To fight food waste Milan drew up a Food Policy, a research plan and a useful instrument for the city supported by the Municipality and Fondazione Cariplo.

The Milan food system, from production to consumption, has been carefully analyzed. Francesca Federici, part of the Milan food policy planning group, presented many data that revealed a complete picture that includes problems related to nutrition, health, quality and the complex theme related to wastes.

More in detail, Milan Food Policy will work on “Ten issues” that aim to involve citizens in short term concrete actions.

The ten issues presented at the “Fa’ la cosa giusta” exhibition are:

Governance: it highlights in different ways that each Food Policy requires a dialogue with the city, in informal places and with the institutions

Education: it show the different forms of education inside appropriate places and contexts and also as an effect linked to the institutional activity and to the different social processes

Wastes: it refers to the many effects brought about by different life and consumption styles of the Milan inhabitants and by the nutrition cycle organization, in all its phases

Access: it’s about the different forms in which food rights issues are treated according the different social groups: children, adults, poor people, foreign communities, refugees, etc.

Welfare: it considers food approaches towards health and life styles, in its pathological aspects and in everyday life

Environment: it refers to food implications with air, water, soil and energy, taking into consideration the way in which environment influences Milan food and the environment impact that it generates

Agro-eco system: it’s focused on the interactions between agriculture production, habitat and landscape

Production: it’s about food production, from urban vegetable gardens to big productions; from local markets to the international ones that involve Milan; to quality and organizational innovations

Finance: all the themes related to investments and tax mechanisms linked to the nutrition cycle and its context

Commerce: it regards all the themes related to distribution systems and to food selling. It also involves the relationships created in different places in the city and social dynamics

Milan Food Policy definition process includes the creation of consulting platforms and the active involvement of the citizenship and of all the interested subjects (municipal and area councilmen, voluntary sector, universities, innovation, industrial sector, etc.) with the objective of creating the document “Towards a food policy”.

In May 2015 a Town meeting will be held. This will mark the passage from the research phase to the concrete and operative involvement of all the participants.