How can we guarantee healthy, safe and sufficient food for everyone, while respecting the planet and its equilibrium? This is the question at the heart of the Expo Milano 2015 – and the inspiration for the Women’s Forum Italy, to take place on 29-30 June as part of the Universal Exhibition.

Food clearly has gender dimensions. Women farmers produce more than half of the all food worldwide, and women still have the greater responsibility for buying and preparing meals. Women and girls suffer more from food insecurity than are boys and men. They are also more liable to obesity and far more exposed to eating disorders. The Women’s Forum Italy integrates these kinds of gender issues into its agenda. Our first goal, though, is diversity of voice on a sustainable food future: we seek to enable women leaders from different sectors and parts of the world to be heard with their men counterparts on the key issues of how we are to feed our planet. Thus the Forum’s program streams, drawn from the Expo, which are:

• Feast and famine: A contemporary paradox
• The future of food: What will we eat in the future?
• Sustainable food = An equitable world

The Women’s Forum Italy is an initiative of the Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society together with Valore D. We are honored and delighted that the Forum will open the Expo’s Women’s Weeks, the series of conferences being coordinated by WE – Women for Expo, the Expo Milano 2015 network of women from around the world to speak out and act jointly on food and sustainability. We anticipate 500+ participants for the one and a half days of the Forum, coming from around the world. The topics are as fascinating as they are challenging and important. The Expo Milano 2015 which gives this Forum its home is a discovery and learning experience not to be missed.