soybean field

USSEC Partners on USA Pavilion Milano 2015

USSEC is a partner in the Friends of the USA Pavilion Milano 2015. The friends of the USA Pavilion Milano 2015 is the private sector partner working with the U.S. government to develop and implement an official U.S. presence at the Expo, which will run from May 1 through October 31. The partnership has the mission to conceive, design, fundraise for and produce the USA Pavilion and programs at the Expo Milano 2015.
USSEC’s participation is a part of a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) Global Broad-based Initiative (GBI) on sustainability. USSEC acts as the lead in a sustainability alliance consisting of ten major U.S. organizations representing agriculture, forestry and fisheries through the U.S. Sustainability Alliance (USSA).
The U.S. has a time-tested sustainability doctrine honed by a legacy of family farms, fishery and forestry operations and more than 100 years of environmental and safety legislation. Farmers, fishermen, foresters and partners across the USSA value chain are deeply invested in the stewardship of their land, water and valuable resources that not only provide their livelihood, but also are the very environments in which they live and raise their families. Sustainability is a way of life and each of these organizations represent the best the world has to offer on this issue and through the U.S. Sustainability Alliance they are promoting the benefits of U.S. sustainability through a targeted outreach program to European audiences across the value chain.
For more information, please visit https://www.thesustainabilityalliance.us.
 

The USA Pavilion is a 35,000 square foot space within Expo Milano's 3.6 million square foot sustainable “smart city.”
The USA Pavilion is a 35,000 square foot space within Expo Milano's 3.6 million square foot sustainable “smart city.”

The overall theme of this year's world's fair in Milan, Italy is "Feeding the Planet: Energy for Life" and each of the 145 participating countries is addressing that challenge from its own unique perspective. The USA Pavilion's theme is "American Food 2.0: United to Feed the Planet." Expo Milano 2015 will enable the USA Pavilion to showcase the U.S. as an innovator not only in the food sector, but also in many aspects of culture, science and business. Feeding the world engages a massive infrastructure, advanced technologies, and dynamic systems and each step from farm to table reflects a set of values and connections that impact identities and shape the future. Innovation and technology stories are woven throughout the exhibits in the pavilion and the programs that will welcome the more than 20 million visitors expected to attend the World Expo.
The U.S. Sustainability Alliance’s participation as a partner in the USA Pavilion will showcase all the member organizations in the themed exhibition. Additionally, the Pavilion’s web site will feature individual stories of producers and fishermen and women as well as fact sheets, videos and infographic of a century of conservation and sustainability policies and programs in the United States. The USSA also has the opportunity to hold two discussion seminars as part of the James Beard Panel series.
Using interactive exhibits and state-of-the-art digital media, the USA Pavilion at Expo Milano 2015 will highlight American industry, products, and entrepreneurship within the contexts of sustainability, nutrition and health, technology and innovation, and the United States’ official partnership with Italy will position the U.S. as a destination for business, entrepreneurship and travel. The USA Pavilion will promote collaboration to strengthen bilateral ties between the United States and Europe and the rest of the global community in order to tackle food-system challenges together.
Sponsors and partners supporting the USA Pavilion include innovative companies and organizations across a broad spectrum of industries, including agriculture, energy, technology, consumer products, food, and transportation. As part of the USA Pavilion's innovation programming, the Feeding the Accelerator project will offer up to twelve teams a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in a business accelerator in the context of the largest gathering of food system experts in history to incubate ground-breaking solutions to global food challenges. The program will also feature a combination of workshops, seminars, lectures, discussions and food-labs with guest lecturers, chefs and mentors from across the entire food system spectrum. 36-hour hackathons will provide teams with a unique chance to create innovative, network-based solutions to specific food and technology problems.
“ . . .The Feeding the Accelerator program exemplifies how our country, and the USA Pavilion, strives to help answer the daunting challenge of feeding nine billion people on earth by 2050. We have assembled an impressive group of collaborative minds in private enterprise and academia to serve as a critical sounding board for some of our most promising food solutions—it makes me proud to see Americans leading the charge here," said Doug Hickey, Commissioner General of the USA Pavilion at Expo Milano 2015.
Additionally, the team behind the USA Pavilion kicked off South by Southwest’s popular South Bites symposium, the food talk portion of SXSW Interactive on March 14, presenting a panel on innovation and its role in feeding nine billion people by 2050. Expert panelists agreed that how we produce, distribute, sell, purchase, prepare, and consume food, as well as how we dispose of food waste, are increasingly impacted by innovation and technology in ways we are only beginning to comprehend. The panelists concluded that science, innovation and technology are required to address the critical pressures of climate change, water shortages, urbanization, and other forces acting on our food system.