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The World Expo Milan

My first post-vacation blogpost, so here’s a holiday look-back. And no fear, it’s not going to be about my mountain hikes but about the World Expo in Milan. Themed “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” I just had to go out of curiosity!

For starters, the World Expo is a huge exhibition and even as we spent some 13hrs in there we saw far from everything we wanted. The take on the theme varied from a general discussion, to showcasing concrete solutions, to just promote the country instead. Israelfields of tomorrow” was one of the countries that impressed us most – both in presentation and content. Featuring a perfectly integrated real-life and digital performance, they showed how Israel is working to feed the planet with less resources, e.g. drip watering specific plants instead of spraying loads of water all over the place, and how rice can be grown with high yield without large amounts of water.

Japan harmonious diversity” also had a stunning presentation with beautifully integrated digital elements, but a more general take on the topic. The Korean Pavilion themed “you are what you eat” showed how and why a Korean diet is healthy and balanced, and how hansik, fermented food, lasts longer and reduces waste. Most countries’ pavilions have their own home pages with lots of information, if you’re interested.

Many countries had one section for exhibitions and another for food/restaurants and sometimes shopping. We made sure to try many interesting dishes, the Israeli ice cream being the absolute favorite.

China land of hope, food for life” touched upon the Internet of Things, smart packaging that will tell us if the food has been exposed to excessive heat or damage, if bacteria levels are OK despite the “best before” date has passed etc. Definitely something we will see more of and very exciting opportunities!

The Future Food District (#FFD) (Concept video  and presentation video) showed how new technologies can be applied at each step of the food chain, making it more transparent and reducing the distance between producers and consumers.

Many buildings were very impressive and imaginative. Lots of wood. Many vertical gardens and fields – another thing I think we will see a lot more of in the future. But will we grow more food in the cities? On one hand, it makes the urban environment friendlier and improves air quality where we need it, on the other hand – do we want to eat food produced next to traffic jams?

But then again – today a lot of food is produced near highways or exposed to pollution from urban areas anyway. For example, flying over central Europe really makes you see how close the fields are to cities and major roads. The reality of a densely populated world. In that sense, I think we are incredibly privileged in our far North, because we have enough land to grow our food in a less exposed environment. Another reason to eat Scandinavian! Don’t get me wrong. I would love to see greener cities, but think we should be aware of the purpose of the plants and their air-cleaning functionality when we consider their use. Maybe we will grow bio energy in the cities of the future?

Well, that was some of my summer thinking 🙂

From holiday to present, the trainee Whatsapp group is going hot with two things: everyone fretting (more or less) about The Next Step, the job after the trainee program, and the huge excitement about everyone meeting up in Stockholm next week for our final Training. Whoho!

… So stay tuned about the adventures ahead!

Cheers!

Ebba