the musician and senegalese minister works to promote food security as fao goodwill ambassador. additional prominent speakers including renate künast will report on their activities in the fight against food losses and food waste.  with youssou n&rsquodour, the &ldquovoice of africa,&rdquo the second international save food congress has gained a keynote speaker who is as famous as he is committed. the senegalese musician, politician and grammy winner will attend the congress in düsseldorf on 7 and 8 may in his capacity as goodwill ambassador of the food and agriculture organisation fao. youssou n&lsquodour has been an fao supporter since 2000 already, but he has also worked with unicef and the international red cross. in senegal, as well as far beyond the country&rsquos borders, n&rsquodour is considered a cultural icon and influential fighter for social rights. back in the 1970s and 1980s, he staunchly backed an imprisoned nelson mandela, performed at the 1988 &ldquoamnesty international human rights now&rdquo tour and participated in un campaigns against landmines. n&rsquodour has also made a name for himself as a musician thanks to a string of successful projects. for instance, he and peter gabriel are considered the &ldquoinventors&rdquo of world music, and many call him the father of contemporary senegalese pop. n&rsquodour has collaborated with ryuichi sakamoto, neneh cherry and wyclef jean, among others. at the dawn of the new millennium, he intensified his activities in the political arena he was appointed senegal&rsquos minister of culture and tourism in 2012, and he&rsquos currently running for mayor of dakar, the capital of senegal. youssou n&rsquodour predominantly supports the fao through public calls for action on the issue of food security. thus, he&rsquos the perfect keynote speaker to launch the second international save food congress. &ldquoi&rsquom thrilled that youssou n&rsquodour will be kicking off our congress. his name stands for unwavering commitment &ndash and for our fundamental idea of cooperating and networking across sectors. he and the other highprofile participants will bring our congress to life and ensure that our shared concern can and will reach even more people,&rdquo says werner m. dornscheidt, president and ceo of messe düsseldorf gmbh. in addition, the save food initiative is privileged to welcome other wellknown participants and speakers &ndash renate künast, for example, the green party politician, former minister for consumer protection and current chairwoman of the german parliament&rsquos committee on legal affairs and consumer protection. in her presentation, entitled &ldquoless is more &ndash strategies against food waste,&rdquo she will shed new light on this critical issue. three years after its inception, the save food initiative has grown into a broad international alliance boasting more than 110 members. it serves to connect political officials, leaders from the food and packaging industries, retailers, researchers and representatives from civil society. featuring a lineup of highcalibre speakers, the second save food congress will illuminate various aspects of the issue of food losses and food waste and outline possible solutions. what&rsquos more, it will serve as a forum for a mutual exchange of ideas, collaborative projects and the identification of best practices. each day, the congress will emphasise a different set of issues. day 1 will focus on bigpicture political and civilsociety approaches, while day 2 will predominantly cover industrial and corporate bestpractice case studies. the majority of speakers on this day will represent the private sector. panel discussions will serve to enliven the programme on both days. additionally, film director and producer valentin thurn will show clips from his film &ldquodie essensretter&rdquo &ldquothe food savers&rdquo, which deals with practical approaches to reducing the amount of food ending up on the waste pile. in addition to the congress, visitors can look forward to the innovationparc packaging, the trade fair&rsquos very own forum for futureoriented special topics, which will feature, among other things, the latest corporate innovations for reducing food losses. to obtain the complete programme of events scheduled for 7 and 8 may, please visit the website www.savefood.org and select &ldquocongress 2014.&rdquo about one third of all food produced for human consumption is thrown away or lost. less than one fourth of the food presently lost worldwide would suffice to feed the starving population of the world. the event on 7 and 8 may will bring us one step closer to our goal of effectively reducing food losses.   28 april 2014  about save food the save food initiative is a cooperation between the food and agriculture organisation of the united nations, fao, and messe düsseldorf gmbh to combat global food losses and food waste. since early 2013, the initiative has also been supported by the united nations environment programme, unep. save food aims to network actors from business, politics and research, stimulate dialogue and help to work out solutions along the food value chain. save food also intends to launch and promote its own projects with the support of the industry. save food started in may 2011 with an international congress and an exhibition as part of interpack, the world&rsquos leading trade fair for the packaging industry and all related process industries. once again, experts from business, politics and research will meet in düsseldorf during interpack 2014 on 7 and 8 may to discuss food losses and food waste. for more information, please visit www.savefood.org.          &nbs… food press officejan lederpr and media relationsgrayling deutschland gmbhrather str. 49 dd &ndash 40476 düsseldorftel. 49 0211 &ndash 964 8541fax 49 0211 &ndash 964 8545jl@savefood.org  
