Feature: 500 experts gather in Milan for drafting of food charter

MILAN (Xinhua) - The foundations were laid in Italy's Milan on Saturday for a charter of commitment to involve countries in pursuing the universal right to healthy and sustainable nutrition related to food-themed Expo Milano 2015.

More than 500 representatives of citizens, institutions, companies, associations, academia and international organizations exchanged views on 42 topics including equity, food culture, energy, agriculture, health and sustainable cities.

Saturday's succession of proposals will converge in the writing of the Charter of Milan, the "legacy" of Expo Milano 2015,  Italian Agriculture Minister Maurizio Martina told Xinhua in an interview on the sidelines of the event.

"By the end of April we will present a first version of the Charter of Milan. During the world exposition, which runs in Milan from May 1 to Oct. 31 and is themed Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life, this first version will be signed, discussed and enriched by the contribution of many people," he explained.

Then the document will be delivered to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon when he visits the Expo Milano 2015 on Oct. 16, thus linking the Italian world exposition to the Millennium Development Goals, Martina said.

Martina, whose ministry was the organizer of Saturday's debate along with Expo Milano 2015, participated in the event along with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, other government ministers and local authorities.

"I personally think the fight against global food waste is one of the most crucial challenges," Martina told Xinhua.

  "It is not acceptable that we waste a third of the food we produce every day. At the same time, we have to find new, concrete ways to combat hunger," he stressed.

The Rome-based United Nation Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has estimated that 1.3 billion tonnes of food, or a third of the food produced on the planet, are wasted annually,  while more than 800 million people in the world are undernourished.

"In fact, if 145 countries (and regions) are taking part to the Expo Milano 2015, it is because everybody clearly knows the importance of this theme," Marta Dassu, Editor-in-Chief of Aspenia,  a prestigious journal on international affairs and former deputy foreign minister, told Xinhua.

"If we are not able to use water and natural resources in a sustainable way, there will be no future for mankind which according to statistics should count nine billion people by 2050," she said, adding that there is plenty of fundamental food-related issues only waiting for be known.

"For example, more than 50 percent of workers in the world's agricultural sector are women who, however, do not have the same rights that men have, such as land ownership," noted Dassu, who is also the executive president of the Women for Expo project dedicated to the key role of women in nutrition.

Regarding the contribution of leading powers of the world to the food issue, Dassu said China, thanks to its economic growth, has managed to significantly reduce poverty and hunger, and is facing new challenges with an "increasingly constructive role in sustainable development."