The Rockefeller Foundation announced the Food System Vision Prize in October 2019, issuing a call to global food system actors to unite, source and support positive Visions for regional future food systems. While the original idea for the Prize originated at The Rockefeller Foundation, the journey to design and implement the Prize was collaborative, enriched by hundreds of food system leaders, designers, sector experts, advocates, policymakers, and researchers from across the world. Their contributions and support was immensely valuable and ranged from program design to the selection process to team mentorship.
Over 180 esteemed individuals from across the globe, representing a range of backgrounds and areas of expertise, supported the Food System Vision Prize as judges, mentors, and panelists. The Prize program also benefited from ten Strategic Network Partners, leading food sector organizations that informed the Prize program design and vision criteria, solicited and engaged Vision teams from diverse backgrounds and geographies, and provided strategic insights throughout the Prize journey. Their engagement provided both a depth of expertise and a breadth of reach, ensuring participation from unlikely and likely actors from across the globe.
The Rockefeller Foundation extends its deepest gratitude to each of them for their collaboration and commitment to a more regenerative, nourishing, and equitable food future.
To learn more about who is part of this community, please check out this list.
A few reflections from our Partners
It was truly inspiring to see so many fabulous initiatives from around the world, collaborating with farmers, communities, governments, businesses and civil society, on initiatives which will help transform how we grow, consume and value food. It fills me with optimism and hope for the future.
Nadia el-Hage ScialabbaSenior Natural Resources Officer, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation
2020 has brought gratitude and struggle to the foreground. This Prize elevated bright spots and opportunities within the food system and I send gratitude and appreciation to all those working to tend the soil, grow food, feed people, and strengthen community through food. I look forward to following black and indigenous-led efforts in this movement that address reparations and decolonization.
Dana FraszFounder & Director, Food Shift
It is essential that challenges as complex as rethinking food be tackled through systems thinking--with a holistic, interconnected approach and numerous, multi-dimensional apertures in view. The Visionaries who brought ideas forward to this Prize embody the most profoundly exciting, truly breakthrough solutions that can arrive when you chart that multi-solving course.
Sophie EganFounder, Full Table Solutions
Food is one of the final frontiers in our fight against climate change, which is why we must reorient our food systems so they're healthier and more sustainable for both people and the planet. Bravo to The Rockefeller Foundation for supporting this work and to all of the farmers on the frontlines helping to feed the world and build a more sustainable future!
Michael ShankCommunications Director, Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance
The Food System Vision Prize boldly drives innovation and creates actionable strategies to address systemic food issues. This global challenge identified solutions that will have a marked impact on production and access in a sustainable manner.
John FarnamDeputy Disruptor & Chief of Staff, Morgridge Family Foundation
Our Supporters
This list of community partners for the Food System Vision Prize includes:
- Judges supported the Food System Vision Prize by evaluating submissions utilizing the established evaluation criteria of systems focused; transformative potential; community-informed; inspiring; feasible, and community co-created.
- Mentors provided expertise and guidance to support the ten Finalist teams during the 15-week Accelerator. Mentors served as allies, subject matter experts, and thought partners for Finalist teams.
- Panelists provided subject matter expertise across a number of topics including Systems Thinking, Futurecasting, Resilience, Food Policy & Advocacy, and a few other topics during virtual seminars organized for Finalist teams.
- Strategic Network Partners provided strategic support throughout the program including design input, community outreach and Vision solicitation, evaluation and selection of advancing teams, mentorship to select teams, and network engagement.
- Acumen: Neither the markets nor aid alone can solve the problems of poverty. More than two billion people around the world lack access to basic goods and services—from clean water and electricity to an education and the freedom to participate in the economy. Acumen’s vision is a world based on dignity, where every human being has the same opportunity. Rather than giving philanthropy away, Acumen invests it in companies and change makers.
- African Women in Agriculture Research and Development (AWARD): African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) works toward inclusive, agriculture-driven prosperity for the African continent by strengthening the production and dissemination of more gender-responsive agricultural research and innovation. AWARD invests in African scientists, research institutions, and agribusinesses so that they can deliver agricultural innovations that better respond to the needs and priorities of diversity of women and men across Africa’s agricultural value chains.
