(ANSA) - Rome, February 20 - The Italy pavilion at the Milan Expo 2015 world's fair opening on May 1 will host Vivaio Italia - or Italian Nursery Garden - a round of concerts, performances and debates that will involve 725 Italian schools, the events manager of the Italy pavilion Paolo Verri announced on Thursday.
    "Expo does not only aim to be a fair but a place to educate", said Verri.
    The project will include primary, middle and high schools from across Italy. "Every day children from five Italian schools will display their work with a single common denominator: give indications of how they see the Italy of the future," he explained.
    The work will be on show in a dedicated space within the Nursery Garden Italy, which will also host lessons and debates on nutrition and sustainability, the overarching themes of six-month Expo that runs under the banner 'Feeding the planet, energy for life'.
    The project includes performances by music students from all of the country's conservatories for a total of over 500 concerts.
    Meanwhile, Italian environmentalist group Legambiente will promote initiatives in favor of organic farming and agricultural biodiversity at the Italian pavilion's Biodiversity Park.
    The Biodiversity Park will stimulate visitors on issues related to organic and sustainable food production.
    Agricultural biodiversity, its evolution and its preservation, will also be subjects featured at Expo 2015.
    And events promoted by Legambiente as part of Expo kicked off this week with the pro-environment 'treno verde', or green train.
    The train's annual journey is dedicated this year to the Universal Exposition.
    It started this week in the southern city of Caltanissetta and will reach the northern city of Milan on April 11 after travelling across 15 cities to focus on Italy's agriculture and food through a number of initiatives.
    The train is travelling under the slogan "returning to the land to plant the future" in a "voyage through territories, their products of excellence and the role they play", said Rossella Muroni and Vittorio Cogliati Dezza, respectively director general and president of Legambiente.
    The train will also launch a 'conversion project' to promote organic farming with the objective of increasing Italy's organic production to 20% from today's 9% of farmland over the next six years.
    Local producers and entrepreneurs promoting sustainable farming will be invited on board alongside 2,000 school classes who will be able to visit an exhibit on food and agriculture.
    Sustainability and cutting food waste are ethical issues that are central to Milan Expo, Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti said this week.
    "I think (Expo) will be a great economic opportunity, not only for the country but also from the point of view of the environment", he said during a forum organized by ANSA.
    "This will remain a great ethical message which we are placing at the center of Expo, the message against food waste," added Galletti.
    "When there is a world that throws away food while people are dying of hunger, then we are in an economic system that is not sustainable - it is an unfair system," he said.
    As part of this goal, agriculture ministers from countries attending Expo will sign in June the Milan Charter, a document that binds governments to food and development-related objectives.
    The Milan Charter traces guidelines that the Italian government will follow to promote a more sustainable world food system during Expo 2015.
    The six-month world's fair, which is expected to attract more than 20 million visitors, will also allow Italy to display its food products of excellence and promote tourism in Milan and Lombardy as well as across Italy.
    And a major international attraction, the two fashion weeks in June and September scheduled in Italy's fashion capital during the world's fair, will have a special calendar of events organized by fashion houses open to the public, the Italian National Chamber of Fashion said this week.
    "Our idea is to create open appointments to unveil the hidden side of Italian fashion," said the chamber's managing director, Jane Reeve, presenting the upcoming edition of the Milan women's ready-to-wear shows opening on Wednesday, February 25.
    Among the events already announced are the inauguration of the Armani Silos and a show by the new Prada Foundation.