NEWS

• AGRICULTURE G8: WE ARE HEADING TOWARD A CONCLUSIVE DOCUMENT

  

  “This afternoon’s meeting was attended also by Letizia Moratti, who came not as Mayor of Milan, but as High Commissioner for the Expo 2015, which has as main topic ‘feeding the planet’. It is obvious that if we want to feed the planet we must start from agriculture.
  With these words the Minister of Food Forest and Agricultural Policies Luca Zaia opened the press conference that closed the second day of the G8 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting,
  Together with the International Organizations at the G8, G3 and G5 we have discussed about the FAO reform, opportunities for farmers and those offered by microcredit, and of world hunger. The topics were many and there was much to discuss, this is the reason why this meeting lasted three hours. We are working to have by tomorrow morning the final declaration. The talks proceed well and there are no problems, but only proposals and stimulus that encourage us to work smoothly on the draft that is on the table. We will follow the schedule”.
  Answering the questions presented by the foreign press on the measures that the final document will contain  to help Africa, Minister Zaia did not anticipate the results of the meeting,  but explained that “Europe is Africa’s nearest market. Some countries of that continent, like Egypt, have asked to have more opportunities on the market, when they have no production problem. We are for  a free market but there must be rules agreed upon by all, and protocols on food security. We should also ensure that the development projects are subject to more controls,  to guarantee that the allocated resources to support those agricultures arrive at the right place. I am saying this because, Zaia explained, in the last ten years, part of the 1000 billion dollars invested in Africa has been used to finance wars, arm trafficking and anyway for very different aims from the original ones”.
  

  
  The High Commissioner for Expo 2015, Letizia Moratti, then explained some of the projects of the international event to be held in Milan, “Expo Italia 2015 will help set up the tools needed to reach the first Millennium goal: eradicate world hunger. The Center for sustainable development will have as aim to develop the human resources in the Developing countries, in the transitional ones and in the vulnerable areas.