- EAT: EAT works to transform our global food system through sound science, impatient disruption and novel partnerships. EAT works toward the vision of a fair and sustainable global food system for healthy people and planet–leaving no one behind. To ensure success, EAT connects and partners across science, policy, business and civil society to achieve five urgent and radical transformations by 2050.
- EcoAgriculture Partners: EcoAgriculture Partners is a pioneering non-profit organization that advances the practice of integrated landscape management and the policies to support it. By facilitating shared leadership and collaborative decision-making by all stakeholders in a landscape, EcoAgriculture Partners empowers agricultural communities to manage their lands to enhance livelihoods, conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services, and sustainably produce crops, livestock, fish, and fibre. From critical analysis of policies, markets, and land-use practices, EcoAgriculture generates innovative research, tools, and methodologies that help landscape managers and policymakers create and sustain integrated landscapes worldwide.
- The Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU): Established in 2017, the Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU) is a community of organizations and individuals committed to the urgent need to transform the way we produce and consume food and use our land for people, nature, and climate. FOLU supports science-based solutions and helps build a shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities to unlock collective, ambitious action. FOLU builds on the work of the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land Use, and Energy (FABLE) Consortium teams which operate in more than 20 countries.
- Food Tank: Food Tank is one of the fastest-growing nonprofit organizations around food and agriculture issues, focused on building a global community for safe, healthy, nourished eaters. Their work spotlights environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable ways of alleviating hunger, obesity, and poverty, and creates networks of people, organizations, and content to push for food system change. Food Tank highlights hope and success in agriculture.
- Global Alliance for the Future of Food: The Global Alliance for the Future of Food is a strategic alliance of philanthropic foundations working together and with others to transform global food systems now and for future generations. We believe in the urgency of transforming global food systems, and in the power of working together and with others to effect positive change. Food systems reform requires that we craft new and better solutions at all scales through a systems-level approach and deep collaboration among philanthropy, researchers, grassroots movements, the private sector, farmers and food systems workers, Indigenous Peoples, government, and policymakers.
- International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT): CIAT works in collaboration with hundreds of partners to help developing countries make farming more competitive, profitable, and resilient through smarter, more sustainable natural resource management. We help policymakers, scientists, and farmers respond to some of the most pressing challenges of our time, including food insecurity and malnutrition, climate change, and environmental degradation. CIAT’s global research contributes to several of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and cuts across four key themes: big data, climate-smart agriculture, ecosystem action, and sustainable food systems.
- Slow Food International: Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization, founded in 1989 to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions, counteract the rise of fast life and combat people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, and how our food choices affect the world around us. Slow Food believes food is tied to many other aspects of life, including culture, politics, agriculture and the environment. Through our food choices we can collectively influence how food is cultivated, produced and distributed, and change the world as a result.
- Thought For Food: Thought For Food is the world’s entrepreneurial innovation engine for food and agriculture. We create, empower and support a new generation of leaders to solve our planet’s most pressing challenge: How to sustainably feed 10 billion people? TFF calls on the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs to develop new food and agriculture-related business concepts and ventures that improve livelihoods, replenish natural resources, sequester carbon, reduce waste, and enhance health and nutrition.
Community Partners
- The list of supporters is shared in alphabetical order. Please note this list reflects Titles and Organizations of Supporters as submitted during Spring of 2020 which may or may not be current.
