He chaired a discussion lead by experts from the fields of business, government, NGOs, research and finance on the role each plays in delivering the innovation necessary to achieve sustainable, abundant, nutritious food for all.
The event was the inaugural conference of the Global Food Summit Series, a programme of international symposia over the next three years that leads up to the Sustainable Food Pavilion, one of the exciting thematic pavilions that will house exhibitions onsite at Expo Milano 2015.
The Summit Series is intended to provide a forum for world-renowned experts, scientists and industry leaders in nutrition, food production, distribution and sustainability to share their latest thinking shape and inform the goals and agenda to be pursued at the Sustainable Food Pavilion. Howard Shapiro, Mars’ global director of plant science and external research, serves on the organising committee for the Summit and Expo Milano 2015.
Harold’s session, which opened the event, was entitled ‘Innovation Conversation – Breakthrough Abundance’ and he began the session with a presentation to the international audience on the responsibility and role of business in meeting the challenge of feeding the planet sustainably and the science and innovation-led approach Mars takes.
Harold refined the question posed in the opening of the article to the more pointed: ‘How do we establish a global strategic imperative and strategy for integrating the long-term interests of business and society to meet this challenge?’
The answer he suggests is in securing a global imperative to drive uncommon collaborations across sectors and disciplines and ensuring science and technology plays the central role behind an innovation-led strategy.
Harold ended the session pondering, “It is said that we are what we eat. But it will be what we grow, and how we grow it, that will decide whether we, as a civilisation, will be eating at all or not.”
Source: Mars
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