“Growing up as a young kid, there was no guarantee that we could get 3 meals in a day. I used to depend on the school meal. It was a challenge that many people are facing,” Greg Kimani, the CEO of City Shamba, says in the Food 2050 film, which premieres January 2026 in partnership with Media RED, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Food Tank. “If my neighbor cannot have food, we are not food secure.”

This belief reflects a broader cultural value rooted in Ubuntu, an Indigenous African philosophy of interconnectedness. 

“When I was growing up, sharing food was a common thing that we did. It’s about the value of Ubuntu, [meaning] ‘I am because we are.’ It’s the spirit of helping one another. It’s the spirit of sharing,” says Dr. Elizabeth Kimani-Murage, a Research Scientist at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC). 

“But the world is urbanizing, and we are losing that culture of Ubuntu,” says Dr. Kimani-Murage.

Nairobi’s population is projected to triple by 2050 to more than 10 million people. Historically, the city relied on rural communities for food, but those areas have increasingly urbanized themselves, reducing agricultural production. Dr. Kimani-Murage, who has conducted research on nutrition and food security among the urban poor for more than two decades, has seen firsthand how these shifts have deepened inequality. Today, she promotes agroecological urban farming across socioeconomic divides to “ensure that people can produce safe food for themselves and feed themselves with dignity.” 

In Nairobi, affordability—not availability—is often the core problem, according to Dr. Kimani-Murage. Because many residents cannot afford market prices, the food supply can exceed demand. “A lot of the food finds itself in the dump site, and people go to scavenge on that food,” either feeding it to their families or selling it to others, says Dr. Kimani-Murage.

City Shamba was founded to challenge the assumption that dense urban areas cannot produce food. The organization trains residents in vertical farming techniques to maximize productivity in limited spaces. It provides seedlings and soil, which are often difficult to access. Kimani’s team also prioritizes nutrient-rich Indigenous vegetables, helping households improve nutrition while reducing costs.

According to David Osogo, a Research Officer at APHRC, City Shamba shows that urban areas themselves can be part of the solution to food insecurity and malnutrition.

“Urban farming almost gives you instant results,” says Osogo. “We have seen communities in the informal settlement feed off their tiny kitchen gardens…school children eating lunch and eating hot meals that are directly from vegetables from the farms…chicken from the poultry farms within the schools.”

These community-led efforts are supported by Dr. Kimani-Murage’s vision, “A Place of Cool Waters”—the translation of the Indigenous name for Nairobi—which was named a Rockefeller Foundation Top Food System Visionary in 2020 and featured in the Food 2050 film. It provides grants to grassroots organizations including City Shamba that are rethinking food production and access in urban spaces. This work is also advancing what Dr. Kimani-Murage describes as a “right to food movement” in Kenya.

“It is important that people can take charge of what they’re eating,” says Dr. Kimani-Murage. “We really want to promote the spirit of Ubuntu, encouraging people to share any excess food…so that food is not just seen as a commodity, it is seen as a common good and a human right.”

Since the Food 2050 filming, the initiative has expanded to cities throughout Kenya and gained international attention: In 2023, King Charles III visited City Shamba’s facilities. But Dr. Kimani-Murage’s long-term vision has expanded beyond food—she sees climate action as critical to food systems transformation.

“We have embraced climate action as a key driver of this work,” says Dr. Kimani-Murage. “Food security and nutrition are very heavily impacted by climate change. By encouraging climate action, you are also promoting food security and optimal nutrition.”

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“People are having to get whatever they can on their budget, and unfortunately, what is cheapest right now is a lot of processed foods,” says Wilson.

The Sicáŋğu Lak̇óta, like other Indigenous communities throughout the United States, have seen their traditional food systems dismantled over generations due to land dispossession, mass slaughter of buffalo herds, and reliance on federal food programs. Wilson and other community leaders created the 7Gen plan, which was named a Rockefeller Foundation Top Food System Visionary in 2020, to help restore food sovereignty to their people. 

“Beginning with the mass slaughter of the buffalo, about US$2 trillion worth of wealth has been extracted from our people,” says Native Leader Wizipan Little Elk in the Food 2050 film, which premieres January 2026 in partnership with Media RED, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Food Tank. 

“Food and access to our treaty rations were used as a means of control. In order for us to regain our power, we have to regain our food.”

The 7Gen plan is named after the ancient concept of looking ahead seven generations, which is core to many Indigenous cultures. It serves as a guiding philosophy for decision-making, one that considers the impact on future generations and the long-term well-being of both people and land.

“Our 7Gen plan is how we see everything playing out in the next seven generations,” says Wilson. “How do we prepare for that? How does our food look? Where is it coming from?”

The Sicáŋğu Food Sovereignty Initiative, an integral part of the 7Gen project, plays a critical role in the local food system. Its regenerative buffalo ranch has grown from 50 to 1,100 heads since 2020. When federal SNAP benefits faced major cuts due to the government shutdown and new legislation in 2025, Wilson’s team was able to deliver 12,000 pounds of bison meat and 6,000 pounds of locally grown produce to the community.

>The initiative is also helping community members learn how to grow, produce, harvest, and prepare their own food. Its workforce development and educational programs support farmers, ranchers, aspiring entrepreneurs, and youth in building skills and creating livelihoods around food.

As a result of these efforts, Wilson says that his community is increasingly practicing food sovereignty.

“When I first started, [people couldn’t] really articulate what food sovereignty was or understand the importance of it. But now, people are seeing the urgency and that importance,” says Wilson. “More people are going out and harvesting their own food, foraging for traditional foods. More people are serving their own gardens, more people are having conversations around where their food comes from.”

Wilson sees the local food system as not only a source of nutrients but also a way to heal his community’s spirit. This starts with reframing how his neighbors think about and value food.

“Food is medicine, and so we’re really trying to change people’s mindsets and perspective around food and build that connection with food again,” says Wilson. “It’s really supposed to feed your soul, your emotional health, your spiritual health. That concept is what we call Wicozani. All-encompassing health.”

For Little Elk, 7Gen’s success is a story of hope for the broader, global food system.

“Our vision is to create a sustainable, regenerative, culturally appropriate food system for our people in the region by growing our own food, by embracing regenerative agricultural practices, by bringing buffalo back. Those are the kinds of solutions that the entire planet needs,” says Little Elk.

“And if we can do it here, in the third-poorest county in the entire United States, we can for sure do it anywhere in North America. And I believe that we can do it anywhere in the world.”

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2025 was a year marked by immense uncertainty. Cuts to nutrition assistance and climate smart agriculture programs in the United States, the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and declining Official Development Assistance from countries including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have raised hard questions about what the future holds.

But around the world there is so much resilience and excitement as organizations prove food and agriculture systems can be a solution to our most pressing social and environmental challenges. They are establishing models that nourish children and support local farmers. They are creating more opportunities for women and young farmers to become leaders in their communities. And they are cultivating new and innovative partnerships to fund and scale the solutions already working on the ground.

As we enter 2026, here are 126 organizations and initiatives to learn about, engage with, and support as they work to build a more equitable, regenerative, and delicious future.

1. African Population & Health Research Centre, Kenya

APHRC is an African-founded, African-led research-to-policy institution driving evidence-informed decisions on health and development. Headquartered in Nairobi, they work across 35+ countries to strengthen African research leadership and advance sustainable progress across the continent. They are also behind the award-winning initiative Restoring Nairobi to “A Place of Cool Waters,” to transform Kenya’s capital into a greener, food secure city.

2. Agroecology Fund, International

Since 2011, the Agroecology Fund has pooled resources to strengthen grassroots agroecology movements advancing fair, biodiverse, climate-resilient food systems. Guided by civil society advisors, it supports community-led organizing, learning, and policy advocacy. With US$41 million granted in 100+ countries, the Fund helps build food systems where producers and consumers govern locally—and where agroecology, not industrial agriculture, shapes a just future for people and planet.