- Abdou Tenkouano, CORAF – West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Research and Development, Executive Director
- Adam Kaye, The Spare Food Co, Co-Founder & Chief Culinary Officer
- Aidan Connolly, Agri Tech Capital, President
- Akosua Ampofo Siever, Root Capital, Senior Partnerships Manager
- Alan Zulch, Tamalpais Trust, Senior Director
- Ali Morrow, Astanor Ventures, Principal
- Amrita Bhandari, Acumen, Chief of Business Development
- Andrew Edewa, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, National MARKUP Project Coordinator
- Andrew Gerard, Global Development Lab/USAID, Program Manager, PEER Program
- Andrew Jarvis, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Director of the Decision and Policy Analysis
- Anna Laapé, Panta Rhea Foundation, Food & Democracy Program Director
- Anna Mulé, Slow Food USA, Executive Director
- Bernard Ndolo, SNV, Horticulture Advisor & Partnership Facilitator
- Bhavna Sivanand, Impact@Anderson – Social Impact and Innovation, Executive Director
- Biz Ghormley, CHANGE Philanthropy, Coalition and Convening Coordinator
- Brenda Mareri, SNV, Food and Nutrition Security Advisor
- Brendan Condon, Biofilta, Director of AU Ecosystems
- Carolina Starr, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Agroecology Officer
- Caroline Mwongera, CGIAR, Scientist
- Caroline Wimberly, 50by40, Senior Campaign Manager
- Carolyne Maina, TechnoServe, Program Manager, PEER Program
- Céline Termote, Alliance Bioversity International and CIAT, Sub-lever Director Africa in the Food Environment
- Chase Keenan, Global Knowledge Initiative, Strategy Associate
- Chris Kerston, Savory Institute, Chief Commercial Officer of the Land to Market Program
- Christine Gould, Thought for Food, Founder, CEO
- Christy Fellner, World Vision, Child Protection & Education Director
- Colin Khoury, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) , Decision and Policy Analysis Director
- Corey Peet, Asian Seafood Improvement Collaborative, Managing Director & Co-founder
- Corinna Hawkes, Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London, Professor
- Dana Frasz, Food Shift, Founder & Director
- Dana Gunders, ReFED, Executive Director
- Daniel Ndungu, UN World Food Programme, Program Policy Officer
- Daniel Ruben, The Rockefeller Foundation, Consultant
- Danielle Nierenberg, Food Tank, President, Founder
- Daphne Ewing-Chow, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation; Forbes, Senior Contributor
- David Austin, UN World Food Programme, Director of Strategic Partnerships
- David Kamau, Proctor Allan, CEO & Managing Director
- David Nabarro, Food System Dialogues, Strategic Director
- Debra Eschmeyer, Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, Head of Innovation
- Dennis Mulongo, Agriculture Finance Corporation, Risk Analysis and Evaluation Officer
- Devon Klatell, The Rockefeller Foundation, Managing Director, Food Initiative
- Diane Holdorf, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Managing Director
- Dorine Odongo, African Women in Agricultural Research and Development, Communications Manager
- Duane Saunders, EAT, Social Media and Communications Intern
- Dustin Wenzel, UN Environment Programme, Associate Programme Management Officer
- Einav Gefen, Unilever Food Solutions, Corporate Executive Chef
- Elizabeth Bagley, Drawdown, Director
- Elvin Padilla, Stupski Foundation, Director of Food Security
- Emma Chow, Ellen Macarthur Foundation, Food Initiative Lead
- Emmanuelle Bourgois, Fairagora, Founding Partner & Managing Director
- Eric Montell, Stanford University, Stanford Dining Executive Director
- Fabrice Declerck, EAT, Science Director
- Fernando Rocha, University of São Paulo, Ph.D. Candidate
- George Boody, Land Stewardship Project, Science and Special Projects Lead
- Gigi Gatti, Grameen Foundation, Technology for Development Director
- Gina Asoudegan, Applegate, Vice President – Mission and Innovation
- Godwin Atser, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Digital Extension and Advisory Services Specialist
- Greg Baker, Santa Clara University, Department of Management and Entrepreneurship Professor
- Henry Kinyua, Digital Green, East Africa Director
- Jack A. Bobo, Futurity, CEO
- Janani Balasubramanian, Stanford Institute for Diversity in the Arts, Artist, Writer
- Jane Ambuko, University of Nairobi, Department of Plant Science and Crop Protection Professor
- Jen Wilson, Guild of Future Architects, Director of Partnerships
- Jenny Wiegel, Alliance Bioversity International CIAT, Regional Coordinator for the Americas (Food Environment and Consumer Behavior)
