July 7, 2015

On 14 July, the president of the Community Plant Variety Office, Martin EKVAD, will be a speaker in an EXPO Milan Climate and food security event. EXPO Milan’s overarching theme is, ‘feeding the planet, energy for life.’

Speaking of the event, M. Ekvad said “EXPO Milan is an excellent opportunity to gather the world’s brightest minds to develop a food strategy for the 21st century and beyond - for my part I intend to focus on how plant variety rights can help us reach global food security.”

M. Ekvad will participate in DG SANTE’s panel on climate change and food security, focusing on plant health and plant breeding and genetic resources. The conference will take place on 14 July from 10:45 to 17:45 in the Expo Conference Centre in Milan.

Representing the CPVO, the EU Agency responsible for plant variety protection, M. Ekvad will concentrate on “global cooperation in the field of plant variety rights and how this can increase crop yields, encourage research and innovation and ensure that farmers have access to high quality seeds, which will flourish in increasingly difficult conditions.”

“In short, I’ll outline how plant variety rights can help deliver a food supply chain which will meet the demands of our growing world population.” M. Ekvad concluded
A detailed programme and a link to the registration form can be found at:
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_food-safety/information_sources/events/20150714_climate-change_expo_milan_en.htm

Participants admitted to the conference will receive a confirmation notice and have their entry tickets to the Expo Milan sent by e-mail.

The CPVO manages the EU system of plant variety rights. Plant variety rights can be granted to plant breeders (through applying to the CPVO and upon satisfying the legislative criteria) who develop a new variety and wish to have an exclusive rights to commercially use the variety or to receive royalties from the sales. Get the latest facts, figures, trends and analysis on the Community plant variety rights system in the CPVO’s Annual Report 2014 and on the CPVO web site.

EXPO Milano 2015 is the Universal Exhibition that Milan, Italy, will host from May 1 to October 31, 2015. The conference falls under the umbrella of a series of events throughout a week dedicated to Plant Health and Biotechnologies in the framework of the Milan Expo, and it is aimed at promoting the long term sustainability of the food chain to ensure food security.

Website: http://www.cpvo.europa.eu

Published: July 13, 2015