Today and tomorrow the Auditorium of the Academia Barilla Culinary Center will host a new event from PKN, the Parma Knowledge Network who has been very active recently with a series of events focused on the sustainability of the agriculture and food industry in the Italian Food Valley, the region surrounding Parma, our home base.

PKN recently held a seminar at Academia Barilla, on the topic of responsible carbon emissions, introducing the Chicago Climate Exchange at the food and agriculture producers of the Italian Food Valley, planning towards being the first agri-food district in the world to reach the zero quota in carbon emission by 2010!

Today and tomorrow PKN will discuss more production-related topics, such as quality standardization in food production on the first day of the event, and the organization of international supply chains for produce and vegetable products.

Gianluigi Zenti, Academia Barilla’s President, said that “being an absolute prime player in the food industry not only in the Italian Food Valley but worldwide, Academia Barilla is taking a lead role in food industry innovation, going beyond corporate social responsibility and getting more and more involved with key initiatives such as those promoted by the Chicago Climate Exchange and, locally, by the Parma Knowledge Network. And, being PKN our Parma neighbor,” he continued, “it is a pleasure and an honor for Academia Barilla to host their international conferences and initiatives“.

The two-day conference, in English and Italian with live translations, is moderated by special guest Mary L. Shelman, Phd., Director of the Agribusiness Program at the Harvard Business School and Chair of the Annual Agribusiness Conference in Boston. We see her very busy and with an heavy event schedule, but we will try to do our best to corner her for a brief interview for our blog. Can’t promise that, but we’ll try!

The event, being hosted at the Academia Barilla Culinary Center, will definitely benefit from the presence of the Academia Barilla Chef Team, who will be taking care of all gourmet networking breaks, lunch and dinners!

For more info on PKN, the Parma Knowledge Network, please visit the PKN website (Italian language only, sorry) at www.parmakn.org.

Last week Academia Barilla hosted in Parma a conference organized by PARMA KN , which is the acronym of the Parma Agrifood Research MAnagement Knowledge Network, on the topic of volunteer reduction of carbon emissions from the food industry players of the Italian Food Valley, the area of which Parma, hometown to Academia Barilla, is the capital.

Parma KN focuses on the development of research and innovation in the food industry; the knowledge network was represented at the conference, held at the Auditorium of the Academia Barilla Culinary Center, by PKN Project responsible Francesco Braga.

Among the other guests and speakers at the conference where also Carole Brookins, international consultant and authority on carbon emissions topics, and Michael Walsh, Vice President of the Chicago Climate Exchange, the world’s first global marketplace for integrating voluntary legally binding emissions reductions with emissions trading and offsets for all six greenhouse gases.

PKN is developing projects that will allow the Italian Food Valley food producers to position certified typical products quoted at the Climate Exchange in market such as the US and Japan, while pursuing the scope of reducing the carbon foot-print, the environmental impact created by the agricultural and food industries.

As discussed during the conference at Academia Barilla’s Auditorium, PKN and the food producers from the Italian Food Valley are moving towards transparent and responsible choices that will be able to improve present and future quality of life beyond food, while being viable as business, either economically and socially.

For more info on this topic we invite you to check out the websites of both PARMA KN and Chicago Climate Exchange websites, and to support socially responsible businesses who take action on carbon emissions.

After introducing the “Discover Barilla” project last week, we have another important announcement about our parent company’s online activity. Barilla, the world’s number one pasta maker, announced last week its second annual call on pasta lovers to help fight hunger in the United States with the launch of The Celebrity Italian Table Cookbook.

To create the cookbook, Barilla US asked 5 of America’s favorite celebrities, one of the world’s leading Italian chefs and the most prominent party planner in the U.S. to help celebrate the Italian Table in 6 different ways.

Hollywood celebrities Stanley Tucci, Marisa Tomei, Debra Messing, Natalie Portman and Chris Daughtry shared their favorite pasta dishes with us. Chef Mario Batali recreated these dishes and developed a special menu for each party, while David Tutera developed creative and stunning table designs to make each experience special.

