Skip to content
Grandi eventi, architettura, artigianato
English

Expo

The sub-themes

From the Milan candidacy dossier

Expo sub-themes

The overarching theme of the exposition-food safety, security, and quality for sustainable development of the planet based on the worth of the individual-comprises a number of subthemes of universal interest:

  1. Science for food safety, security and quality

  2. Innovation in the food supply chain

  3. Technology for agriculture and biodiversity

  4. Dietary education

  5. Solidarity and co-operation on food

  6. Food for better lifestyles

  7. Food in the world’s cultures and ethnic groups

SCIENCE FOR FOOD SAFETY, SECURITY AND QUALITY

The Expo offers an opportunity for the international scientific community to meet, exchange views and findings, and consider the latest innovations for safeguarding consumer health, with particular reference to:

  • The prevention and cure of diseases deriving from poor eating habits, which are often more prevalent in the developed countries: diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, some forms of cancer, and others

  • Improving the means of monitoring possible forms of adulteration, reducing risks of ingesting substances harmful to human health

  • Analysis and investigation of potential food-related pandemics deriving from the transmission to humans of pathogenic agents from animal or vegetable tissue, including those of recent concern (BSE, bird flu)

  • Inexpensive techniques for ensuring safer food and water for people in the developing countries, preventing epidemics such as cholera, typhus, hepatitis A, etc.

  • The role of biotechnology and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and their implications for human health

INNOVATION IN THE FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN

Expo 2015 acknowledges the crucial role played by innovation throughout the food supply chain, affording added value at every stage in terms of productivity and the preservation of the natural quality, flavour, and nutritional value of food. The main areas for development under this sub-theme concern:

  • primary production

  • initial processing of agricultural produce

  • packaging

  • logistics and storage

  • transport and distribution

  • retailing

  • food preparation and the food service industry.

The Expo will be an opportunity to become acquainted with the state of the art in food production, retailing, and the food service industry, with research and development in food processing, conservation, and preparation, and work currently underway to reconcile safety of food and drink with the preservation of nutritional value, taste, and smell.

TECHNOLOGY FOR AGRICULTURE AND BIODIVERSITY

The Expo promotes and supports the most advanced techniques for improving farm production while protecting biodiversity. The value of the many regional and native varieties will best be brought to recognition through the synergetic work of farmers and scientists developing them as a safer and more secure form of food and thus a more reliable means of ensuring personal survival. Expo 2015 will devote particular attention to the following areas:

  • protection of ecosystems, such as deserts, forests, wetlands, mountains, lakes, rivers, and farmland, which often provide the basis for increasing the richness and diversity of what our planet produces;

  • production techniques improving all-around productivity while ensuring genuine product quality and environmental health;

  • promotion of organic farming, in line with a burgeoning trend mainly in developed countries;

  • protection of crop and livestock raising, which often suffer from inconsistent production levels in terms of both numbers and quality, due to worsening climatic effects driven by climate change (drought, desertification, flooding, and hydrogeological impacts).

DIETARY EDUCATION

Teaching people how to feed themselves properly and choose the foods best suited to their needs and way of life is a fundamental element of personal health education. Important initiatives in this field have been proposed by international organisations, such as the FAO “Feeding Minds, Fighting Hunger” programme. One of the aims of Expo 2015 is to urge educators, households and institutions to discover new teaching methods for broad-based food education, in particular through:

  • Reinforcement of the role of schools for basic education accessible to everyone, in accordance with the Millennium Goals, with courses on nutrition, food safety and the use of the planet's food resources as part of the standard curriculum

  • New policies to ensure greater transparency for consumers about what is in their food and how it is prepared

  • Rediscovery of local products, respecting today's increasingly multi-ethnic societies, to help consumers appreciate the traditions of their own country and learn more about those of other parts of the world.

Expo 2015 hopes to suggest interpretations and variations that can meet the needs both of affluent societies where dietary problems are widespread, and of countries where scarcity forces people to eat highly nutritional but not always tasty foods.

SOLIDARITY AND CO-OPERATION ON FOOD

The Expo will provide an opportunity for debate around co-operation and support for development in the southern hemisphere. According to one FAO study, 70% of the population of these regions live in rural areas, where agriculture either feeds people directly or is their main source of income. But small producers often face many obstacles outside their control: lack of access to credit, insecurity of land tenure, lack of transport, low prices for their goods and undeveloped trading connections with the agro-foods industry. Expo 2015 will seek to spark discussion on this theme and:

  • Present projects for co-operation and fair trade, especially in the food area, with developing countries and their peoples, through initiatives by national and local governments, NGOs, the voluntary sector, social co-operatives, etc.

  • Encourage innovative forms of support such as microcredit, co-operative production, and organisations for the legal and commercial protection of small producers

  • Promote investment in farming and small basic infrastructure projects (water management, communications, etc.) as an essential condition for raising productivity

  • Assess the trade and tariff policies of national governments and international organisations, their outcomes and future scenarios, to ensure greater equilibrium of sustainable agriculture between advanced and developing economies

FOOD FOR BETTER LIFESTYLES

The Expo acknowledges food's fundamental role in the quality of life, not only for the physical and mental well-being of the individual, but also as an occasion for socialising. Another area that will be explored is the relationship between nutrition, exercise and sport, paying particular attention to the increasingly sedentary lifestyles of people in developed countries, and the promotion of mass participation sports as a way to maintain a healthy and active body. This sub-theme will be developed along the following lines:

  • The role of food for inner personal harmony and a comfortable relationship with one's body and with other people

  • Food consumption habits, new trends and daily routines, mealtimes as an opportunity for people to gather and talk, especially within the family

  • Encouragement of proper nutrition in relation to physical exercise, including discussion of the implications and effects of performance-enhancing drugs in competitive sports

FOOD IN THE WORLD’S CULTURES AND ETHNIC GROUPS

Each person's culinary history, shaped by taste, ethnicity and culture, is an important element of their personal identity, which is increasingly felt in today's globalised world. The Expo will propose a voyage of discovery into culinary cultures, their early and contemporary histories, art and languages as well as tourism and the role of business and consumer associations.

The issues on the menu will include:

  • Discovery of the cultural and sociological motives behind different eating habits, which often vary greatly from one group to another, though all deserve equal respect

  • Exploration and appreciation of traditions dating back a thousand years or more in farming, wine growing and gastronomy, mobilising researchers and cultural institutions from all over the world

  • Examination of the way the food sector is organised in rapidly-evolving societies which manage to embrace the needs of many different ethnic groups

  • New initiatives for international exchange concerning food practices?