BOLOGNA - "L'oro nel piatto", or "The gold on your plate", (294 pages, Passaggi collection, 18 €) is the title of the new book written by Andrea Segrè in collaboration with journalist Simone Arminio. The book was presented in Bologna on Tuesday 21 April on world Earth Day, with the participation of the highly respected president of the Milan Centre for Food Law and Policy, Livia Pomodoro, who is strongly committed to “right to food” issues and a driving force behind the Carta di Milano (Milan Charter) declaration that will come out of Expo 2015 and will be a reference document for food policies in the third millennium.
The value of food
"Restoring value to food is the only route to freedom from the food paradoxes of our times. Food has the value we ascribe to it, it's a question of culture. For this reason, food should be considered everyone's right. The real food challenge today is this: our gamble on its value", the authors of L'oro nel piatto (The gold on your plate) explained. The data is clear: according to the latest report from the Last Minute Market Waste Watchers Observatory / SWG, household food waste - food still usable that goes into the bin - is worth more than 8 billion euros, about half of a per cent of Italy's GDP. At the same time, according to ISTAT, the Italian statistical institute, more than 10 million Italians live, and eat, in conditions of poverty. Annual global food waste is equivalent to one and a third times Italy's GDP, about 2060 billion € (GDP 2013: 1560 billion €) if you include social, environmental, economic and production costs.
The Milan Charter
The Carta di Milano (Milan Charter) will propose specific commitments and responsabilities related to all the main themes involved in global food issues, and will be the main instrument of informed participation in the debate that will be of interest to all the acceding countries, to individual visitors, to institutions and to national and international organisations involved in various ways. The Milan Centre for Food Law and Policy (a documentation centre formed last February by Expo Milano 2015 and the Milan Chamber of Commerce, Commune and Region) has set out an ambitious programme to establish food as the most important of the fundamental human rights, and has launched a strong Italian initiative for a multilateral Convention on the right to food and food security.
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