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MILAN (AP) — Michelle Obama found kindred spirits Thursday during tours of the U.S. and Italian pavilions at the Expo 2015 world's fair focused on food and nutrition, topics in step with the first lady's initiative to promote healthy eating.
Mrs. Obama was greeted by a video image of her husband, President Barack Obama, as she entered the pavilion, guided by U.S. student delegates to Expo in the Italian city of Milan from universities around the United States.
She then spent some time looking at and discussing the vertical garden
covering the length of pavilion, with rotating panels of herbs and vegetables that engineered to maximize sunlight exposure. Mrs. Obama said the pavilion was "awe-inspiring."
"I mean the most impactful part of it obviously is the vertical farm, the largest of its kind, and I couldn't help but think about all the issues we face around hunger, around food deserts in our countries and places all over the world and when you walk around this pavilion you think the solutions are right in our grasp," Mrs. Obama told some 60 student delegates during a question-and-answer session at the end of the tour.
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Mrs. Obama is leading a presidential delegation to Expo, which includes the U.S. Ambassador to Italy, John R. Phillips, star chef Mario Batali, NBA all-star Alonzo Mourning and the co-founder of sweetgreen Nicolas Jammet.
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While Mrs. Obama conducted official business, her daughters Malia and Sasha took in some of the Expo, exiting the Italian pavilion and boarding an electric vehicle that ferried them away. The Expo themes dovetail with the first lady's "Let's Move" initiative to fight childhood obesity through diet and exercise. She told the student delegates that collective efforts have resulted in a halt to the growth in childhood obesity among the smallest children.
"We are trying to change the dialogue, create a new norm around food and health and our culture surrounding food and we are starting to see some changes," she said. Earlier, Premier Matteo Renzi's wife, Agnese Landini, took Mrs. Obama around the five-story Italian pavilion. The first ladies stopped to meet with 8-to-10-year-olds from a nearby international elementary school who showed their video projects featuring ideas for tackling the issue of how to feed 9 billion people by 2050.
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One video advised that "food is still good the next day. You just have to make it look different," which got a chuckle from Mrs. Obama. "It is just so important that all of you are talking about these issues at such a young age," Mrs. Obama told the youngsters. "You are the ones who are going to help change the world."