the pilot school, critical thinking expands to embrace a broader concept of cultural biodiversity.
Technology as a global health megaphone
In this revolutionary science-based artistic and culinary experiment, technology plays a deliberately discreet yet strategic role. As Ciusa explains:
«It is an element that does not invade or overdetermine the creative and gnoseological experience11, but amplifies its dissemination and its ability to raise awareness of the importance and interdependence of health and the environment».
Experts call it the Planetary Health Diet, but anyone can appreciate and nurture it by recognising how closely the planet’s wellbeing is linked to that of its inhabitants. When children grasp this, they often pass it on to their families and urban communities, encouraging virtuous lifestyles from the height of their small statures and the strength of their fresh, vibrant desire to live well. In all this, technology cannot remain neutral: its task is to facilitate understanding and connections, not to replace or overshadow the spaces that art and science rightfully occupy. It is delicate work to understand how to use it in a way that keeps it in its place, in dialogue with both but without raising its voice too much. In the documentation and replicability phase, however, it can bring considerable advantages, turning the project into a scalable model across the country.
As for the integration of generative Artificial Intelligence, Ciusa currently describes it as a possibility under consideration rather than a core component of the project. Potential relationships between science, technology, art and imagination are observed without forcing them. In an age dominated by technology, the children’s creative painting offers a counterweight to digital standardisation. This particular balance between analogue and digital reflects a precise methodological choice. Technology is used to document the experience, share results with other school communities and build a network of replicable best practices.
But the central experience remains physical, embodied, relational.
Children must touch colours, negotiate movements, bodies and spaces on the canvas, and engage with classmates. Only after this embodied phase technology can step in to amplify the reach of the experience, transforming a local event into a model of food education. For now, at least at national level.
- Biodiversity loss in figures: World Health Organization: WHO. (2025, February 18). Biodiversity. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/biodiversity ↩︎
- Link between ethical communication and biodiversity: https://www2.ceris.cnr.it/bioetica/Etica_e_Biodiversita.html ↩︎
- The school in Via Bergognone, for those who don’t know it: https://www.icsfmoiseloria.edu.it/pagine/scuola-primaria-via-bergognone ↩︎
- Planetary Health Diet: https://www.thelancet.com/commissions-do/EAT-2025) ↩︎
- National Biodiversity Future Center: https://www.nbfc.it/en ↩︎
- Read more: Cacciatore, S., Mao, S., Nuñez, M. V., Massaro, C., Spadafora, L., Bernardi, M., Perone, F., Sabouret, P., Biondi-Zoccai, G., Banach, M., Calvani, R., Tosato, M., Marzetti, E., & Landi, F. (2025). Urban health inequities and healthy longevity: traditional and emerging risk factors across the cities and policy implications. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, 37(1), 143. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40520-025-03052-1; Colozza, D., Wang, Y., & Avendano, M. (2023). Does urbanisation lead to unhealthy diets? Longitudinal evidence from Indonesia. Health & Place, 83, 103091. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1353829223001284 ↩︎
- Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, vai al sito ufficiale per saperne di più: https://www.milanurbanfoodpolicypact.org/ ↩︎
- Food literacy is the ability to understand, evaluate and use information about food in order to make healthy, informed and sustainable food choices. Cfr: Truman, E., Lane, D., & Elliott, C. (2017). Defining food literacy: A scoping review. Appetite, 116, 365–371. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28487244/ ↩︎
- For more on Food literacy: Ahmadpour, M., Omidvar, N., Doustmohammadian, A., Rahimiforoushani, A., & Shakibazadeh, E. (2020). Children Food and Nutrition Literacy – a new challenge in daily health and life, The new solution: using intervention mapping model through a mixed methods protocol. Journal of Medicine and Life, 13(2), 175–182. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7378349/ ; Ares, G., De Rosso, S., Mueller, C., Philippe, K., Pickard, A., Nicklaus, S., Van Kleef, E., & Varela, P. (2023). Development of food literacy in children and adolescents: implications for the design of strategies to promote healthier and more sustainable diets. Nutrition Reviews, 82(4), 536–552. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10925906/ ↩︎
- Read more: Hahnraths, M. T. H., Jansen, J. P. M., Winkens, B., & Van Schayck, O. C. P. (2022). The effects of a Multi-Component School-Based Nutrition Education intervention on children’s determinants of fruit and vegetable intake. Nutrients, 14(20), 4259. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9607228/ ; Van Cauwenberghe, E., Maes, L., Spittaels, H., Van Lenthe, F. J., Brug, J., Oppert, J., & De Bourdeaudhuij, I. (2010). Effectiveness of school-based interventions in Europe to promote healthy nutrition in children and adolescents: systematic review of published and ‘grey’ literature. British Journal of Nutrition, 103(6), 781–797. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-nutrition/article/effectiveness-of-schoolbased-interventions-in-europe-to-promote-healthy-nutrition-in-children-and-adolescents-systematic-review-of-published-and-grey-literature/395946DD3390CC8E036DBBCEEA492A9B ↩︎
- Gnoseology, the philosophic theory of knowledge, inquiry into the basis, nature, validity, and limits of knowledge: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gnoseology ↩︎
