Seeds&Chips Global Food Innovation Summit 2019: Sparking Change

The fifth edition of the Seeds&Chips Global Food Innovation Summit May 6-9, 2019 will gather a community of entrepreneurs, innovators, policymakers, leaders, and activists that push for a sustainable future in food and agriculture.
Food Tank President Danielle Nierenberg will participate in the summit, held in Milan, Italy, to inspire solutions for feeding the future.

The summit will gather speakers tasked with inspiring attendees to do more for a sustainable food future. Award-winning actor and activist Alec Baldwin will talk about feeding the world and reducing environmental impacts in a keynote presentation. Innovators like Fabrice DeClerck, Science Director at EAT & Bioversity International, and Thomas King, founder and CEO of Food Frontier, will discuss optimizing foodtech sector. Amongst many special guests, HRH Princess Viktória de Bourbon de Parme and Olusegum Obasanjo, Former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, will highlight opportunities for sustainable development and agriculture around the world.

On May 6, Danielle will participate in the Opening Ceremony and the session “Hand Made Tale: The Innovative Women Solving Our Global Food Challenges” with women like Susan Rockefeller, Board Member of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and Angeline Achariya, CEO of Monash Food Innovation Centre. Danielle will discuss collaborations in the foodtech sector at “Common Ground: Synergy and Solutions for the Next Food System” on May 7, alongside innovative business executives. In the May 8 session “The Food Fight: podcast debates on the food system’s biggest challenges,” hosted by EIT Food, Danielle will explore whether producers or consumers should be responsible for ensuring people eat healthy food with nutritionists and CEOs alike.

Food Tank’s Francesca Tabor will judge the Sustainable Snacking Pitch Competition, co-hosted by Mondelēz International and Seeds&Chips, on May 6. The pitch competition will gather start-ups and entrepreneurs to share their innovative solutions in not only alternative snacks and ingredients, but also food waste reduction, sustainable packaging, sustainable sourcing, responsible supply chain practices, and more. Competition winners, selected by SnackFutures, Seeds&Chips, and Food Tank, will gain access to Mondelēz’s innovation acceleration workshops which will allow Mondelēz teams to help refine the solution’s concepts.

On May 7, Food Tank, Mondelēz International, and Seeds&Chips will co-host an evening panel event at Carlo e Camilla, in Segheria, a renowned restaurant reinventing conviviality around the dinner table. On the backdrop of hors d’oeuvres specially designed by chefs Carlo Cracco and Luca Pedata, Danielle will discuss Mondelēz’s new innovation hub for creating a sustainable food system—SnackFutures—with Brigette Wolf, Head of SnackFutures. Then, Danielle will invite Danielle Gould, founder of Food + Tech Connect and co-CEO of Alpha Food Labs, and Pashon Murray, founder of Detroit Dirt, on stage to talk about the contributions companies play in food and sustainability.

Seeds&Chips will debut a new discussion series “It’s Time for Africa,” focusing on Africa’s potential in growing a sustainable and inclusive economy—and a model for development across the world. Danielle will participate in the inaugural series on May 7 at the session “Bridging the Gap between Surplus and Scarcity: Opportunities of Food Innovation,” offering insight on the opportunities food innovation offers for social and economic development in Africa.

As part of its mission to create a better food system for future generations, the summit will feature food innovators as young as 13 years old on each of the over 30 sessions. With the pressure of the rising population, increasing number of hungry people, and arriving climate change impacts, the young innovators will offer new directions and innovative solutions to sustainably feed everyone.

Over 300 speakers throughout the event will contribute their solutions to improve precision agriculture, traceability, artificial intelligence, investment, open innovation, and more. Exhibitors will include companies and innovations from every part of the food system, ranging from Agtools, data services to help farmers maximize their farms and buyers understand product availability, to Redefine Meat, a 3-D printing plant-based beef company.