Musings in Milan

Learning from the world at Expo Milano 2015

by Milena Santoro

The site had opened up with a visual feast of stunningly innovative pavilions. Imagine seeing 40-foot high undulating walls resembling the desert dunes in the United Arab Republic, or giant bamboo canes exploding into the lotus flower shapes of Vietnam. But where?

We were at Expo Milano 2015. My husband Giovanni and I were in Italy in August with our three children, Sophia, Fausto and Max, on a whirlwind trip visiting family and had allocated three days for visiting this international exposition dedicated to the wonders and complexities of food.

Expo Milan served a feast for the mind. The theme was “Feeding the Planet: Energy for Life,” and the concepts of co-operation, sustainability, health and nutrition were woven throughout the displays. Pavilion Zero traced mankind’s history through our relationship to food while the Future Food District stretched to the future showing how technology is changing all aspects of the food chain.

Many larger countries had their own pavilions but there were nine clusters of smaller countries that were brought together because of their relationship with specific foods such as spices, cereals and tubers, or rice and fruit and legumes. Of course being an Italian family we naturally gravitated to the two clusters devoted to the beauties of cocoa and chocolate, and coffee. One of the clusters focused on our Mediterranean area while another hosted an unlikely grouping of “Islands, Sea and Food Arid Zones.”

Being part of the world’s population that lives in water starved zones, Israel’s pavilion Fields of Tomorrow hoisted a 40-foot vertical garden to highlight Israel’s transformation of mainly arid land into green fields through their innovative use of technology. The Agro-BioDiversity Park was another green area we much appreciated under the hot Lombardy sun. Its miniature landscape replicated the contours of Italy, showing the rich regional diversity in both the natural landscape and farming fields.

Enough of learning. Max, our grade one guy, wanted fun! The children pulled us towards the children’s area. The Italian Ferrero group, of chocolate fame, had sponsored an area ‘Kinder and Sport: The Joy of Moving.” Imagine the fun of hand propelling and racing horses made of multi-shaped, multi-coloured tiles, or similar giant birds or sailing yachts. There were myriad other activities all designed to engage movement while calculating the amount of energy burned. Whatever calories were burned were soon replaced as our kids hit the station to make crepes and fill them with Nutella.

While crepes were the hit with our youngsters, the two floors supporting 11,000 bottles of wine and grappa was the draw for the two of us of drinking age. Ten Euros could be exchanged for a glass and a choice of 3 wines from the 1,100 open bottles of wine. We feasted on the regional dishes of our beloved Italy, eating amidst the multi-coloured boxes of fresh produce, and tried offerings from other countries. However, we passed on the choice of crocodile, zebra or python burgers in the Zimbabwe Pavilion and decided not to gamble on Japan’s offering of puffer fish sashimi. In the Future Food District we could have sampled canned insects, while in their look to the future food sustainability, Holland’s menu offered ‘weed burgers’ made from seaweed.

Technology and interaction were exciting tools to educate us about food. We threw balls to ollow the food chain from the birth of a lamb to its arrival on the table. The UN-hosted Pavilion Zero used banks of multi screens showing food commercials from around the world while simultaneous market tickers displayed instantly changing prices on food commodities. Video projectors and interactive globes demonstrated how Japan’s basic food culture of rice, fish and vegetables is a means to end world hunger through balanced eating.

Back to the future. Expo Milano has collected a staggering 240,071 online recipes (http://worldrecipes.expo2015.org/en/) from the participating 146 countries, organized in clusters by geographical regions, dish types or ingredients. To aid the understanding of the environmental impact, each recipe was assigned a foodprint which rates on a scale of one (low) to five (high).

But where was Canada? Certainly not here. Our government had decided not to spend the estimated $50 million to participate, despite the benefits of commerce, or our duty of exchanging ideas and sharing solutions. If São Tomé and Príncipe, with its population of less than 200,000, could attract visitors, wouldn’t visitors have been as curious about our poutine and musk ox burgers, as their country’s fiote?

Our country is aware of world-wide hunger. Canada has enviable resources and innovative technology. Isn’t it our duty to be part of all dialogues about world-wide food sustainability and be part of the solution? In our family we want our children to enter such discussions and to continue to celebrate our wealth of food and culture. Our dining table, our cherished place for greeting and eating, continues to be our very own personal Expo.

Milena Santoro is a passionate food lover, broadcaster and wife and mother.