3. AKADEMIYA2063, Africa

AKADEMIYA2063 equips African governments with the data, analysis, and technical capacity needed to achieve Agenda 2063’s vision of prosperity and sustainability. Based in Rwanda with a regional office in Senegal, it leads core initiatives to strengthen knowledge systems, empower African experts, and accelerate evidence-based agricultural transformation across the continent. Together with GAIN, they recently launched a toolkit to help governments align policies across sectors to accelerate food systems transformation.

4. Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), Africa

AFSA unites a powerful network of 48 member alliances across 50 countries working to secure food sovereignty rooted in agroecology, traditional knowledge, and community rights. Representing small-scale food producers, Indigenous Peoples, and environmental defenders, AFSA amplifies African-driven solutions and resists industrial agriculture that threatens land, culture, and biodiversity—mobilizing a strong, unified voice for just and resilient food systems.

5. American Farmland Trust (AFT), United States

American Farmland Trust is safeguarding the future of U.S. agriculture by protecting farmland, restoring soil health, and keeping farmers on the land. From advancing smart land-use policies to supporting new generations of producers, AFT links food, climate resilience, and rural prosperity. Amid rapid land loss, AFT’s No Farms No Food message continues to spotlight farmland as the foundation of our food system.

6. Annie’s Project, United States

Annie’s Project empowers women farmers, ranchers, and growers with the business skills and confidence needed to lead thriving agricultural operations. Through peer networks, practical training, and locally tailored learning environments, participants strengthen decision-making across financial, legal, and risk-management challenges. Honoring a legacy of women as equal partners on the land, Annie’s Project is helping shape stronger farms, families, and communities.

7. Aragón Agri-Food Institute, Europe

Based at the Aula Dei research campus in Spain, CITA drives scientific innovation to strengthen sustainable agriculture, forestry, and rural economies. Its teams advance agroecology, climate resilience, and the bio- and circular economy through collaborative research and living labs. From conserving genetic resources to improving livestock and plant systems, CITA helps shape a more competitive and sustainable agrifood sector across Europe.

8. Arrell Food Institute, Canada

Based at the University of Guelph, the Arrell Food Institute connects scientists, policymakers, industry, and communities to advance sustainable, equitable food systems. Its work spans reducing waste in supply chains, supporting climate-smart production, and improving nutrition access. Through initiatives like ag-tech innovation and net-zero food system challenges, AFI helps Canada lead in resilient food futures.

9. Asian Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), Asia

AFA unites small-scale farmers, fishers, Indigenous Peoples, and pastoralists across Asia to advance food sovereignty and resilient rural livelihoods. Through advocacy, cooperative development, youth engagement, and farmer-to-farmer learning, AFA strengthens secure land rights and agroecological production. With members in 20+ countries, the alliance amplifies community voices in policies that shape a just farming future for the region.

10. Australian Conservation Foundation, Australia

For nearly 60 years, the Australian Conservation Foundation has mobilized people across the country to protect wildlife, forests, rivers, and reefs. From securing World Heritage protection for the Great Barrier Reef and Kakadu to advancing clean energy and stronger nature laws, ACF challenges harmful industries and empowers communities—driving bold action so nature and people can thrive together in Australia’s future.

11. Agroecology & Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA), Australia

AFSA is a farmer-led alliance working to democratize Australia’s food system through agroecology, land justice, and First Peoples’ sovereignty. From legal support for smallholders to campaigning for scale-appropriate regulation and local processing infrastructure, AFSA empowers producers and communities to reclaim control of food and land. Connected to La Via Campesina, the Alliance drives policy reform and grassroots solutions for just, local, climate-resilient food systems.

12. Better Food Future, International

Better Food Future brings industry, government, and civil society together to build resilient, transparent, and climate-smart food systems. By aligning sustainability goals with global data standards, the initiative strengthens traceability in seafood and cattle, expands fair market access for small-scale producers, and eliminates deforestation from supply chains—driving measurable progress and shared prosperity from source to shelf.

13. Black Feminist Project, United States

The Black Feminist Project advances food and reproductive justice for Black women, girls, and gender-expansive people in the South Bronx. Through Black Joy Farm, sliding-scale community meals, and youth programs like Guerrilla Girls and Sis, Do You!, the organization combats food apartheid, builds leadership, and cultivates joy and autonomy—placing MaGes and mother-led families at the center of community power.

14. Broadway Green Alliance, United States

The Broadway Green Alliance mobilizes theatre-makers and audiences to shrink the industry’s environmental footprint—from switching 100,000 marquee bulbs to efficient LEDs to diverting tons of textiles and electronics from landfills. With 1,600+ Green Captains on Broadway and campuses nationwide, BGA equips artists with practical sustainability tools and uses the power of storytelling to inspire climate-positive action.

15. Buğday Association, Turkey

Born from a grassroots ecological movement in the 1990s, Buğday Association works to build a culture of ecological living in Turkey. Through projects spanning seed exchange, pesticide-free farming, composting, agroecology education, and Turkey’s 100 percent Ecological Markets, Buğday strengthens links between rural producers and urban consumers while championing nature-friendly production and traditional knowledge.

16. C40 Food Systems, International

Part of a global network of 97 cities, C40 Food Systems helps mayors transform urban food into a powerful climate solution. The program supports cities to cut emissions from production to waste, improve food access and nutrition, and build resilience through circular, plant-forward, and equitable food policies—advancing a fair, green transition that protects people and the planet.

17. CARE International, International and CARE USA, United States

For 80 years, CARE has worked alongside communities to confront crises, defeat poverty, and advance dignity. Centering women and girls, CARE delivers lifesaving assistance, strengthens local leadership, and drives long-term change—from emergency response and food security to health, education, and economic opportunity. In 2024, CARE and partners reached 58.7 million people across 121 countries, proving that hope and equality can thrive even in the hardest places.

18. CGIAR, International

CGIAR is a global research partnership transforming food, land, and water systems through science and innovation. Its network includes the Africa Rice Center, CIFOR, CIMMYT, ICARDA, ICRISAT, IFPRI, IITA, ILRI, CIP, IRRI, IWMI, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, ICRAF, and WorldFish. Together, these centers advance climate-resilient crops, equitable food policies, regenerative land management, and sustainable aquatic and livestock systems—delivering research and partnerships that strengthen nutrition, farmer livelihoods, and environmental stewardship worldwide.

19. CORAF, West and Central Africa

CORAF unites the agricultural research systems of 23 countries to drive innovation, boost productivity, and strengthen food and nutrition security across West and Central Africa. Through regional centers of excellence, technology scaling, market access initiatives, and policy support, CORAF helps family farmers adopt climate-smart solutions and fosters a future where communities prosper through resilient, competitive, and sustainable agriculture.

20. Charlie Cart Project, United States

With its mobile kitchen classrooms, the Charlie Cart Project brings hands-on food education directly into schools, libraries, and community centers. Their integrated curriculum helps children and adults learn cooking skills, nutrition basics, and the origins of their food. In the last decade, they have reached over 500,000 children and families through our 500 community partners across the country.

21. City Harvest, United States

For more than 40 years, City Harvest has led the food-rescue movement in New York City—recovering over 86 million pounds of surplus food each year and delivering it, free of charge, to 400 pantries, soup kitchens, and Mobile Markets® across all five boroughs. With a focus on fresh produce, culturally responsive foods, nutrition education, and community partnerships, City Harvest fights hunger, reduces waste, and strengthens local food systems so every New Yorker can thrive.

22. Climate Group, International

Climate Group accelerates urgent climate action by mobilizing powerful networks of 500+ multinational companies and 180+ state and regional governments. Working across high-emitting systems—energy, transport, heavy industry, and food—it drives commitments, enforces accountability, and turns ambition into measurable progress. Its global collaborations push organizations to act now and help steer the world toward net-zero by 2050.

23. Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), United States

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is a worker-led human rights organization transforming U.S. agriculture through organizing, enforcement, and consumer power. Since 1993, CIW has exposed and helped prosecute major forced-labor rings, liberated over 1,200 workers, and pioneered the Fair Food Program—a worker-driven model that raises wages, prevents abuse, and sets enforceable standards across farms in multiple states and crops.