Barilla’s Celebrity Italian Table Cookbook offers the following celebrity-inspired recipes and table settings:
- Romantic Night with Chris Daughtry’s Rigatoni with Basil and Gorgonzola
- Celebratory Feast with Debra Messing’s Penne alla Vodka
- Girlfriends Gathering with Natalie Portman’s Penne alla Puttanesca
- Dinner Party with Marisa Tomei’s Farfalle “alla Marisa”
- Family Dinner with Stanley Tucci’s Spaghetti al Tonno
- Babbo with Mario Batali’s restaurant favorite Fettuccine with Zucca

The Celebrity Italian Table Cookbook is available online for free download at www.celebrityitaliantable.com for the entire month of February. For every downloaded copy of the cookbook, Barilla will donate 1$ to America’s Second Harvest, the US Food Bank Network. To thank the celebrities for their participation, Barilla is also making an additional $5,000 donation to America’s Second Harvest on their behalf. Follow this link for a cookbook preview, or this link for a direct download.

Since 1997, Barilla has been a supporter of America’s Second Harvest, donating over 5 million pounds of pasta. Donations are distributed among more than 200 member food banks serving all 50 states, the District of Colombia and Puerto Rico.

“Today in America there are more than 35 million people, 12 million of whom are children, who are at risk of hunger,” said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of America’s Second Harvest. “We are grateful to have Barilla’s continued support for our fight against hunger. It’s easy to do your part by simply downloading this year’s cookbook.”

“Barilla is passionate about supporting hunger relief and passing on Italian traditions that show others how to bring people together around the table,” said Kirk Trofholz, president of Barilla US. “We are thrilled to partner again with America’s Second Harvest on this campaign and be part of such a highly worthwhile cause.”

Beside of the main fund raising for Second Harvest, The Celebrity Italian Table website proposes a photo contest, with the help of the online community of Gather.com: upload your Italian Table pictures on ItalianTable.Gather.com and every week a winner will receive a Barilla gift basket filled with pastas, sauces and olive oils. All weekly winners will be also eligible to win the grand prize of a $500 gift certificate to Williams-Sonoma. See the contest website for details.

More precious resources for all Italian food lovers are available at ItalianTable.Gather.com, such as premium articles by Barilla on how to host a pasta party, or the complete “Pasta 101: A Quick Guide for Making Perfect Pasta Every Time“.

Don’t forget to download your Celebrity Italian Cookbook today - your download will help Second Harvest, and will make all your friends happy next time you’ll invite them for an all-Italian, celebrity-inspired lunch or dinner!

Last week Academia Barilla has been quoted in a video interview published on business video social networking site Vator.tv.

Vator.tv is a professional network and marketplace for ideas and businesses where anyone, across all industries, at any stage, can share ideas, products, services and businesses with the rest of the world, mainly through video.

Bambi Francisco, Chief Editor and Reporter at Vator.tv (and also CEO and co-founder of the video social networking site), meets in this interview Vator.tv guest-host Tony Perkins (founder of the RedHerring magazine and the Always On conference series) to discuss and introduce some of the video submissions from innovators from outside the U.S..

The Vator.tv video report also features a segment of a video interview to Academia Barilla President Gianluigi Zenti, alongside with other video contributions from founders/CEOs at companies worldwide.

The Academia Barilla video segment is taken from a video posted by Academia Barilla on Vator.tv last February, republished here below on Italian Food Lovers.

Stay updated with Italian food Lovers for more online photos, videos and interactive content about Academia Barilla!

Just a quick post to highlight the recent article published yesterday by the American Farm Bureau (AFB).

Stefphanie Gambrell, author of the article and Domestic Policy Economist at the American Farm Bureau, discusses Italian food culture, the DOP (Protected Denomination of Origin) program that provides quality control and brand protection to products such as Parmigiano Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma. We talked a lot about DOP in our early posts on Italian Food Lovers.

Gambrell quotes in her article one of the main passages of Barilla’s guiding principles: “Creating, cooking and eating food is much more than simply meeting a basic human need – it is an art“. The statement is exactly what stands at the heart of Academia Barilla’s philosophy, that puts Italian gourmet food culture at the center of all its initiatives, as our blog readership is well aware of.

She also emphasizes the role of Barilla and Academia Barilla as the major players in the Italian food industry, and in the promotion, marketing and distribution of authentic Italian cuisine in the United States.

You can read the full article by the American Farm Bureau at this link - the article is also available in audio format, available both for online listening and mp3 download at the AFB site.