- Jes Weigelt, TMG Think Tank for Sustainability, Head of Programmes
- Jessica Fanzo, SAIS, Johns Hopkins, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food & Agricultural Policy and Ethics
- Jill Conklin, Food for Soul, Strategic Development Officer
- Johannes Orodi Dovens Odhiambo, University of Nairobi, Principal Chief Technologist
- John Atkinson, Food System Dialogues, Director & Leadership Adviser
- John de la Parra, The Rockefeller Foundation, Manager of Global Food Portfolio
- John Farnam, Morgridge Family Foundation, Deputy Disruptor & Chief of Staff
- John Macharia, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Country Manager
- John Wesonga, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Department of Horticulture and Food Security Professor
- Jonathan Deutsch, Rutgers Food Lab, Director
- Jonathan Landeck, New Field Foundation, Managing Director
- José Caixeta, University of Sao Paulo, Department of Economics, Management and Sociology Professor
- Josephine Miingi, Building Rural Incomes Through Enterprise (Briten), Founding Trustee & CEO
- Joshua Oluyali, Ministry of Agriculture in Kenya, Deputy Director of the Horticulture Division
- Jude O’Reilley, Skoll Foundation, Senior Director, Social Entrepreneurship
- Kagwiria Koome, The Rockefeller Foundation, Manager, Food Initiative
- Kaleab Baye, Addis Ababa University, Director of the Center for Food Science and Nutrition
- Kamal Sinclair, Guild of Future Architects, Executive Director
- Katherine Correll, Downtown Colorado Inc, Executive Director
- Kaysie Brown, UN Foundation, Special Advise and Head of Policy Planning
- Kelly Hagen, Entomo Farms, Chief Operations Officer
- Kerri Wright, Colorado State University, Special Advisor to the Chancellor for International Agriculture
- Khalid Bomba, Ethiopian Ag Transformation Agency, CEO
- Kirsty Bayliss, Breaking the Mould, Founder
- Krista Roberts, Slow Food Nations at Slow Food USA, Executive Director
- Lara Dickinson, One Step Closer to an Organic Sustainable Community, Executive Director and Co-Founder
- Lauren Baker, Global Alliance for the Future of Food, Executive Director
- Lauren F Phipps, GreenBiz Group, Circular Economy Director & Senior Analyst
- Lisa Dreier, Managing Director, Advanced Leadership Initiative, Harvard University
- Lorin Fries, FutureTable, Founder & Lead Partner
- Louis Wertz, Western Landowners Alliance, Communications Director
- Lu Sun, C40 Cities, Head of Climate Action Planning China
- Marc Buckley, Futurist, Sustainability Advisor
- Marcia DeLonge, Union of Concerned Scientists-USA, Senior Scientist
- Marco Springmann, University of Oxford, Senior Researcher on Environmental Sustainability and Public Health
- Mark Driscoll, Tasting the Future, Founder and Director
- Mark Izeman, Natural Resources Defense Council, Director
- Mark Kahn, Ominovore, CEO & Co-founder
- Mark Lundy, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Senior Scientist
- Martine van Weelden, Capitals Coalition, TEEBAgriFood Project Manager
- Mary Abukutsa, Jomo Kenyatta University Of Agriculture And Technology, Department of Horticulture Professor
- Matheus Zanella, Global Alliance for the Future of Food, Program Coordinator
- Matthew Watkins, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Redefining Value Manager
- Maureen Munjua, Tanager International, Team Leader-IGNITE
- Max Elder, Institute for the Future, Research Director
- Melanie Horton, EdTec, Senior Marketing Manager
- Melissa Pinfield, The Food and Land Use Coalition, Just Rural Transition Secretariat Executive Director
- Mercy Lung’aho, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Africa Nutrition Lead
- Meriwether Hardie, Bio-Logical Capital, Chief of Staff
- Michael Hamm, Michigan State University, C.S. Mott Chair of Sustainable Agriculture
- Michael Shank, Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance, Communications Director
- Michiel Bakker, Google, Global Food Services Director
- Mike Robinson, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, Chief Science Officer
- Mike Schall, Schall Consulting Group, Managing Director
- Million Belay, Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, Coordinator
- Morten Andersen Linnet, Danish Agriculture and Food Council, Head of Department
- Moses Siambi, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, World Agroforestry Center, Director
- Mwihaki Muraguri, Paukwa, Chief Storysmith
- Nadia el-Hage Scialabba, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Senior Natural Resources Officer