24. Conflict Cuisine Project, International 

The Conflict Cuisine Project explores the deep links between food and war, using culinary traditions as a lens to understand conflict, diaspora, and peacebuilding. Through gastrodiplomacy, education programs, and collaborations with chefs and policymakers, the project shows how recipes, foodways, and shared meals can foster dialogue, integration, and a more nuanced understanding of global insecurity.

25. Community Kitchen, United States

Community Kitchen is a pilot sliding-scale restaurant at the Lower Eastside Girls Club, where chef Mavis-Jay Sanders serves multi-course, locally sourced, plant-forward dinners priced at US$15, US$45, or US$125 based on income and wealth—no questions asked. Co-founded with Mark Bittman, the project aims to prove that dignified, high-quality dining can be accessible, community-centered, and a model for policy change.

26. Crop Trust, International

The Crop Trust safeguards the world’s crop diversity by funding and strengthening genebanks and backing global seed reserves like the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Its Food Forever strategy aims to permanently secure key collections and make them more accessible to researchers and farmers. Through long-term partnerships, technical support, and capacity building, the organization helps ensure agriculture can adapt to climate, conflict, and biodiversity loss.

27. Culinary Institute of America, United States

The Culinary Institute of America prepares future food leaders through its longstanding commitment to excellence, research, and innovation. CIA co-founded and leads the  Menus of Change University Research Collaborative, a worldwide partnership of universities leveraging campus dining to study behavior change and bring plant-forward, climate-smart menu innovation into practice. 

28. Cultivemos Network, United States

Cultivemos—meaning “we cultivate”—links Northeast farmers, ranchers, and farmworkers to mental-health resources, culturally relevant support, and community-driven education. Through partnerships with Farm Aid and others, the network provides bilingual materials, resilience trainings, and a growing service-provider community designed to reduce stress, strengthen well-being, and ensure agricultural families can access the care they need.

29. Dion’s Chicago Dream, United States

Dion’s Chicago Dream advances health equity by redesigning food access through last-mile logistics. Founded in Englewood, the nonprofit delivers fresh, pre-measured produce directly to households through Dream Deliveries, community Dream Fridges, and networked Dream Vaults—collectively providing millions of pounds of healthy food. By pairing nutritional philanthropy with workforce development and neighborhood partnerships, the Dream builds community, stability, and hope across Chicago.

30. Edible Schoolyard Project, United States

The Edible Schoolyard Project, founded by Alice Waters in 1995, transforms public education by integrating organic gardens, kitchens, and cafeterias into academic learning. Its Berkeley demonstration site anchors a national movement where students cook, garden, and study food systems as part of their core curriculum. Through free classroom resources and the Alice Waters Institute, the organization advances edible education, climate action, and community well-being.

31. EAT, International

EAT works at the intersection of science, policy, business, and civil society to accelerate the shift toward healthy, fair, and sustainable food systems. Through science-based initiatives like the EAT–Lancet Commission report, global convenings such as the Stockholm Food Forum, and city-level efforts advancing the Planetary Health Diet, EAT works to transform evidence into collective action and partnerships that support people and the planet.

32. EiT Food, Europe 

EIT Food brings together innovators across Europe to accelerate the shift toward a healthier, more sustainable, and consumer-centered food system. Backed by the EU, it invests in research, education, entrepreneurship, and public engagement to advance three core missions—healthier diets, resilient and transparent supply chains, and a net-zero food system—linking startups, industry, and communities to drive system-wide change.

33. European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture (EARA), Europe

The European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture (EARA) is a farmer-led coalition advancing ecological, economic, and social regeneration across Europe’s agrifood system. Rooted in diverse farming contexts, EARA elevates farmer expertise in EU policy and builds broad alliances through its Regenerating Europe Tour—a series of strategic dialogues, farm visits, and workshops across Member States designed to accelerate a soil-centered, regenerative agricultural transition.

34. FAIRR Initiative, International

FAIRR is an investor network mobilizing more than US$90 trillion in assets to address the financial and systemic risks tied to intensive animal agriculture. Through rigorous research, company benchmarking, and coordinated investor engagement, FAIRR equips members to navigate climate, biodiversity, labor, and antimicrobial resistance risks while identifying opportunities across the protein value chain to accelerate a more sustainable and resilient global food system.

35. Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (FLOC), United States

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (FLOC) is a union and social movement advancing farmworkers’ rights across the Midwest and South. Founded in the 1960s by Baldemar Velásquez, FLOC pioneered tri-party bargaining—bringing corporations, growers, and workers to the same table—to secure fair wages, safer housing, and grievance protections, while mobilizing broad public support to shift power toward those who labor in the fields.

36. Feeding Change, United States

The Milken Institute’s Feeding Change program works to build a more nutritious, sustainable, equitable, and resilient food system by activating the necessary social and financial capital needed to drive this transformation. Some of their recent policy briefs and reports have called for employer-led nutrition strategies, expanded access to pharmacy-based care, and natural capital solutions. 

37. First Nations Development Institute, United States

First Nations Development Institute strengthens the economic, cultural, and ecological well-being of Native communities by supporting Tribal sovereignty and investing in Native-led solutions. Since 1980, its national grantmaking program has directed thousands of awards to projects advancing land stewardship, food systems, economic justice, and Native arts—reinforcing community assets, uplifting Indigenous knowledge, and sustaining self-determined futures across Tribal nations.

38. Food is Medicine Institute, United States

The Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts advances the integration of nutritious food into healthcare by generating evidence, training clinicians, and supporting patient care models such as medically tailored meals, groceries, and produce prescriptions. Through interdisciplinary research, policy analysis, and community partnerships, the Institute works to embed FIM into clinical systems, reduce health disparities, and strengthen a more equitable, prevention-focused healthcare system.

39. Food Recovery Network (FRN), United States

Food Recovery Network mobilizes thousands of student leaders, food businesses, and farms to keep surplus food out of landfills and redirect it to community organizations fighting hunger. Launched in 2011 at the University of Maryland, FRN now operates nearly 200 campus and community programs, recovering millions of pounds of fresh food and expanding local food access while reducing waste and emissions nationwide.

40. Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), United States

The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) advances policies that ensure every person in the U.S. can access nutritious food. Through research, advocacy, and support for a nationwide network of anti-hunger partners, FRAC strengthens federal nutrition programs, expands benefits, addresses racial inequities, and tackles the root causes of poverty-related hunger to build a healthier, more food-secure nation.

41. Food Security Leadership Council, International

The Food Security Leadership Council unites leaders from science, agriculture, industry, and global development to reimagine U.S. engagement in global food security. Guided by evidence and nonpartisan analysis, the Council elevates the impacts of U.S. policy, advances a strategic blueprint for international action, and convenes emerging leaders to address rising hunger driven by climate change, land degradation, water scarcity, and biodiversity loss.

42. Food Systems for the Future (FSF), International

Food Systems for the Future advances market-based, nutrition-focused solutions to build equitable and sustainable food systems. Led by Ambassador Ertharin Cousin, the organization works across the U.S. and Africa to expand access to affordable, diverse, and nourishing foods through policy engagement, research, coalition-building, and partnerships that strengthen local capacity and drive systemwide change toward a malnutrition-free world.

43. FreshRx Oklahoma, United States

FreshRx Oklahoma partners with local growers and clinicians to help North Tulsa residents manage Type II diabetes with nutrient-dense, regeneratively grown produce and yearlong support. Launched in 2021 after evidence showed food access was undermining diabetes care, the USDA-funded program provides biweekly produce, cooking and nutrition classes, and regular health screenings—advancing health equity through a Food is Medicine model rooted in community.

44. Friends of the Earth, International

Friends of the Earth mobilizes a nationwide network to advance bold, justice-centered environmental action. Since 1969, the organization has pushed for transformative policies that confront the climate and biodiversity crises head-on—rejecting half-measures, challenging corporate power, and championing systemic solutions. Through advocacy, coalition-building, and movement organizing, they work to protect people and the planet while building durable political power for long-term change.

