Malnutrition, food waste, climate change. Food-related threats that also represent great opportunities: this will be the message of John Kerry, special guest at Seeds&Chips 2018. Marco Gualtieri, creator of the food and innovation summit, has given us a preview.
Marco Gualtieri, the creator of the Seeds&Chips summit dedicated to innovation and food, managed to achieve something historic: hosting Barack Obama for his first public appearance after leaving office as President of the United States, to speak about the link between food and global warming at last year's edition of the summit. An unforgettable occasion that this year could be repeated thanks to the presence of John Kerry as one of the keynote speakers — Kerry served as US Secretary of State, appointed by Obama himself, and was one of the key figures who made it possible to reach the Paris Agreement in December 2015. Kerry is just one of the hundreds of speakers from around the world who will be attending Seeds&Chips 2018, held from 7 to 10 May at Milano Congressi. An annual event that carries forward the legacy left by Expo 2015, which was also held in the Lombard capital, reaffirming Italy's position as a global point of reference in the field of food and sustainability themes and projects.
We spoke with Gualtieri, the Italian entrepreneur who founded Ticketone and who is today president of Seeds&Chips, about what we can expect from this year's edition — the fourth — and about the results achieved in realising his vision: that the summit should become a "seed" helping our country's culinary culture to mature and become a vehicle for solutions to the great global challenges, from world hunger to the relationship between agriculture and climate change, nurtured through the union of tradition and innovation.
Can you give us an assessment of last year's edition, the one remembered above all for Barack Obama's speech?
We were honoured to have Obama. He allowed us to make ourselves known around the world: his speech was broadcast live by 144 television channels. Our main objective was to draw attention in Italy to the importance of the issues we address. If I have to take stock, it partly worked and partly didn't, because the response and reactions we received came more from abroad than from Italy. In any case, President Obama and the third edition of Seeds&Chips were a turning point, not an endpoint. There is still a great deal to do to make people understand that our seed is important if we all cultivate it together, if we let what it represents grow.
Read also: Sam Kass and his fight alongside the Obamas for healthy food for everyone
Why has the Seeds&Chips message been taken up primarily at an international level and not so much in Italy?
One problem is certainly Italian parochialism, which in some respects we know to be a strength but which is often instead a weakness. We need to bring the world here and offer the best solutions and experiences we have. If everyone keeps defending their own little patch — given that we're talking about food — we won't get anywhere. In defending our capabilities, our diversity, our excellence, our biodiversity, all these wonderful things that represent us, there is nonetheless a risk of not knowing how to look beyond.
What can we expect from this year's edition?
What we stand for: that is, bringing experiences — which also means concrete solutions and best practices from around the world — to inspire. There are two elements that hold true in any economy or system, but especially in the world of food: the first is cross-pollination between the various players. So a large company today cannot go it entirely alone and not engage with innovation, startups and young people. The second is that everything is connected — food is a broad and complex matrix that intersects with other sectors. The summary I wrote about the three events of 2015 recounts that something happened that year which I would describe as historic. One was organised by us — that is, Expo — then the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the United Nations, and then there was the Paris Agreement. They are all interconnected, they all say the same thing, what LifeGate has been saying for years: the world now needs to move in that direction, there are major threats but also major opportunities. Italy has not only the expertise to do so, but also the need to confront certain threats.
So is this your wish for the new legislature?
This must be everyone's wish. Whatever party, movement or representative should have many of the elements we are describing in its programme. I'll start with immigration. There are precise studies, of which governments are aware, showing that the greatest threat of the coming years is linked to the lack of water and food. There are figures suggesting that between 50 and 200 million people could flee their territories because they have no water or food. I want to speculate politically: it would be a coherent synthesis to create a plan for economic development, the defence of national interests and quality of life centred on sustainability. Today this is not merely an ethical value — it is an urgency, but also a great opportunity.
This year too, Seeds&Chips has received the endorsement of the World food programme, the United Nations agency responsible for food assistance. How can innovation, the central theme of the summit, help to combat world hunger?
"World hunger" is a hugely important phrase. Growing up, I was taught not to leave food on my plate because there was a child in Biafra who had none — in this way I developed a conscience and learned certain values. Today that conscience is heightened even for those who don't have it, by the fact that the problem of that child, or of those millions of children, is not far away. Because the effects of that problem reverberate in our daily lives too. Seeds&Chips is a small seed — we bring people together to discuss these issues while also proposing solutions to be put into practice. Nobody has a magic wand to tackle these great challenges. There are many small things, and some of them could grow more than others. We are just one small link in this chain, which is to carry forward what Expo placed on the table for us.
Seeds&Chips is taking part in the Smart city exhibition-event by Material Connexion, which opens on 17 April during Milan's Design week. What innovations can contribute to the development of increasingly resilient cities — ones capable of sustaining the exponential growth of urbanisation?
Food touches everything and everyone. If today 50 per cent of the population lives in major cities, in the coming years we will reach 75 per cent. Cities need to be rethought, including in their relationship with food. You can't talk about a smart city without putting food into the equation. One practical example is that cities can consider producing some of the food they need rather than having it brought in from outside — some are already doing so, but we're only at the beginning. And as cities expand, "outside" keeps getting further away.
Are we heading in the right direction to truly develop smart cities on a global level?
We have the technologies and the knowledge of the needs and the challenges, so we need to pick up the pace. Five years ago I started saying that with the new hydroponic systems it will be possible to grow food on rooftops, in basements and in large abandoned spaces. Now this is beginning to take hold. This is a great opportunity. Think about the resources of this country. We have culture, which is the foundation of everything, then biodiversity, traditions, great food, fashion, design, manufacturing industry, companies specialising in technology. It's just a matter of bringing them all together.
Last year one of the main speakers, or keynote speakers, was Obama; this year it's Kerry: both have been at the top of the United States executive. Why the choice to give space to American leaders in particular?
Americans by coincidence — we have hundreds of speakers. We invited Kerry for two reasons. The first is that I was struck by lightning when in September 2015 he came to Expo and gave his speech. In his address he said that there are extremely urgent challenges we must face or risk the world becoming unstable. Kerry explained that the first million, the first two million Syrians who fled did not do so because of bombs but because of a lack of food and water. He then said that within these challenges lies the greatest economic opportunity in history. Then, Al Gore in his latest documentary (An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, ed.) says that there are three people thanks to whom the Paris Agreement was made possible: Barack Obama, John Kerry and French president François Hollande. So I simply had to try to get Kerry. And, among other things, he went to sign the Paris Agreement at the United Nations carrying his two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter in his arms, saying "I'm doing this for you." I believe that Kerry's experience, history and stories are a great source of inspiration.
Howard Schultz, executive chairman of Starbucks, is also a keynote speaker. What was behind that choice?
Few people know that Starbucks was born in Milan, from a twenty-something Schultz who came here and fell in love with Italian coffee bars, and from that the empire he built was born. There is a strong connection with Italy — not only through the opening of a Starbucks coffee shop in Milan this summer, but also because Schultz has been telling his people for months that the keyword for the Starbucks of the future is "health." In terms of the sustainability of the coffee supply chain too, Starbucks has done epoch-making things that have paved the way for others. Among this year's new features — in addition to the ongoing presence of "teenovators," since all the conferences are opened by a teenager who is therefore the first protagonist on stage, and many young speakers — we will be bringing three young people onto the stage to interact with this keynote speaker. A teenager, a twenty-something and a thirty-something, specifically to spark thinking and put forward ideas. Because cross-pollination is fundamental.
