A statement of intent to provide solutions to the three great challenges of this century, developed by Barilla Bcfn: sustainable agriculture, the fight against hunger and malnutrition, and the fight against food waste.
The Milan Protocol was officially presented yesterday, at the close of the 6th International Forum on Food and Nutrition, organised by the Bcfn Foundation (Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition). Those receiving the Protocol were Maurizio Martina, Minister of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policy, Milan Mayor Giuliano Pisapia, Giancarlo Caratti di Lanzacco, Deputy Commissioner General of the European Commission for Expo Milan 2015, and Paolo De Castro, Coordinator of the S&D group on the Agriculture Committee and standing rapporteur for Expo 2015.
"At Bcfn we have been working for six years on the great issues of food and nutrition and on food-related problems in the world," said Guido Barilla, president of the Foundation. "We made a commitment to inform people about these problems, and the Milan Protocol is the summary of this work. Today it puts to institutions the resolutions to the three great paradoxes of food," identified over these years of work.
Every year, 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted worldwide — that is, one third of global production is lost. An amount that could feed the 805 million people who suffer from hunger.
Today, almost one third of cereal production is used to feed livestock and to produce biofuels, a percentage set to grow in the coming years.
Today there are 1.5 billion obese or overweight people in the world, while 805 million suffer from hunger. For every two people with excessive access to food, one is malnourished.
"It is absurd that today there is food in abundance for everyone and yet hundreds of millions of people suffer from hunger, while waste, excessive food consumption and the use of land for purposes other than food production are the order of the day," writes Barilla in the introduction to the Protocol.
To this end, the document sets out objectives to be achieved. First and foremost, promoting more sustainable agriculture — fairer and more accessible. An agriculture that supports small producers and puts an end to the race for land grabbing, as well as reducing land allocated to biofuel production. Reducing food waste by 50 per cent by 2020 through targeted campaigns to raise awareness of the issue. Promoting prevention and food education, while at the same time guaranteeing access to food for all.
"Today's presentation is a first step; now it is up to the institutions to act on it," concludes Barilla.
Confirmation of these commitments comes from Minister Maurizio Martina himself, also with an eye to the opening of Expo 2015: "The Milan Charter will be an absolute first in the history of world exhibitions. Indeed, it has never happened before that a document of this kind has been offered, nor that visitors, institutions and businesses have been asked to sign up to it. This is a methodological innovation, and Expo will be a unique opportunity to promote this debate."