45. Full Plates Full Potential, United States

Full Plates Full Potential works to end childhood food insecurity in Maine by strengthening and expanding the child nutrition programs that reach students every day. The organization helped lead the passage of School Meals for All and continues partnering with schools and communities to ensure every child has reliable access to nutritious meals that support learning, equity, and long-term well-being.

46. Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), International

GAIN works to improve access to nutritious, safe, and affordable food by transforming food systems alongside governments, businesses, and civil society. They focus on availability, affordability, desirability, and sustainability of healthy diets—especially for women, children, and other vulnerable groups—through programs that strengthen markets, advance fortification, shape policy, and expand nutrition-focused innovation worldwide.

47. Global Alliance for Latinos in Agriculture (GALA), International

GALA strengthens Latino farmers and ranchers worldwide through regenerative agriculture, conscious capitalism, and alignment with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. The organization advances youth leadership, digital and carbon-literacy training, and cross-cultural knowledge exchange to revitalize rural communities, foster family-farm prosperity, and build resilient, sustainability-driven agricultural livelihoods across generations.

48. Global Alliance for the Future of Food, International

The Global Alliance for the Future of Food is a coalition of philanthropic foundations working with partners worldwide to accelerate the transition to equitable, climate-resilient food systems. The Alliance advances systems-level solutions by convening diverse actors, generating evidence, and driving collaborative action toward food systems that uphold health, sustainability, and human rights for present and future generations.

49. Global Food Institute (GFI) at GW, United States

The Global Food Institute at George Washington University advances evidence-based solutions across policy, innovation, and community well-being to transform food systems. Through interdisciplinary research, teaching, and convenings, GFI links science to real-world action, shaping how food is grown, distributed, and experienced to improve human and planetary health.

50. Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, United States

Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming advances a resilient regional food system by training the next generation of farmers, promoting regenerative practices, and strengthening fair, community-based markets. Working from the Hudson Valley and sharing lessons nationally, Glynwood aligns ecological stewardship with thriving local economies and equitable access to nutritious food. 

51. Gönül Mutfağı, Turkey

Launched by chefs Türev Uludağ and Ebru Baybara Demir, Gönül Mutfağı served over 17 million meals to earthquake survivors in 2023 through the work of 4,000 volunteers. The initiative strengthens long-term recovery by employing local residents through the From Soil to Plate cooperative and supplying 10,000 breakfasts each day to Hatay students.

52. GrowNYC, United States

Since 1970, GrowNYC has helped New Yorkers access fresh food, vibrant green spaces, and environmental education. Through producer-only Greenmarkets, community garden support, and education programs, the organization uplifts regional farmers and empowers residents—particularly frontline communities—to shape a healthier, more resilient city.

53. Guyra Paraguay, Paraguay

Focused on protecting Paraguay’s natural wealth, Guyra Paraguay brings together civil society, Indigenous communities, farmers, and scientists to conserve species, restore forests, and promote sustainable livelihoods. Through projects in the Atlantic Forest, agroforestry initiatives, and innovative monitoring and climate-finance programs—such as their shade-grown yerba mate program—the organization works to build a resilient landscape for people and wildlife. 

54. Green Bronx Machine, United States

Green Bronx Machine transforms classrooms and communities through a K–12+ model that weaves urban agriculture into core academics. Students grow and distribute thousands of pounds of fresh produce while improving attendance, engagement, and achievement. Through food education, workforce development, and community partnerships, the organization builds healthier schools and stronger, more resilient Bronx neighborhoods—proving that healthy students help grow healthy communities.

55. Good Food Fund, China

Good Food Fund drives China’s transition toward healthier, more sustainable, and more humane food systems. Through chef training, youth programs, policy-aligned partnerships, and the Good Food Summit, GFF advances plant-based innovation and elevates animal welfare. Its Good Food Academy and incubator programs build knowledge and support emerging leaders working to shift production, consumption, and public awareness toward a better food future.

56. Harlem Grown, United States

Harlem Grown cultivates healthy kids and resilient communities by engaging Harlem youth in hands-on urban farming, nutrition, and sustainability education. Since 2011, the organization has expanded access to fresh food and learning opportunities by operating 14 urban agriculture sites, from soil-based farms to hydroponic greenhouses, while mentoring elementary-aged students to become advocates for their health, community, and environment.

57. Helen’s Daughters, Caribbean

Helen’s Daughters strengthens rural women across the Caribbean by using agriculture as a pathway to broader economic and social opportunity. Working at the grassroots level, the organization provides training, mentorship, micro-investment, and market access while advancing gender equity through public advocacy. Their programs—from an all-female agri-apprenticeship to FarmHers Markets—position women farmers as leaders of sustainable development across the region.

58. High Atlas Foundation, Morocco

The High Atlas Foundation advances community-led development across Morocco by helping rural families build sustainable livelihoods rooted in fruit-tree agriculture, clean water access, and women’s empowerment. Through 15 nurseries producing millions of saplings, carbon-offset programs, and post-earthquake recovery, HAF supports communities to restore land, preserve cultural heritage, and create long-term, locally driven pathways to economic resilience.

59. IndigeHub, United States

IndigeHub strengthens Indigenous self-determination by creating shared resource hubs that fuel entrepreneurship, food sovereignty, and community resilience. Through coworking spaces, commercial kitchens, and emerging food hubs, the organization expands access to tools, training, and local markets. Their culturally grounded model reduces barriers on tribal lands, supports small businesses, and equips communities to build sustainable, long-term prosperity.

60. Instituto Regenera, Brazil

Instituto Regenera works to advance regenerative food systems by co-creating applied knowledge that drives transparent, fair, inclusive, and sustainable practices. Rooted in the idea that food is climate, biodiversity, and culture, the organization partners across sectors to strengthen emerging models that restore ecosystems, uplift communities, and embed regeneration at every stage of the food system. During COP30, the organization helped secure a commitment from the Brazilian government to source at least one third of food served at the conference from local family farmers.

61. Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Americas

IICA is the Inter-American System’s specialized agency for agriculture, working with 34 Member States to strengthen rural well-being and agricultural development. Through technical cooperation spanning innovation, family farming, trade, digitalization, and agricultural health, IICA supports countries in building competitive, inclusive, and sustainable agrifood systems resilient to climate shocks and aligned with long-term regional development goals.

62. International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), Africa

icipe advances insect science for sustainable development across Africa, pioneering environmentally safe tools to manage pests and disease vectors while conserving biodiversity. Through its 4Hs approach—Human Health, Animal Health, Plant Health and Environmental Health—the Centre strengthens food security, rural livelihoods, and ecosystem resilience. As the continent’s only international arthropod research institution, it also builds scientific capacity through extensive training and partnerships.

63. International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), International

IFAD works to end rural poverty by investing in small-scale farmers and strengthening food systems. A U.N. agency and international financial institution, it provides grants and low-interest loans that expand market access, boost production, and build climate resilience. IFAD’s people-centered approach ensures women, youth, and Indigenous communities shape and benefit from rural transformation.

64. International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), International

IPES-Food unites 25 leading researchers and practitioners to accelerate food system transformation. From analyzing power dynamics to proposing concrete policy reforms, the panel produces influential reports and builds alliances that center equity, sustainability, and health. Rooted in science and informed by frontline realities, IPES-Food provides a clear roadmap for fixing failing food and agriculture systems.

65. International Potato Center, International

Headquartered in Lima, Peru, the International Potato Center (CIP) supports science-based solutions to improve root and tuber agri-food systems. They do this to ultimately enhance nutrition security, support sustainable business, and improve communities’ livelihoods. CIP leads the project Lima 2035, which aims to make the city of Lima’s food and agriculture systems regenerative and human-centered.

66. James Beard Foundation (JBF), United States

The James Beard Foundation strengthens the independent restaurant sector by recognizing excellence and equipping chefs and culinary leaders to drive a more equitable, sustainable food system. Through its awards, training programs, and national initiatives, JBF champions Good Food for Good—supporting an industry that enriches American culture and empowers the people who shape our food future.

