SLOW FOOD FOUNDER CARLO PETRINI AND TOP CHEF JAMIE OLIVER ENDORSE THE BARILLA FOUNDATION'S MILAN PROTOCOL

TURIN, Oct. 24, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food, and Jamie Oliver, one of the world's most popular chefs, today gave their endorsement to the Milan Protocol (www.protocollodimilano.it / www.milanprotocol.com), promoted by the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition Foundation at Slow Food's international food festival "Salone del Gusto." The Protocol aims to raise awareness about the urgency of taking action to tackle the challenges involved in making the global food system truly sustainable. Specifically, it calls for a 50% reduction by 2020 of the huge amount of food wasted in the world, the promotion of a more sustainable agricultural system, and the war on hunger and obesity through healthy lifestyles.

"The Milan Protocol offers an extraordinary opportunity to focus attention, opportunities for change and, most importantly, the planning skills of the institutions, civil society and enterprise on a concern we all share. Slow Food has been contributing right from the outset to the process of drafting the Protocol: for those who sign and support, it represents a formal commitment; clear facts that open the way to equally clear production and government policies, which can be translated into actions that can be measured in the future," says Carlo Petrini, "It is only through the work of many people, in every corner of the planet, that we can pursue our vision of food which is accessible to everyone and which doesn't compromise the health of the planet and living organisms."

Jamie Oliver is a chef and food activist who has transformed the lifestyles of people all over the world and their approach to food, placing the emphasis on quality, sustainability and saving money for families.

"My belief is that it's every child's human right to be fed properly and to be educated about food, where it comes from and how it affects their body. However, this can only happen if we rectify the mess that the global food system has found itself in today. -  asserts Jamie Oliver - The Milan Protocol joins people, businesses and governments in one united front so that together we can challenge the status quo, demand more ethical and sustainable practices in the food industry, and secure a better future for our children. By coming together as one global voice with one common goal, we can ensure positive, lasting change."

Since 2002, the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation has been on a mission to shape the health and wellbeing of current and future generations by providing better access to food education for everyone. We believe that to tackle the major food issues outlined in the Milan Protocol, people need to understand why we need a food revolution in the first place. By promoting the protocol and championing the importance of food education, we aim to engage, educate and inspire everyone to think more and demand more. The key to this is collaboration - good, positive, sustainable change can only happen if we work together.

The Milan Protocol intends to be the policy document of the Universal Exposition (Expo) in 2015, which will be held in Milan from May to October of next year.

How will we feed the planet? This is an issue that must involve industry, politics, associations, producers and universities and which will be discussed today by some of the leading supporters of the protocol and Italian experts at Slow Food's "Salone del Gusto" food festival: Roberto Moncalvo, President of Coldiretti, the Italian farmers' association; Riccardo Valentini, BCFN Foundation Advisory Board member and drafter of the Milan Protocol; Marco De Ponte, Action Aid Italia General Manager; and Roberto Barbieri, Oxfam Italia General Manager.

For more information, please visit:
www.milanprotocol.com
www.barillacfn.com

Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition Foundation (BCFN)

The Milan Protocol is an initiative of the BCFN - Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition - Foundation, a think tank with a multidisciplinary approach to the world of food and nutrition which establishes links between these and other related issues, including economics, medicine, nutrition, sociology and the environment. New BCFN Foundation Board members are Slow Food President Carlo Petrini, S&D Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Parliament Paolo De Castro, and Bocconi Vice Rector for Development Alberto Grando. The body which oversees the work of the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition is the Advisory Board, the members of which include: Barbara Buchner, Senior Director of the Climate Policy Initiative Europe, Ellen Gustafson, a sustainable nutrition expert, Gabriele Riccardi, an endocrinologist, and Camillo Ricordi, a scientist at the University of Miami, who were joined in 2013 by Riccardo Valentini, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Director of the Climate Impacts Division of the Euro-Mediterranean Center for Climate Change, and Danielle Nierenberg, an expert in sustainable agriculture and co-founder of FoodTank: the Food Think Tank.

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