MILAN, ITALY – The Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition’s Third Annual International Forum kicks off today at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy and will run through December 1.

The International Forum is the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition’s flagship event, designed to stimulate conversation among industry experts, the general public and media. Leading academics, doctors, and government officials will discuss the relationships between food security, health, the environment, economics and society, and the steps being taken around the world to address these issues.

Visit http://www.barillacfn.com/en/forum for full program information and to watch the Forum.

2011 International Forum discussion topics include food and water security, genetically modified organisms and childhood obesity:

 ·         How can we sufficiently guarantee food supply to the millions of people who are malnourished and live primarily in agricultural societies? Recently there has been a decrease in agricultural productivity in some areas of the world as a result of drying soil and the scarcity of water resources. Climate change has aggravated the situation, forcing some governments to seek alternatives for ensuring food production that can satisfy their needs. The result has been what is known as “land grabbing,” a form of neo-colonialism that has often degenerated into forms of violence in the race to grab natural resources.

 ·         Can genetically modified organisms effectively solve the problem of food access? Today the production of genetically modified crops around the world is concentrated in 10 industrialized countries, where 96 percent of a total of 148 million hectares are growing transgenic crops, while another 19 countries produce the remaining four percent.

 ·         Considering the millions of overweight and obese people worldwide, how can we redistribute resources more fairly? Childhood obesity is a critical subject globally because of its effects on the wellbeing of future generations. According to the most recent international studies, only 1% of children in developed countries eat correctly as recommended for optimum weekly diet composition.

“The International Forum is great opportunity to learn about what is being done all over the world to address food security, poverty, malnutrition, and the social implications of these problems,” said John Reilly, Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Environmental Policy Research and Advisory Board Member of the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition. “Only by bringing together the most informed and accomplished professionals in these fields can we hope to address the global health problems facing both third and first-world countries.”

 2011 International Forum speakers include:

 Guido Barilla, President, Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition Camillo Ricordi, Professor of Surgery, Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Miami School of Medicine Marion Nestle, consumer activist, nutritionist, award-winning author, and Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University Robert Lustig, Director, Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health Program (WATCH) at the University of California, San Francisco. Ken Cook, President and Co-Founder, Environmental Working Group Ralph Z. Sorenson, Director, Whole Foods Market Eileen Kennedy, Dean, Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy; former Executive Director, USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion under Clinton Administration Aviva Must, Professor in Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine Donald Prater, Deputy Director (Foods), U.S. FDA Europe Office

 Participants are available for media interviews during and after the Forum. To schedule an interview, contact Noelle Hagen at noelle.hagen@edelman.com.

 Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition 

The Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition is a think tank with a multidisciplinary approach to the world of food and nutrition, connecting these to other related issues: economics, medicine, nutrition, sociology and the environment. The body which oversees the work of the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition is the Advisory Board: Barbara Buchner, Director of the Climate Policy Initiative in Venice; Mario Monti, economist; John Reilly, economist; Gabriele Riccardi, endocrinologist; Camillo Ricordi, scientist at the University of Miami; Claude Fischler, sociologist; and Umberto Veronesi, oncologist.