67. John Hopkins University Center for Health Security and Center for a Livable Future, United States

At Johns Hopkins University, the Centers for Health Security and a Livable Future are working to reshape our systems in support of human and planetary health. The Center for Health Security works to protect communities from epidemics, biological threats, and public health emergencies while the Center for a Livable Future (CLF) advances alternatives to industrial food systems. CLF also recently launched a program to support the next generation of food and agriculture journalists. 

68. Kiss the Ground, United States

Kiss the Ground advances the regenerative movement by elevating healthy soil as a solution for human and planetary well-being. Through films, digital storytelling, education, and direct farmer support, the organization has inspired millions and helped transition more than two million acres toward regenerative agriculture—mobilizing public awareness toward a tipping point for systems-scale change.

69. La Via Campesina, International

Formed in 1993, La Via Campesina brings together 200 million small-scale food producers in 81 countries to defend land, water, seeds, and territory. The movement centers food sovereignty—healthy, culturally rooted food produced sustainably—and trains members in agroecology and peasant feminism. Its sustained mobilization shaped major global governance spaces, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants.

70. Local2030 Islands Network (L2030IN), International

This global network amplifies the leadership of island communities working toward the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. Members share knowledge, strengthen public-private partnerships, and implement initiatives in support of a circular economy to create solutions that are locally driven and culturally informed.

71. McKnight Foundation, United States

The McKnight Foundation is working toward a more just and creative future through investments that celebrate culture bearers, strengthen farmer-centered agroecological research, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and more. Taking a silo-breaking approach, they also blend their program areas to bring food and the arts together. 

72. Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, International

Launched in 2015, the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact unites over 250 cities in a mayor-led commitment to build sustainable, inclusive, and resilient urban food systems. As the leading global framework for municipal food policy, the Pact drives action through a shared 37-point agenda, peer learning, capacity building, and annual Milan Pact Awards showcasing innovative city solutions.

73. Naandi Foundation, India

The Naandi Foundation works across 438 districts in 21 states of India to create a better future for farmers and girls. In support of farmers, the organization encourages knowledge-sharing and the use of sustainable agricultural inputs, finding innovative ways to bring a regenerative and profitable agriculture system. Their goal in the coming years is to support 10 million girls with schooling and employment and 100 million farmers by planting 1 billion trees.

74. National Farm to School Network, United States

The National Farm to School Network builds equitable farm to school systems that support children, farmers, and communities. Through policy leadership, hands-on training, and a nationwide coalition spanning all 50 states, NFSN helps schools serve local food, integrate gardens and food education, and strengthen regional economies—advancing a vision of a racially just and community-driven food system.

75. National Farm Worker Ministry, United States

The National Farm Worker Ministry brings together denominations, congregations, and advocates to back campaigns led by farm workers seeking fair pay, safe conditions, and basic rights. Grounded in faith and racial justice, NFWM organizes actions, educates supporters, and builds solidarity networks that help transform the systems shaping life and labor in U.S. agriculture.

76. National Farmers Union, United States

The National Farmers Union (NFU) represents more than 220,000 family farmers and ranchers, advancing policies rooted in grassroots decision-making. NFU works to strengthen rural economies through farmer-driven advocacy, cooperative solutions, and education, promoting fair markets, resilient communities, and a future where family agriculture can thrive. In response to the increase in political and economic uncertainty farmers are facing in the last year, NFU has continued fighting to put growers first. 

77. National Young Farmers Coalition, United States

The National Young Farmers Coalition is a farmer-led network shifting power and transforming federal policy to equitably resource a new generation of growers. The Coalition centers BIPOC leadership and organizes young farmers nationwide to secure land access, climate resilience, and structural change so farming can remain viable, just, and community-rooted.

78. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), International

Since 1970, NRDC has paired legal action, scientific expertise, and grassroots advocacy to safeguard people and the planet. With offices across the U.S. and in Beijing, its attorneys, scientists, and policy experts tackle climate pollution, toxic exposures, biodiversity loss, and environmental inequity while advancing durable protections for communities and ecosystems.

79. New York Botanical Garden, United States

Each year the New York Botanical Garden reaches tens of thousands of families through exhibitions, botanical experiences, art, music, and events. Their scientists work around the world to find actionable, nature-based solutions to the climate and biodiversity loss crises, striving to create a green future for all. 

80. Niman Ranch Next Generation Foundation, United States

Rooted in Niman Ranch’s commitment to smaller-scale, humane farming, the Next Generation Foundation supports young producers through scholarships and targeted grants. With over US$2 million distributed since 2006, the Foundation helps new farmers pursue education, adopt regenerative methods, expand their operations, and build resilient rural livelihoods.

81. North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NĀTIFS), North America

Founded by Chef Sean Sherman, North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS) is rebuilding a regional Indigenous food system through education, enterprise, and access. From its Minneapolis-based Indigenous Food Lab—combining a professional kitchen, market, and training center—NATIFS supports tribal communities in restoring Native foodways, expanding Indigenous culinary businesses, and advancing Indigenous food sovereignty across North America.

82. NOW Partners Foundation, International

For over three decades, NOW Partners Foundation has collaborated with businesses, investors, and institutions to advance regenerative land use, equitable leadership, and new industry logics. Their global partnership guides companies through transitions that integrate profitability with positive impact, demonstrating how Regenerative Value Creation can scale solutions that restore ecosystems, strengthen communities, and build resilient economies.

83. ONE Campaign, International

The ONE Campaign unites activists, data experts, and trusted messengers to influence global decision-makers and secure investments that strengthen opportunity and health across Africa. Strictly nonpartisan and independently funded, ONE pairs hard evidence with public pressure to drive lasting policy change—amplifying millions of voices for a world where dignity and equity are shared by all.

84. One Fair Wage, United States

One Fair Wage unites service workers, employers, and allies to confront the legacy of subminimum pay and win lasting wage justice. By driving research, mobilizing voters, and advancing bold state and local reforms, the organization works to guarantee every worker—tipped, gig, youth, disabled, or incarcerated—a full, fair minimum wage with tips as a true supplement.

85. OzHarvest, Australia

Australia’s largest food-rescue network, OzHarvest saves quality surplus food from thousands of donors and delivers it free to charities nationwide—over 300 million meals so far. Alongside rescue, they run national education programs, innovate with projects like OzHarvest Market and Refettorio, and push for systemic change to halve food waste and strengthen food security.

86. Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM), East, Central, and Southern Africa

PELUM unites civil society organizations from 12 African countries to scale ecological land-use management with smallholder farmers. Founded in 1995, the network drives agroecology training, collaborative learning, and farmer-centered advocacy, expanding sustainable practices and strengthening food sovereignty. Its regional chapters support programs that improve livelihoods while regenerating ecosystems and boosting community resilience.

87. Physicians Association for Nutrition (PAN), International

PAN is a global medical nonprofit working to reduce diet-related deaths by making nutrition central to clinical practice. Through medical education, hospital partnerships, and national branches across four continents, PAN equips health professionals to champion healthy, sustainable diets and drive food-system changes that address chronic disease, climate impacts, and pandemic risk.

88. Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), United States

PFI is a farmer-led network advancing resilient agriculture in Iowa. Members—conventional and organic, large and small—share knowledge through field days, research trials, and peer learning to strengthen stewardship, profitability, and community well-being. United by a land ethic and a commitment to welcoming all, PFI helps farmers build operations grounded in sustainability and shared experience.

89. Project Dandelion, International

Project Dandelion is a women-led global campaign uniting movements, leaders, and communities to demand a climate-safe world. Rooted in climate justice, it mobilizes millions to act, elevates women’s leadership, and advances seven core demands—from ending fossil fuel subsidies to scaling fair, renewable energy—building a powerful, shared symbol for urgent, collective action.

90. Project Drawdown, United States

Project Drawdown is an independent nonprofit advancing bold, science-based climate solutions. Through cutting-edge research, strategic engagement with policymakers, investors, and industry leaders, and powerful storytelling, it shifts resources and public narratives toward effective action. Its work guides climate strategies worldwide, elevating solutions that cut emissions, protect ecosystems, and expand human well-being.

