Ambiti
Articolo
generics.pub 3/13/2026
Your Excellency the Rector of the University of Siena,
Your Excellency the former Rector,
Your Excellencies the Deputy Rector and the Director-General of the University of Siena,
My dear friend Professor Matteo Lorito,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Students, Teachers and Friends,
Good morning – Buongiorno!
I am delighted to join you today for the launch of the WOW Museum of the University of Siena.
Universities cultivate knowledge, nourish students, lay out the future for them, and transfer the heritage from one generation to another. That is the core value of a University.
I was honoured to also have been a professor for twenty years, therefore education is in my heart: to share knowledge with students and with colleagues, and to be responsible for respecting history and transferring civilization through generations.
Universities preserve knowledge, expand knowledge, and pass it on from one generation to the next.
Museums invite us to step inside that knowledge and experience it firsthand.
When universities and museums come together, they create something powerful, a dynamic platform for dialogue, participation and collective imagination – this is its value added. It is an open door and a platform for society. Otherwise, it becomes very dry knowledge, but we need to make it pleasurable and easily accessible.
The concept of the diffused museum is especially relevant in our interconnected world.
A museum is not confined to walls, it extends into communities, landscapes, digital spaces and everyday life.
FAO’s Food and Agriculture Museum and Network, which I was honoured to launch together with His Excellency President Mattarella last year on 16 October – FAO’s birthday and World Food Day - is a legacy of the Organization's 80th anniversary, and was created with a similar vision – to reach out to people, to the youth, especially to the younger generations and all the partners related to agrifood systems.
This special space was developed thanks to the generous support of Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry; the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation; and the City of Rome, and others.
The Museum is a further reflection of the excellent relationship with our host country Italy and host city Rome; a partnership that has endured for over seven decades since 1951 – 75 years - and has made Italy a steadfast partner in achieving food security.
Today’s event is yet another confirmation of our fruitful relationship with Italy, which extends across the Italian territory.
The FAO Museum and Network connects art and culture with science and innovation as a universal language to speak about food, agriculture and our shared future, through FAO’s 194 Members and through the six official UN languages – Chinese, English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Russian - plus Italian.
There are many educational and thematic links between the University of Siena’s WOW Museum and the FAO Museum - from agriculture and sustainability to learning and youth engagement, and much more.
We are proud to welcome WOW into the FAO Museum Network – our partnership will further strengthen our shared vision, increase knowledge sharing and expand engagement with the public.
The walls cannot stop knowledge transfer. Luckily your university has no walls; there are many universities in the world that have walls, but you need to break through even the invisible walls, to get closer psychologically to society.
I really appreciate all the important actions and decisions you have taken to make this happen.
This is not just a simple museum – it’s a triad museum. In Italy, just like in China, no matter whether it is a big or small museum, the important thing is to invest in agriculture and in food culture to create a triad museum - not just a simple museum but something special.
Yours is a good model and we should invite other universities around the world to learn from you. Otherwise, Confucius says that it is like the professors who teach in isolation, studying and reading day and night, but never looking outside the window to see whether it is sunny or raining – that was the old-fashioned way of teaching. But now we live in a modern, digital world and we need transparency, and we need to be accessible to the world and to society.
Knowledge is not for your personal enjoyment; knowledge should be shared with society.
The University of Siena’s focus on agrifood innovations - such as wine, olive oil and wheat value chains within the Agritech framework - is directly relevant to the FAO Museum’s role as a cultural and educational platform for showcasing its work around the world to a growing global audience.
Establishing an integrated museum that combines wine, olive oil, and wheat is much more significant than maintaining separate, single-product museums. This "triad" approach offers a powerful synergy, creating a holistic narrative that reflects the true essence of Italian, and the broader Mediterranean, civilization.
Not only food. In the Chinese culture, as well as the Italian culture, food is not only nutrition. It is culture; it is a symbol of its history and civilization.
This integrated approach is impactful because it creates a complete cultural narrative of the foundation – the “social glue” - of Italian life, economy, and identity for millennia.
