Werner M. Dornscheidt speaks at the United Nations

Speaking in New York this Monday, the President and CEO of Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, Werner M. Dornscheidt, outlined the new SAVE FOOD initiative to the 19th Session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.

He was responding to an invitation by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to present this joint project of Messe Düsseldorf and the FAO. The annual policy session attended by experts from political circles, organizations and business enterprises is focusing in 2011 on sustainable consumption and production.

“As an internationally operating trade fair group, we are participants in a globalised world,” emphasised Dornscheidt at the beginning of his speech. “That sharpens our awareness that globalised trading also produces losers, or – at the least – does not permit all of the players involved to achieve their fair share in the value chain.” The amount of crops that spoil on farms in low-income countries or still useable food that is thrown away in wealthier regions would be enough on its own to feed those people who go hungry, the trade fair CEO went on to say. “With SAVE FOOD, we are deliberately setting this topic on the agenda of the media and decision-makers.”

At an international congress which will take place in Düsseldorf on 16 and 17 May 2011 in the context of interpack – the world’s most important trade fair for the packaging sector and related processing industries – the organisers Messe Düsseldorf and FAO will be bringing together stakeholders from the food and packaging industry, retail, politics, administration, research and NGOs. The starting point for discussions will be recent studies by the FAO, which will be presented at the congress.

The congress topics will also be central features of an exhibition on the open-air space of the Düsseldorf trade fair centre. In cooperation with METRO AG, the Sustainable Food Court catering area will be showing responsible ways of handling food in everyday catering practice.

“Our initiative is unique in the trade fair landscape. We are of course looking at the entire food value chain, but together with our partner, the FAO, we will be focusing especially on possible solutions from the packaging industry, the significance of which has been confirmed once again by the results of the studies,” said the Düsseldorf trade fair expert. With its interpack product family, his group has an especially high level of international expertise to offer in this sector.

Among the prominent speakers at the congress will be Ilse Aigner (Germany’s Federal Minister of Agriculture), Prof. Klaus Töpfer (former executive director of UNEP), and Shraddha Jadhav (Mayor of the megacity Mumbai).