91. ProVeg International, International

ProVeg International accelerates food-system transformation by replacing animal products with plant-based and cultivated alternatives. Active across five continents and holding consultative and observer status with key UN agencies, ProVeg works with companies, investors, and communities to tackle climate, health, and hunger challenges through diet change—aiming to halve global animal-product consumption by 2040.

92. Rainforest Alliance, International

Working across over 60 countries, the Rainforest Alliance mobilizes market power and community leadership to protect forests, restore biodiversity, and improve rural livelihoods. Its global alliance advances regenerative production, responsible sourcing, and climate action, ensuring that farmers, companies, and consumers all contribute to—and benefit from—a future where people and nature thrive in balance.

93. ReFED, United States

ReFED uses data, research, and cross-sector partnerships to drive measurable impact on food loss and waste. In collaboration with the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative (MCURC), they are working with foodservice operators to repurpose surplus food and reduce food waste across college campuses. Their recent toolkit is now helping more chefs implement solutions in their own dining halls. 

94. Regen Places Network, Australia

Across Australia, the Regen Places Network brings communities together to combat people’s disconnection from the environment and one another by developing climate-smart, place-based food and land use strategies. By 2030, they aim to develop 2,030 leaders committed to restoring ecosystems and building resilient food systems, who will make up a far-reaching network of conveners and communities.

95. Regen10, International

Designed as a global multi-stakeholder platform, Regen10 is working to mobilize farmers, companies, researchers, and governments to scale regenerative agriculture. The initiative works to transform how food is produced by improving soil health, strengthening livelihoods, and advancing climate-resilient systems. 

96. Resilient Cities Network, International

Resilient Cities Network works with nearly 100 cities in over 40 countries around the world to future-proof urban centers. Their work is organized around three pillars—climate resilience, circularity, and equity—as they bring together global knowledge, practice, partnerships, and funding to support member cities.

97. Rodale Institute, United States

For decades, the Rodale Institute has pioneered research in organic agriculture research, education, and farmer training. Their long-term field trials provide some of the world’s most influential data on soil health and climate impacts. The organization continues to expand knowledge and support farmers transitioning to regenerative organic methods.

98. Rooted East, United States

Rooted East, a Black-led food collective is fighting food apartheid and working to advance food justice in East Knoxville, Tennessee. Their recent documentary “Roots of Resilience” tells the story of the organization and how they’re using garden education and land partnerships to create a self-sustaining food system.

99. Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS), India

In the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Ryss is working alongside farmers to scale the adoption of chemical-free, climate-resilient farming practices. After demonstrating success in India, Ryss collaborated with NOW Partners to bring the model to communities in Zambia. Projects are also underway in Sri Lanka, and Brazil, with nine additional countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have been identified for future implementation as funding is secured.

100. Salesian Sisters’ Valponasca Learning Farm, Zambia

The Salesian Sisters’ Valponasca Learning Farm provides hands-on agricultural education to promote regenerative practices while empowering women and youth. Together with Rythu Sadhikara Samstha and NOW Partners, they are working to facilitate a pilot project that adapts the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming model to the local environment.

101. Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, International

Active in more than 60 countries, the SUN Movement works with governments to prioritize nutrition in national policies and investments. It unites civil society, donors, and the private sector to strengthen systems that support maternal and child health. The movement accelerates coordinated action to end malnutrition in all its forms.

102. SDG2 Advocacy Hub, International

The SDG2 Advocacy Hub drives coordinated global action to achieve SDG2—ending hunger, advancing food security and nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture by 2030. Bringing together NGOs, civil society, UN agencies, and private-sector partners, the Hub strengthens campaigns, supports country-level efforts, and equips advocates with shared tools to maximize collective influence across the Global Goals.

103. Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), India

Founded by Elaben Bhatt in 1972, SEWA represents 3.2 million self-employed women across India’s informal economy. As the country’s largest women-led trade union, SEWA advances full employment and self-reliance by organizing workers, strengthening cooperatives, expanding social protections, and building women-owned enterprises that enhance economic security and collective bargaining power.

104. Senegalese Association for the Promotion of Development at the Base (Asprodeb), Africa

Established in 1995, Asprodeb advances sustainable rural development in Senegal by equipping farmer organizations with technical support, professional training, and financial management tools. Born from collaboration between government and peasant movements, it helps family farms strengthen their services, implement development programs, and build productive partnerships across the agricultural sector.

105. Sicangu Food Sovereignty Initiative, United States

Based on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, this initiative works to restore traditional food systems and strengthen community health. Programs include seed saving, gardening, and educational workshops that reconnect youth and families to cultural food practices. Their work centers Indigenous knowledge as a foundation for food sovereignty and resilience.

106. Slow Food International, International and Slow Food USA, United States

Slow Food promotes local, sustainable, and culturally meaningful food systems around the globe. From grassroots chapters in the U.S. to international networks, the organization supports farmers, chefs, and communities in preserving biodiversity and culinary traditions in an effort to champion good, clean, and fair food for all.

107. Solid’Africa, Rwanda

Solid’Africa aims to empower smallholder farmers in Rwanda to access markets, improve yields, and adopt more sustainable practices. The organization offers free medically tailored meals to patients in public hospitals and delivers affordable, nutritious meals to students in public schools. Their approach prioritizes local sourcing from smallholder farmers, and they operate clean cooking kitchens to create a healthier food ecosystem. 

108. Soul Fire Farm, United States

Located in Upstate New York, Soul Fire Farm is an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm and training center working to end racism and advance food sovereignty. Their programs include farm tours, multi-day immersive programs for growers of Black, Indigenous, and Latine heritage, and youth-focused workshops. 

109. Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation, United States

The Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation works with young eaters to encourage healthy habits that will stay with them throughout their lifetimes. By partnering and investing in nutrition education and hands-on gardening programming, they support efforts that teach children how to grow and prepare nutritious food while making connections between what they eat and the natural environment. 

110. Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, United States

Stone Barns Center is a nonprofit farm and educational hub dedicated to regenerative agriculture and local food systems. Visitors and participants learn sustainable farming practices, nutrition, and culinary skills through hands-on experiences. The center serves as a model for farming that nourishes people and the planet.

111. Sustainable Food Trust, United Kingdom

Sustainable Food Trust works to accelerate the transition to sustainable food and farming systems for the benefit of climate, nature and health. Their focus areas include sustainable livestock, a food secure Britain, measuring sustainability, true cost accounting, supporting local abattoirs. 

112. Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at Arizona State University, United States

The Swette Center takes a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to facilitate research, education, public engagement, community-strengthening and policy reform in support of sustainable food systems. Their strategic priorities include cultivating the next generation of leaders, advancing organic research and policy, enabling true cost accounting of food, empowering Indigenous foodways, and engaging the private sector.  

113. Terepeza Development Association, Ethiopia

Working across rural Ethiopia, Terepeza Development Association supports smallholder farmers through programs in climate-smart agriculture, livelihoods, and community development. Their initiatives help families build resilience to drought and food insecurity while improving soil and water management. The organization also invests in youth and women’s empowerment to strengthen long-term sustainability.

114. The Common Market, United States

By connecting regional farmers with institutions like schools and hospitals, The Common Market strengthens local economies and expands access to nutritious, sustainably grown food. By advancing forward purchasing commitments for small and mid-scale farms, the organization hopes to rebuild regional food systems in the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Texas, and Great Lakes region of the U.S.

115. The Land Institute, International

The Land Institute is reimagining how grains can be grown in harmony with ecosystems. Their work on crops like Kernza aims to reduce soil erosion, improve biodiversity, and cut carbon emissions. Through science, partnerships, and global advocacy, they hope to advance a regenerative future for agriculture systems.

116. The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, International

Focused on the intersection of data, technology, and social impact, the Patrick J. McGovern foundation supports initiatives that strengthen climate resilience, food security, and community well-being. Their investments help organizations scale digital tools that improve agricultural forecasting, resource management, and humanitarian response. 

117. The Rockefeller Foundation, United States

For more than a century, The Rockefeller Foundation has worked to advance global health and food and nutrition security. Through investments in regenerative school meals, they are working to scale regenerative agriculture, connect students to healthy food, and improve educational outcomes. And with their Food is Medicine work, they are supporting programs and research to better understand the potential of produce prescriptions, medically tailored meals, or healthy grocery programs.

