(by Elisa Cecchi) While the countdown has started with less than 100 days to go before Milan's food-themed Universal Exposition (Expo) opens on May 1, the Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) has presented in Washington the Milan Charter - an Italian initiative for a global food agreement to be illustrated at the trade fair.
The first Food Tank Summit on Thursday grouped 75 international leaders in the food and agriculture sector in Washington to discuss new agreements on sustainable agriculture, including the Charter.
Drafted with the participation of institutions, the academic world and the private sector, the Milan Charter traces guidelines that the Italian government will follow to promote a more sustainable world food system during Expo 2015, which will run through October 31.
The final draft will be handed over to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in October when he visits the world's fair.
Countries participating in the fair will also sign the Charter.
Italian Agriculture Minister Maurizio Martina on Thursday compared the document to the Kyoto Protocol for the environment, which went into force in 2005 and was the first agreement between nations to mandate country-by-country reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions.
"We want to do more and, if possible, better for food than the Kyoto Protocol has done for climate", the minister said in an interview to newspaper MI-Tomorrow.
"This is the first time a Universal Exposition has worked to draft a Charter of responsibility and commitment", he said.
The minister added that the Milan Charter will represent "the main tool of informed participation in the debate" at Expo.
Meanwhile this week the president and owner of leading design company Kartell, Claudio Luti, became an ambassador for Expo.
Other ambassadors include former soccer player Javier Zanetti, ballet star Carla Fracci and designer Giorgio Armani, whose show on the evening of April 30 will officially open the Universal Exposition.
The show, a guided preview tour of a new exhibition space called Armani Silos, will kick off the world's fair together with a concert by operatic tenor Andrea Bocelli.
The Armani Silos is the Italian fashion house's museum-in-the-making, to be located in a former Nestlé warehouse following a 50-million-euro renovation.
Another testimonial for Expo this week was Italian astronaut and current International Space Station (ISS) resident Samantha Cristoforetti who promoted a short video she made from ISS to raise awareness for the food-themed event.
The video project, called Short Food Movie, is an initiative in which social media users can upload a short video based on the world fair theme "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life".
Cristoforetti's ISS meal of quinoa and mackerel, shown in the clip, will also be part of a video installation at Pavillion Zero, where visitors can get an overview of the fair's theme through a digital mosaic spread over 600 square meters. Some eight million tickets to the world's fair have been sold so far, with tourism slated to bring in an estimated five billion euros in related business, Expo Commissioner Giuseppe Sala said this week.
"Participating countries have invested one million euros, 90% of which will go to Italian firms", the commissioner added.
Sala also announced that 500 experts are expected to attend a pre-exhibition event to be held at Milan's Hangar Bicocca art museum on February 7 called Expo of Ideas, to discuss the Milan Charter. The Expo of Ideas is promoted by Premier Matteo Renzi as well as by the agriculture minister and will include a video message from Pope Francis on "The Right to Food and Safeguarding the Earth".
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