The candidates have to be farmers and livestock owners working within 7 different supply chains: beef, poultry, bread, salad, potatoes, fruit, or milk. “With its 36,000 restaurants in 120 countries around the world, McDonald’s serves 70 million people every day: not many companies have the same numbers and can say they tackle issues, every day for decades, in the field and in a tangible way that will be at the centre of discussions during the six-month Expo: food and its production chain, as well as distribution and consumption methods”, explained Roberto Masi, the CEO of McDonald’s Italia.

This project is a chance to experiment with new working relationships with young farmers, focusing on the innovation that they embody, giving them stability in the medium-term too and helping with generational change in a key sector such as agri-food. This year, ‘young’ has been a keyword for the Italian Ministry.

“With Campolibero, our first law in the sector, we have put new measures in place ranging from interest-free loans to reduced land leases for people under 35, and tax credits for developing e-commerce sites.

We also thought about the under 40s during Italy’s six-month European presidency, voting for a measure in Brussels on three fronts: credit, land and training with a Erasmus scheme for young European farmers.
But more needs to be done: today in Italy only 5% of farms are run by young people and we must work hard to reach the European average of 8%. We therefore need to develop specific actions that also see businesses working alongside institutions, like in this case. More young people means more innovation, because they are primarily the ones who can make an essential contribution to this sector in terms of technology, know-how and experimentation.

We will all develop these issues together during Expo Milano 2015 too”, explained Maurizio Martina, the Italian Minister of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies.