2500 YOUNG FARMERS FROM 120 COUNTRIES TOGETHER WITH CARLO PETRINI, RAJ PATEL, SERGE LATOUCHE, DON LUIGI CIOTTI AND ALICE WATERS WILL SPEAK ABOUT THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUES ON FOOD AT "TERRA MADRE GIOVANI", FROM OCTOBER 3RD TO 6TH IN MILAN

2.500 farmers, fishermen, breeders, herders, nomads, natives and food artisans under 40, together with the founder of Slow Food Carlo Petrini, the activist Raj Patel, the economist Serge Latouche, the President of Libera Don Luigi Ciotti, the Vice President of Slow Food and pioneer in food education Alice Waters and many others, will talk about the urgent need to change the current food system, migrants in the food system, insects, food of the future, food and religion, women in agriculture, free trade treaties (starting with TTIP EU-USA) versus small-scale agriculture, healthy soil, common good, food and finance, public-private meetings, access to land and land grabbing, food education, food waste, young entrepreneurs, vegetable gardens and finally, an assessment of Expo 2015. "Terra Madre Giovani - We Feed the Planet", is Slow Food’s big event that for the first time will be at Expo 2015 in Milan with the young leaders of world agriculture to "show the world that those who really feed the planet are already at work" and discuss the future of our food. On October 3rd to the 5th, they will be in two different locations in the heart of Milan - Superstudio and the Metropolitan Market - and on October 6th at the Expo, for the grand finale. Following tradition, the founder of Slow Food, Carlo Petrini will welcome the participants and reiterate the role of the Slow Food Youth Network for the future of food, and then all walk to the Metropolitan Market to officially open the event with the Italian Minister of Agriculture, Maurizio Martina.
Joris Lohman, President of Slow Food Youth Network together with the President of Slow Food will welcome the young farmers of the world and kick-off "Terra Madre Giovani". There will be regional meetings dedicated to case histories of youth and agriculture in the world, and discussions concerning all the important issues that revolve around the theme of food today.
Activist, writer and journalist, Raj Patel will close the first day of events with his spectacular upcoming documentary, Generation Food, the urgent need to change this food system and the role our generation should play for making this change happen (October 3rd).
The economist Serge Latouche, theorist of the degrowth theory and critic of the capitalist economic system will hold a master class explaining that another way to see production, consumption and social relations is possible, instead of the indices measuring wealth (such as GDP) that have been completely crushed by monetary and financial parameters, but that do not correspond to the real well-being of the population (October 4th).
Among the many debates to be held on the same day, "Food and Religion" (Maria Chiara Giorda, University of Milan Bicocca, Yahya Pallavicini, Imam and Vice President of the Italian Islamic Religious Community, Don Luigi Ciotti, Catholic priest and President of Libera, Hamsananda Tours, Hindu monk, Moni Ovadia, actor, musician and expert in Jewish culture) will focus on one of the most intimate and strongest connections that affect the human soul and what we eat. FAO will participate in the debate on "Healthy Soils for a Healthy Life", while at the center of "A New Strategy for the Common Good" (Michele Fino, University of Gastronomic Sciences, Habtamu Belay, researcher in Law & Economics oat the University of Turin, José Luis Vivero Pol, researcher at the Food and Agricultural Transition Governance at the University of Louvain, Luigi Russians, researcher in Sociology of Organizations of the International University College of Turin), will try to outline what "Common Good" actually means and how you can promote and preserve it in a global system that constantly threatens it.
The debate on "Food & Finance" will include the following speakers: Carmine Garzia, Professor of Management, University of Gastronomic Sciences, Gabriele Corte, responsible for the Italian market of the Swiss Bank in Italy, Cesare Baldrighi, President of Consorzio Grana Padano, Mauro Castellano, director of the private equity fund Ersel Investment Club, Claudio Bongiovanni, President of European Cereals Stock Exchange.
"Expo 2015 - A Balance" will instead be headed by Roberto Burdese (Slow Food International), Giosuè De Salvo (Expo dei Popoli Network) and Mitchell Davis (Creative Director of the US Pavilion), who will analyze, at the first world Expo dedicated explicitly to food, what has been done to improve the global food system. Another topic of debate, "Food Policy: Public and Private Responsibility", will discuss how collaboration between public and private is increasingly important to guarantee quality public catering services.
On October 5th Alice Waters will speak about how educating the youngest generations is key to a renewed food system capable of responding adequately to the social, environmental and cultural challenges of the third millennium.
There will be "lessons" on how to organize awareness campaigns, events on a low budget and on the business of good food. The grand finale, the "Closing Conference" at Expo, “to share what we have learned, what we have shared, the people we have met and our agenda for the coming years with the rest of the world”. We will all then walk to the Slow Food Pavilion for the official closing of Terra Madre Giovani - We Feed The Planet. In the afternoon, though, there will be a panel discussion on "Agricultural Investments for Small Scale Farmers".
Info: www.wefeedtheplanet.com