If you are joining the 20 million visiting Expo Milano 2015: Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life between May and October 2015, don’t forget to check out the USA Pavilion, along with all of the many other participating country pavilions.
The USA Pavilion’s theme is American Food 2.0: United to Feed the Planet. The Friends of the USA Pavilion note that “feeding ourselves engages a massive infrastructure, advanced technologies, and dynamic systems that touch on just about every aspect of the world we live in. Each step from farm to table reflects a set of values and connections that impacts our identities and shapes our future.”
The pavilion, designed by award-winning architect James Biber, underscores America’s rich agricultural history with an open design covered in a vertical farm that will be harvested daily. When you visit, you will be greeted by one of the 120 American college “student ambassadors” who are participating in a program organized by the University of Southern California.
 IFIC Foundation Senior Vice President, Nutrition & Food Safety, appears on-screen at the Expo Milano USA Pavilion. |
And, as noted in the USA Pavilion’s blog post from the opening day of the Expo, you also will see the IFIC Foundation’s very own Marianne Smith Edge, MS, RD, LD, FADA, on video as she addresses nutrition.
“Through interviews with key figures at the fore of farming, nutrition, cooking, policy, research and industry–the people working across the entire food system—America’s unique contribution to the global conversation at the heart of Expo comes to life.” – USA Pavilion blog
Click on each topic below to watch Marianne and other experts in short, themed interview and conversation videos playing on a loop in the USA Pavilion.
- Glenn Roberts, Anson Mills, Farmer
- Mark Kenney, Large-scale corn and soybean farmer in Iowa
- Jennifer Kemmerly, Director, Seafood Watch, Monterey Bay Aquarium
- Karen Washington, Urban Farmer
- Myra Goodman, Founder, Earthbound Organics
- Jeff Dunn, President and Chief Executive Officer at Bolthouse Farms, Inc.
- Secretary of State John Kerry
- Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
- Vanessa Adams, USAID Contractor, Feed the Future
- Mayor Greg Fischer, Louisville, Kentucky
- Michel Nischan, Founder, Wholesome Wave
- Dan Barber, Co-owner and executive chef of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns
- Tom Colicchio, Chef and Founder of Gramercy Tavern, Craft Restaurants New York
- Maria Hines, Chef and Founder, Maria Hines Restaurants
- Dorothy Cann Hamilton, Founder and CEO of the International Culinary Center and President of the Friends of the USA Pavilion
- Angie Tagtow, Executive Director, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, United States Department of Agriculture
- Eric Goldstein, Department of Education executive who oversees school food
- Tim Harlan, Assistant Dean for Clinical Services at Tulane University School of Medicine; Executive Director of the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine at Tulane University
- Marianne Smith Edge, Senior Vice President, Nutrition & Food Safety International Food Information Council Foundation
- Josette Lewis, Associate Director, World Food Center, UC Davis
- Bruce German, FST Professor and Executive Director of the Foods For Health Institute, UC Davis
- Pamela Anderson, Director, Agricultural Development, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Jennifer Kuzma, Co-Director, Genetic Engineering & Society Program, North Carolina State University
- David Lobell, Deputy Director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford
- Roz Naylor, Director of the Center on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford
- Michael Mazourek, Assistant Professor, School of Integrative Plant Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University
Feeding the Accelerator: Innovation Opportunity for Entrepreneurs
As noted on the USA Pavilion website, ‘Feeding the Accelerator’ gathers thinkers and players from an entire ecosystem around food and technology and engages them in an innovative program including an accelerator, a global hackathon series, and a knowledge structure. The innovation program will include not just tech and business development, but innovation development, including participation of leading chefs, artists, designers and theorists, to partner with tech and food entrepreneurs. The unique context of Milan EXPO 2015 enables the program to focus on creating more fluid and collaborative models, bridging global platforms to local initiatives. The program is designed to empower, connect and challenge all participants to rethink the food system and to create a deeper understanding of food.”
Over the remaining months of the Expo and beyond, IFIC Foundation looks forward to engaging in a variety of conversations focused on the key Expo Milano 2015 theme of “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.” Whether you attend in person or virtually, as a visitor, student, or the next leading global food entrepreneur, we hope you will join us! To quote Pamela Anderson, Director of Agricultural Development with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, from her comments on the USA Pavilion “conversation video” on research, “Can we feed the planet? We believe, yes we can.”