118. UJAMAA Cooperative Farming Alliance (UCFA), United States

UCFA works to bring greater diversity and equity to the seed supply by supporting BIPOC growers and connecting them with buyers seeking culturally significant crops. The Alliance strengthens markets for heritage varieties while investing in farmer training and cooperative development. Their efforts help preserve biodiversity and uplift historically marginalized growers.

119. United Nations System, International

The U.N. System includes principal bodies, specialized agencies, funds, and programs working to improve food and agriculture systems, protect the environment, better health outcomes, and promote gender equity. These institutions include U.N. Development Programme, U.N. Environment Programme, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and FAO North America, U.N. Global Compact, UN Women, the U.N. World Food Programme and World Food Program USA, and the World Health Organization.

120. Urban Growers Collective, United States

Urban Growers Collective operates sustainable urban farms across Chicago, using food production as a vehicle for community empowerment. Centering racial equity, they provide job training, youth leadership programs, and food access initiatives that center. Their work helps strengthen local food systems while supporting health and economic opportunity.

121. Wellness in the Schools, United States

Wellness in the Schools partners works to improve students’ health. By partnering with public schools, chefs, and coaches, they aim to shift the culture of schools to prioritize well-being. Over the last year, the organization has gathered leaders in the food and agriculture policy sphere to develop recommendations to guide the Trump-Vance administration’s overhaul of school meals.  

122. Wholesome Wave, United States

Wholesome Wave works to make fruits and vegetables more affordable for families experiencing food insecurity. Through nutrition incentive programs and produce prescriptions, they help households access healthier food while supporting local farmers. 

123. Women Advancing Nutrition Dietetics and Agriculture (WANDA), United States

Through training, education, and advocacy, WANDA is cultivating a thriving community of Black women leaders across food and agriculture systems. They hope to see more women and girls gain the skills they need to improve their lives and transform their communities from farm to health.

124. World Central Kitchen (WCK), International

In moments of disaster and crisis, WCK, founded by Chef José Andrés, delivers fresh, culturally relevant meals to those who need them most. In the last year, WCK has provided food to communities affected by war and natural disaster, including in Palestine, Ukraine, Haiti, and the Philippines.

125. World Resources Institute (WRI), International

The World Resources Institute works to advance sustainable development through rigorous research and partnerships across government, business, and civil society. They serve as the Secretariat, founding member, and core partner of the Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU), which works to rewire food systems to solve the climate crisis. 

126. World Wildlife Fund (WWF), International

WWF is dedicated to conserving biodiversity, addressing the climate crisis, and ensuring sustainable use of natural resources. Recognizing the impact that industrialized food and agriculture systems have on the environment, they work to create more regenerative and efficient production systems while encouraging dietary shifts among eaters. 

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

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World Bank Urges Biodiversity-Centered Agriculture Policies

The World Bank has released a new report examining how modern food production both depends on biodiversity and contributes to its decline, warning that current agricultural practices are undermining the ecosystems that farming relies on.

The report argues that the core challenge is not only reducing agriculture’s environmental harm, but embedding biodiversity into agricultural policies, investments, and public support systems worldwide.

According to the analysis, landscapes that retain at least 20–25 percent natural habitat provide stronger ecosystem services, including pollination, soil fertility, water regulation, and climate stabilization. When natural habitat falls below 10 percent, the report warns that some of these ecosystem services can disappear entirely, threatening agricultural productivity.

The World Bank estimates that 18–33 percent of global agricultural land currently lacks sufficient natural habitat to support pollination, pest control, and other critical services. To address these risks, the report calls for repurposing agricultural subsidies and increasing public investment to help farmers adopt biodiversity-supporting practices.

“When nature and biodiversity collapse, agriculture pays the price,” says Juergen Voegele, Vice President for Planet at the World Bank, emphasizing the economic and food security consequences of ecosystem loss.

Funding Falls Billions Short for Global 30×30 Biodiversity Goal

A new study and interactive dashboard released at the U.N. Environment Assembly warns that international funding to help countries meet the global 30×30 biodiversity target is increasing but remains far below what is required.

Target 3 aims to conserve at least 30 percent of the world’s land, inland waters, and oceans by 2030 to address biodiversity loss and climate change impacts.

The report finds that international public and philanthropic funding for protected and conserved areas in developing countries reached just over US$1.1 billion in 2024, representing roughly 150 percent growth since 2014. Despite this increase, the study estimates that approximately US$6 billion per year will be needed by 2030 to meet Target 3, leaving a projected annual shortfall of about US$4 billion at current funding trajectories.

The report highlights significant disparities in funding distribution, noting that Africa receives nearly half of tracked funding while small island developing states receive only 4.5 percent, despite being identified as priorities under the framework. Marine ecosystems account for just 14 percent of funding. The study also warns that reliance on a small group of donors—including Germany, the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility, the European Union, and the United States—leaves conservation finance vulnerable to political.

“This is a matter of urgency,” says Sierra Leone’s Environment Minister Jiwoh Abdulai, noting that biodiversity loss is already affecting livelihoods in biodiversity-rich countries.

Journal Retracts Influential Glyphosate Safety Study

A leading scientific journal has retracted a widely cited 2000 study that concluded the herbicide Roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate, do not pose a health risk to humans.

The study, published in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, had been relied upon by U.S. and international regulators, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as evidence that glyphosate was not carcinogenic. The retracted paper had been among the most frequently cited studies on glyphosate safety, ranking in the top 0.1 percent of glyphosate-related scientific literature.

According to the journal’s co-editor-in-chief, Martin van den Berg, the paper was retracted because its conclusions were based entirely on unpublished studies conducted by Monsanto, the manufacturer of Roundup.

The retraction also cites evidence that Monsanto employees may have helped write the paper without being listed as authors and that financial compensation was not fully disclosed, raising concerns about ghostwriting and scientific independence.

Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, says the retraction exposes “decades of efforts to hijack the science” and called on the EPA to reassess glyphosate’s cancer risk using independent research.

The decision comes as the Trump administration submitted a brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to limit lawsuits against Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018 and faces more than 67,000 glyphosate-related cancer claims.

Trump Administration Launches $700 Million Regenerative Agriculture Pilot

The Trump administration has announced a new US$700 million Regenerative Pilot Program aimed at helping farmers adopt regenerative agriculture practices, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture announcement.

USDA says the initiative is designed to improve soil health, enhance water quality, reduce production costs, and strengthen long-term productivity while supporting the U.S. food and fiber supply.

The program will be administered by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Funding for the pilot will be drawn from existing conservation programs, including US$400 million from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and US$300 million from the Conservation Stewardship Program in fiscal year 2026.

The pilot introduces a streamlined, whole-farm application process that allows producers to bundle multiple regenerative practices under a single conservation plan. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins says the initiative “puts Farmers First” by reducing administrative barriers and encouraging soil health and land stewardship as part of the administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.

The announcement comes as NRCS faces staffing shortages following the loss of at least 2,400 employees and roughly US$100 million in funding, raising concerns about the agency’s capacity to deliver conservation assistance.

Farm Action, a nonprofit that advocates for small farms, welcomes the investment but cautions that adequate staffing will be necessary to ensure funds are distributed “quickly and fairly” to farmers.

FRAC Report Finds Too Many Children Missing Out on Afterschool Nutrition Programs

The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) released a new report, Afterschool Suppers: A Snapshot of Participation, finding that many children are not receiving afterschool meals and snacks through federal nutrition programs.

The report shows that in October 2024, only one child received an afterschool supper for every 16 children who participated in free or reduced-price school lunch, underscoring a significant participation gap.

FRAC reported that approximately 1.26 million children received an afterschool supper on an average school day in October 2024, a slight increase from the prior year but still below pre-pandemic levels. Access declined in other areas, as the number of sites serving afterschool suppers and/or snacks fell to 44,911 in 2024, down 1,397 sites from 2023.

