MILAN EXPO 2015, THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT FOR A "GLOBAL FOOD PACT". THE CHAIRMAN OF THE AGRICULTURE COMMISSION, SANI, SAID, “REGARDING SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE, LAND GRABBING, ACCESS TO FOOD AND FOOD SECURITY, THERE IS NO MORE TIME TO WASTE”

A lot of time has been spent recently on phone calls, appeals and proposals for Expo Milano 2015, whose theme is "Feeding the Planet - Energy for Life", to make it not just a great "show" of Italian and global food, but an opportunity for discussion, reflection and seeking solutions to the big question of how to ensure safe and healthy food, while respecting the environment to the growing world population of today and tomorrow.
First, as we reported from the Salone del Gusto in Turin, Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food, along with Don Luigi Ciotti, founder of Libera and the project "Libera Terra", and the film director Ermanno Olmi, sensitive to issues related to nature, wrote in an open letter to the organizers of Expo: “Expo 2015 will be a container for great and important issues and an extraordinary opportunity to renew awareness of the Earth that feeds us. The real danger is, however, that this universal exposition will be used only to talk about and promote food as a commodity, without actually tackling this topic and its many implications”.

Their appeal has been accepted at least by the Italian Government, as the President of the Agriculture Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, Luca Sani has written: "The Government is committed to promoting a "global food pact" for Expo2015 in Milan since there is no more time to waste regarding sustainable agriculture, land grabbing, access to food and food security”. Just today, in fact, the Commission "only the 5 Stars Movement voted against it”, reads a statement, “approved the final document on the Survey on cognitive enhancement of national agricultural food production with reference to Expo 2015 in Milan”. And at the conclusion "of the articulated inquiry”, said the president Sani, “the Commission has adopted an act that commits the Government to enhance the Expo2015 during the six-month presidency of the EU, with the aim of establishing an international agreement between the participating States to adopt common policies that solve the grave problems related to food and nutrition”.

"The issues at stake are well known”, he continued, “there will be more than 9 billion people in the world by 2050, which means agricultural production must increase 70% compared to now, with subsequent environmental problems, food safety, right of access to food and reducing food waste. Just consider that today we throw away 1.3 billion tons of edible food, corresponding to four times the nutritional needs of 870 million undernourished people. The goal for the Expo2015 is to give give binding deadlines with a "global food pact" using the guidelines in the document approved by the Commission.
They range from the so-called "sustainable intensification", promoting food self-sufficiency and stabilizing the markets, to the definition of target limits of agricultural production between food and energy, and a clear legal framework to combat financial speculation on food commodities. And also, global coordination to make a system of agricultural policy choices and environmental sustainability, public policies for increasing production in areas of the world that are less productive, enhancing production and local raw materials and using water resources judiciously”.