(Washington, D.C.) — Marianne Smith Edge, senior vice president of nutrition and food safety at the International Food Information Council Foundation, has been named by President Barack Obama as part of a Presidential Delegation to “United States National Day” at the Milan Expo 2015 on July 4, 2015. The delegation is being led by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack.

Members of the delegation include:

• The Honorable Thomas Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture
• The Honorable John R. Phillips, United States Ambassador to the Italian Republic and the Republic of San Marino, Department of State
• The Honorable Betty McCollum, Member of the United States House of Representatives (MN-4)
• The Honorable Douglas T. Hickey, Commissioner General of the USA Pavilion at Milan Expo 2015, Department of State
• Mr. Eric Goldstein, CEO, Office of School Support Services, NYC Department of Education
• Mr. Samuel Kass, Food Entrepreneur, Policy Expert and Chef
• Ms. Marianne Smith Edge, Senior Vice President, Nutrition & Food Safety, International Food Information Council Foundation
• Ms. Angela Tagtow, Executive Director, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, United States Department of Agriculture
• Ms. Susan Ungaro, President, James Beard Foundation

“The President’s inclusion of Marianne in the Presidential Delegation underscores the important role that IFIC Foundation is playing in having science-based communications and consumer insights as part of the world’s largest, most historical gathering on food at Expo 2015 and beyond,” said IFIC President and CEO David Schmidt.  

Participation in the delegation continues the IFIC Foundation’s high-level engagement with Expo Milano 2015 and its theme: Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.

Continuing IFIC Foundation Efforts Furthering the Theme of Expo Milano 2015

• On May 20, the IFIC Foundation hosted EXPO 2015 Communications Summit: Emerging Market Leaders Workshop on Effective Messaging on Global Food Production Issues at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, in collaboration with USDA and the U.S. Embassy.  Participants representing five continents included ambassadors and senior officials from diverse emerging market countries.  Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, President of the World Food Prize Foundation, in his keynote presentation, “The Road to the Market Is Paved with Technology,” brought an important multi-decade perspective to the discussion. The summit was streamed live on the Internet to a global audience and has generated more than 3 million social media impressions (#exposummit2015).  The summit proceedings and materials can be accessed at www.foodinsight.org/globalsummit2015.
   
• Schmidt and IFIC Foundation Executive Director Kimberly Reed co-authored the cover article “The Future of Food: Food Production, Innovation, and Technology” in the May 2015 issue of the Diplomatic Courier: A Global Affairs Magazine.   Along with the diplomatic community and United Nations permanent missions, syndication and creative global alliances allow the Diplomatic Courier to reach a combined global audience of 2.4 million digitally.
   
• Smith Edge is also featured at the USA Pavilion in a “conversation video” on nutrition playing over the six months of Expo.  An estimated 20 million people will visit Expo Milano between May and October.

“The IFIC Foundation is committed to leading a global conversation with influential global stakeholders and consumers on the theme of Expo: Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life,” said Reed. “Through our efforts at the Expo and beyond, IFIC Foundation is building support for actions that will feed our planet as the populations grows from 7.2 billion today to 9.6 billion in 2050.”

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The International Food Information Council Foundation is dedicated to the mission of effectively communicating science-based information on health, food safety and nutrition for the public good. The IFIC Foundation is supported primarily by the broad-based food, beverage and agricultural industries. Visit http://foodinsight.org