- Naomi Starkman, Civil Eats, CEO
- Narciso Barrera Bassols, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Programa Agricultura y Alimentación Lead & Professor
- Nico Janssen, IKEA Foundation, Programme Manager Agriculture and Livelihoods
- Nolan Paul, Yamaha Motors Ag Tech, Investing Partner
- Olga Lucia Hernandez, Humboldt Institute, Colombia, Head of Social Science and Biodiversity Knowledge
- Paolo di Croce, Slow Food International International Secretary, Secretary General of the Terra Madre Foundation
- Patrick Holden, Sustainable Food Trust, Chief Executive
- Peter Goldsmith, University of Illinois, Professor and Director of the Food and Agribusiness Management Program (FAM)
- Philippe Baret, University of Louvain, Professor & Earth and Life Institute Faculty Member
- Rafael Flor, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Senior Program Officer
- Raj Patel, Research Professor, UT Austin, School of Public Health Professor
- Ralph Roothaert, Healthy Diets at World Vegetable Center, Flagship Program Leader
- Rebbie Harawa, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Head of Soil and Fertilizer Systems
- Rebecca Chesney, IDEO, Senior Portfolio Lead, Circular Economy of Food CoLab
- Rene van Veenhuizen, Hivos Humanist Organisation for Social Change-Wageningen, RUAF Secretariat & Programme Manager
- Richard McCarthy, Slow Food USA, Executive Director
- Richard Waite, World Resources Institute, Food Program Research Associate
- Robert Paarlberg, Harvard University, Harvard Kennedy School Professor of Public Policy
- Roseline Remans, Bioversity International, Senior Scientist
- Ruth Richardson, Global Alliance for the Future of Food, Executive Director
- Salah Sukkarieh, University of Sydney, Director of Research and Innovation & Professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems
- Samara Brock, Yale, PhD Candidate at the Yale Environmental Humanities Department
- Sara Scherr, EcoAgriculture Partners, President, CEO
- Saswati Bora, World Economic Forum, Head of Food Systems Innovation
- Scott May, Givaudan, Head of MISTA
- Shamie Zingore, International Plant Nutrition Institute, Research & Development Director for Africa
- Shweta Sood, 50by40, Communications Manager
- Sibella Kraus, SAGE Center, President and Founder
- Simon Winter, Syngenta Foundation, Executive Director
- Sonali Ruparelia, Rabobank, Programme Manager
- Sophie Egan, Full Table Solutions, Founder
- Stephanie White, Global Center for Food Systems Innovation, City-Region Program Leader
- Stephen Hohenrieder, Farmland LP, General Partner
- Steven Sonka, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Agricultural and Consumer Economics Professor Emeritus
- Suneetha Kadiyala, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Doctor
- Suzanne van Tilburg, Rabobank, Global Head F&A Networks
- Talia Smith, The Food and Land Use Coalition, Program Director & Head of Strategy and Initiatives
- Taylor Wallace, Think Healthy Group, Principal & CEO
- Thao Pham, Clif Bar & Company, Senior Vice President of Community and Social Equity
- Tim Crosby, Thread Fund, Principal
- Timothy Smith, University of Minnesota, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering Professor
- Timothy Childs, Treasure8, Co-CEO and Co-Founder
- Tobias Gräs, Danish Agriculture and Food Council, Senior Policy Advisor
- Todd Abraham, Mondelēz International, SVP Research and Nutrition: Research, Development and Quality
- Todd Barker, Meridian Institute, Senior Partner and Practice Director
- Ursula Hudson, Slow Food Germany, President
- Victor Friedberg, Foodshot, Founder & Chairman
- Victoria Spadaro Grant, Barilla Group, Global R&D and Quality & Food Safety Chief
- Vijay Kumar Thallam, Zero Budget Natural Farming – India, Advisor to Government of Andhra Pradesh for Agriculture & Cooperation, India
- Vivienne Anthony, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, Senior Scientific Advisor
- Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), Director
- Wei Zhang, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Senior Research Fellow
- Whitney Johnson, Gates Family Foundation Natural Resources & Community Development, Program Officer
- Winnie Yegon, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Food Systems Analyst
- Yael Raviv, Umami Food & Art Festival, Splacer Inc., Umami Food and Art Festival Director & Splacer Inc. Director of Business Development
- Yuan Zhou, Syngenta Foundation, Head of Agricultural Policy and China Program
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