The WOW Museum is an expression of cultural heritage, connecting the past with the modern food table. And its acronym WOW - which stands for Wine, Olive Oil and Wheat – is internationally recognized. WOW - is the same expression in Chinese, and in many other languages, and has the same meaning.
In the same way, the FAO Museum and Network is a modern way to share FAO’s mandate with the world through knowledge, culture, and innovation, connecting and inspiring a global audience.
Four months ago, on 16 October, we received 15 000 students from Italy, and more than 1000 students from all over the world continue to visit FAO regularly, not just to attend meetings or to enjoy the good Italian food, but to experience the global agriculture heritage and history of our civilization over millennia - to study the cultivation of rice and wheat and many other crops around the globe. From the Andes mountains to China and so many other traditional civilizations, to study the origins of agrifood systems because civilization started from agriculture. So, we should appreciate our ancestors!
The WOW Museum creates an attractive tourism destination for a wider audience and boosts local agritourism by telling a story about the territory - which is a real value added for this town and for this region as it will also support the mediterranean diet and food: wine, olive oil and wheat (for pizza and spaghetti, not for Chinese noodles or dumplings!).
We should appreciate these three elements – wine, olive oil and wheat – at the global level, not just in the mediterranean region. Wheat started in Syria 5000 years ago; rice started growing in my hometown in the Hunan Province in China 10 000 years ago; and corn and potatoes originated in the Andean mountains in Peru and Bolivia.
The WOW Museum has a deeper educational impact which allows the visitor – especially the youth – to understand the deep connections between agriculture, history, art, and cuisine, demonstrating how these three elements collectively shaped the landscape and rural traditions.
As people migrate from the rural areas to the cities they forget their roots. In China we joke that you are either the son or daughter of a farmer, or at least the grandson or granddaughter of a farmer.
Since its inauguration, the FAO Museum has attracted more than 15 000 visitors from all regions and all sectors, including FAO Member representatives and delegates, and most importantly students and young people – 80 percent are from the primary and secondary schools in Italy.
With more than 45 FAO Members already contributing, the Museum continues to grow as an inclusive and accessible space for dialogue, learning, and food culture. And more importantly, we also launched the 1000 Digital Villages initiative and invited all the Ministers of Agriculture to nominate a traditional village to connect through the FAO Museum and Network.
Through the WOW Museum’s connection with the FAO Museum and Network you will be reachable to 8 billion people around the world! This allows you to have no boundaries; you are not limited by the boundaries of Italy.
And both Museums emphasize the importance of the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life – leaving no one behind.
Dear Friends,
Young people are not only visitors to museums, but they are also co-creators of the future.
They are innovators, entrepreneurs, scientists and future leaders.
Investing in youth is investing in a better food future, a better world.
I established the World Food Forum during the pandemic and more and more young people from the food producers, farmers, scientists, educators, researchers and entrepreneurs started to come to the World Food Forum. Last October, we attracted 15 000 young people in person in Rome; online we had almost half a million visitors. This makes it a powerful hybrid platform, which is the new modern way of educating the public through professional education.
No institution can address today’s global challenges alone.
Networks, and partnerships, whether academic, cultural or international are key.
As the Network expands, it will amplify the Museum’s message, linking local experiences with global knowledge and creating new opportunities for dialogue, partnership, and learning.
Nowadays, all problems can be solved through more dialogue and more partnerships, ideally starting with the young, with their education – primary school, secondary school, university. So, when they grow up, they will be alumni – leaders, businesspeople or other – and they will find their friends and be able to dialogue. That is the long-term benefit of the university.
FAO looks forward to exploring how institutions like the WOW Museum can connect with global initiatives, creating exchanges across disciplines.
Together, we can amplify impact:
When these forces align, they can help build more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable agrifood systems.
Let us work together to ensure that our Museums are meeting points - places where ideas grow, where young minds are inspired, and where the challenges of our time become opportunities for collective action for a better future for all.
I really respect your actions. Only actions, no matter whether big or small, lead to changing the world. If you want to change the world, you have to change yourself, your mindset, your behaviour, your solutions.
Let’s work together to fix the big or small problems, together.
Thank you - Grazie!