Theme

“Carta 2015”, an Expo legacy to the future

Vicente Gonzalez Loscertales, Secretary General of the BIE, Roberto Formigoni, Commissioner General of the EXPO Milano 2015 and President of the Lombardy Region, Prof. Umberto Veronesi, Scientific Director European Institute of Oncology, Prof. Chiara Tonelli, Full professor of Genetics, Università degli Studi di Milano

Expo Milano 2015 organized a public round table "Carta 2015" to discuss the Expo theme, "Feeding the Planet, Energy For Life," that should be one of the main legacies of Expo Milano.

"Carta 2015" will invite scientific and cultural intellectuals around the world to discuss key issues. And in the coming three years, experts, invited by the organizers, will write a document that can offer solutions to the challenges that the world is facing in the field of nutrition.

A message delivered in the name of Nelson Mandela

At the occasion of the 1st roundtable on Carta 2015 organized in Milan on October 25, 2011, the Secretary General of the BIE, Mr. Loscertales indicated in his introductory remarks that "The theme of Milan 2015 touches issues at the core of our survival: over-use of resources, unequal access to food, unbalances between consumption patterns, and so on.

A vital and basic element such as food is one of the main sources of risk to the well-being of humanity and of our planet. 2015 remains a challenging deadline to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Milan World Expo can embrace to reinvigorate the objectives and re-energize the international community".

He stressed that "Carta 2015 is a key initiative that can achieve two goals, the first is to provide the 'fil rouge' for Expo 2015 to develop initiatives that will help establish the necessary authority and thought leadership needed to make Milan 2015 the reference event on sustainability and nutrition. The second is to provide a starting point for developing a roadmap containing concrete actions to be followed and implemented beyond 2015."

The early start of the project, according to Mr. V. González Loscertales is also a "necessity" which will launch a concerted effort to gather the understanding and commitments that will bring changes on matters as vital as nutrition and sustainability.

More than 50 participants to join Expo Milan 2015

Official Website of Expo Milano 2015

World Food Day: To Feed a Planet in this Precarious Age, All Help Needed

16/10/09 – Three months after world leaders met at the G8 Summit 2009 in L’Aquila, Italy (July 8 – 10), reaffirming food security and sustainable agriculture as global priorities, the world remembers on this day – the UN World Food Day – that more than one billion people are suffering from hunger and malnutrition, an increase of over 100 million from last year.

This year, the theme is “Achieving food security in times of crisis.”

With approximately one sixth of all humanity suffering from hunger – a situation aggravated by the current global economic crisis – the World Food Day reminds us to look beyond the numbers and statistics to the real suffering that they represent.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the world population will grow by 50 percent and reach 9 billion by 2050. Finding ways to ensure sufficient and safe food to feed the planet will be primordial for world peace and stability. The “silent hunger crisis,” as the FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf calls it, will affect – if it doesn’t already – all of us in some way.

In the words of Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), “Today is World Food Day but one out of every six people on earth will go to bed hungry tonight. So I’m going to rename this No Food Day. We need the world to help us win the battle against hunger.”
In 2015, Italy will host its World Expo – gathering governments, international organizations, civil society groups, corporations, experts and other key actors — in the hopes of helping the world do just this.

Under the theme, “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life,” the EXPO Milano 2015 will be held between May 1st and October 31st, 2015.

A guide to Expo 2015

16/07/2009 - The new volume “Expo 2015. Una guida a tutte le opportunità" (Expo 2015 – A guide to all the opportunities, by Andrea Mascaretti, Roberto Daneo, Patrizia Galeazzo and Riccardo Garosci and published by Il Sole 24 Ore) was presented in Milan last Friday.

An easy to read manual, this guide presents all of the different aspects of the Milan Expo. By covering a wide range of subjects such as the theme, the infrastructure, the events, the economic opportunities, the hospitality programs, etc. it provides a complete and accessible picture to everyone who wants to know more about the event.

Prominent Experts to Make Up Expo Scientific Committee

25/06/09 – Organizers of EXPO Milano 2015 announced the approval of the establishment of the Expo Scientific Committee, which will contribute to maintaining a high level of quality in the content and projects of the Expo in 2015.The committee will be presided by Professor Roberto Schmid, Director of IUSS (Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori di Pavia - Institute for Advanced Study of Pavia) and former Rector of the University of Pavia, who has an extensive experience in the field of education and research.Adriano Gasperi, doctor, coordinator of programs in development cooperation in several countries, and former Executive Secretary of the 15th Antarctic Consultative Meeting (ATCM), will be the Secretary-General.

The other members announced- the final list of committee members will be finalized in the near future – were:

Per Pinstrup Andersen, agricultural economist and former Director-General of International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), who launched the initiative, “Vision 2020,” a research program on global food security
Joachim Von Braun, a member of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), Professor of economics and policies of food, and former President of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE)
Ismail Seralgedin, Director of the Biblioteca Alessandrin and Co-Founder of the Global Water Partnership
Claudia Sorlini, Professor of agriculture microbiology, Dean of the Agriculture Faculty at the University of Milan, head of Center of Advanced Studies and Research in the “agri-food” sector in dry zones at the Univerisity of Haim Shans in Egypt
Francesco Salamini, Professor of genetic technologies at Università Statale Milano, member of Accademia dei Georgofili and Accademia Nazionale di Agricoltura, former Director of the Department of Plant Cultivation of the Max-Planck Institute in Cologne
Gian Michele Calvi, President of EUCENTRE (European Center for Earthquake Engineering), Professor of structural design at the University of Pavia, and Director of the Center of Research and Graduate Studies in Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology at the IUSS of Pavia
Enrico Porceddu, Professor of agricultural genetics at University of Tuscia, internationally-recognized expert in the field of plant genetics, and coordinator of the doctoral program at the Ricerche Internazionali in Agrobiodiversità.

(Source: EXPO Milano 2015 official website - www.milanoexpo-2015.com)