FRAC estimates that if every state met its benchmark of serving 15 children with afterschool supper for every 100 children receiving free or reduced-price lunch, more than 1.8 million additional children would have been served in a single month. Failing to reach that benchmark also resulted in an estimated $163.5 million in lost federal funding for afterschool suppers nationwide in October 2024 alone.

“Families are facing rising food costs, and many parents are working long hours just to get by,” says FRAC President Crystal FitzSimons, noting that afterschool nutrition programs help children “learn and thrive” while supporting working families.

FRAC recommends lowering eligibility thresholds, streamlining administration, and increasing funding to expand access to afterschool meals nationwide.

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Whether I’m traveling or at home, I usually have a book open. Somehow, my stack of books I want to read still seems never-ending—but that’s exactly how I like it!

Every season, Food Tank loves highlighting personal stories, cultural analyses, social histories, and more books that not only illuminate the food system as we know it today but also help us imagine what we can build tomorrow.

In All Consuming: Why We Eat The Way We Eat Now, baker and cookbook author Ruby Tandoh unpacks the social forces that shape our relationship with food in ways we might not realize. Looking at Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s quest to reinvest his fortune into climate resiliency in the book Dirtbag Billionaire, New York Times reporter David Gelles asks how we can reconcile the contradictions of creating a mission-driven business in a capitalist society. Author Nancy Matsumoto argues in Reaping What She Sows: How Women are Rebuilding a Broken Food System that community self-reliance is crucial—and women trailblazers have been and will continue to be indispensable to saving and rebuilding regional food systems.

In cookbooks and other guides—like Recipes From The American South by Michael Twitty, Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America by Sean Sherman, and What to Eat Now: The Indispensable Guide to Good Food, How to Find It, and Why It Matters by Marion Nestle—we’re reminded how changing the world can begin on our plates.

And we learn how to chart a path forward by digging into success stories. From Sam Kass’ The Last Supper, we learn from the chef and former Obama Administration food policy advisor about how we can invest in maximizing nutrition while protecting the climate. In The Accidental Seed Heroes, Adam Alexander celebrates the power of traditional seeds, and in Sea Change, authors Amanda Leland and James Workman share stories of the unlikely partnerships that are revolutionizing the fishing industry for the better.

I hope you’ll dive deeper into our most recent book list of 26 titles that, I think, can help us all plant and water the seeds of change in our own communities! CLICK HERE for the full list, including information on how you can find these books for yourself or as gifts.

Every one of us is intertwined in the food system, no matter our age—so we need to include young folks in our food system storytelling, too!

We’re also highlighting 20 additional books to spark curiosity in young readers about the food on their plates and the plants growing around them. What I love about these books is that they center the joyfulness of discovering where food comes from and how delicious it can be.

I also deeply respect the way that books on this list like A Plate of Hope: The Inspiring Story of Chef José Andrés and World Central Kitchen by Erin Frankel, Lucas and Emily’s Food Bank Adventure by Dave Grunenwald, Saturdays at Harlem Grown: How One Big Idea Transformed a Neighborhood by Tony Hillery and other books don’t avoid complex topics but rather find creative, appropriate ways to help young readers understand how food changes lives.

Young folks can be citizen eaters, too, so let’s give them the tools to advocate for sustainability and help shape the world they’ll inherit. Check out our list of 20 books to help kids in your life connect with food systems by CLICKING HERE.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

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At Instacart, our mission is simple: to create a world where everyone has access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. For too many families, though, nutritious food remains out of reach. As U.S. food insecurity rises and chronic diet-related diseases become more prevalent, the connection between nutrition and health has never been clearer.

Since launching Instacart Health, we’ve worked to bridge the gap between food access and health outcomes by leveraging our technology, partnerships, research, and advocacy. Along the way, we’ve seen two powerful opportunities for the private sector to partner with governments: first, through direct, innovative collaborations that deliver tangible results — and second, by leveraging our learnings to help inform public policy.

On the former, for example, we were proud to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help bring Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) online and become the first online grocery marketplace to expand it to all 50 states and Washington, D.C., making it easier for millions of families to access nutritious food. We’ve since expanded to offer EBT SNAP payments across nearly 180 retail banners and more than 30,000 stores nationwide. And last year, we introduced a SNAP eligibility screener directly on our platform, allowing anyone to easily check if they could qualify for SNAP and find relevant state resources to enroll. 

At the local level, programs like our Grocery Access Program Pilot in Columbia, South Carolina, and the Montgomery County Groceries Program in Maryland—both of which leverage Instacart Health technology to unlock grocery delivery for families facing food insecurity — are delivering measurable impact, including evidence of improved food access and healthier food choices. In DC, our latest and largest government partnership with the city’s Department of Health is helping families put more fruits and vegetables on their tables by giving 1,000 D.C. households access to monthly online grocery stipends through Fresh Funds, a program that allows providers to fund category-specific stipends, like fresh and frozen produce. Together, these initiatives show how public-private partnerships can expand food access and give every family the dignity and convenience of choice through online grocery.

The insights we’ve gleaned from these and other programs can be powerful in shaping public policies to combat hunger and nutrition insecurity. That’s why we recently released our new Instacart Health Policy Agenda, outlining our top policy recommendations and advocacy commitments in two focus areas: strengthening and modernizing food assistance programs and integrating nutrition into healthcare. This new agenda serves as a roadmap for how policymakers, private companies, and nonprofits can work together to expand access to nutritious food for all and improve health outcomes in communities across the country. 

Among the nation’s first large-scale food access and nutrition programs, SNAP and Women, Infant, and Children programs (WIC) laid the foundation for nationwide food as medicine initiatives, ensuring millions of families could put healthy food on the table. That’s exactly why we’re advocating for their modernization. These programs remain as vital today as ever, and they deserve the tools and infrastructure needed to maximize their impact.

During the pandemic, online grocery shopping became a lifeline—saving time, reducing stress and perceived stigma, and even encouraging healthier purchases. Research from No Kid Hungry and the University of Kentucky found that families shopping online with SNAP bought an average of $5.24 more in fruits and vegetables without increasing their total grocery bill. By bringing programs like WIC online, we can help more families shop with dignity and flexibility while improving health outcomes. It’s also why our agenda calls for making the online SNAP pilot program permanent. 

We’ve also seen firsthand how that food access can serve as a powerful form of preventive care. Across the country, states are incorporating food as medicine interventions into Medicaid and Medicare, with promising early results. Medically-tailored groceries and produce prescriptions are helping patients manage chronic conditions and improve key markers of health while reducing overall healthcare costs. To scale these solutions, we’re calling on legislators to enact clear policy guidance, streamlined waivers, and efficient billing systems that make nutrition-based care easier to implement at scale.

Finally, no conversation about nutrition security is complete without the consideration of children’s needs. We’re calling for expanded universal school meal programs and encouraging states to opt into the Summer EBT program, ensuring every child has access to healthy food year-round.

We’re proud to play our part in improving health outcomes. Our new Instacart Health Policy Agenda and growing network of public-private partnerships reflect our belief that expanding access to nutritious food is one of the most powerful ways to strengthen communities and advance public health. That’s because everyone deserves access not only to the food they love, but to the nutrition they need to live a healthy life.

Photo courtesy of Annie Spratt, Unsplash

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DC Central Kitchen (DCCK), a nonprofit combating hunger and poverty, operates Healthy Corners to deliver fresh and affordable produce to corner stores in D.C.’s low access communities. When the organization decided to help stores expand their offerings, they felt that Stanton Supermarket was best fit for the project.

“Their consistent participation, their vision for creating increased access to produce in their community…and their proximity to residential areas, schools, and public transportation,” made Stanton a top candidate, Yael Reichler, the Director of Healthy Corners, tells Food Tank.

The new department is “an investment in our community’s health,” store owner Yonas Haile tells Food Tank. Haile says the expansion responds to a need for more “visible and convenient” healthy food options in the neighborhood.

Stanton Supermarket is situated within a neighborhood of Washington D.C.’s Ward 8 community, an area home to more than 85,000 residents. For this population—81 percent of whom are Black—there is only one full-service grocery store, according to DC Hunger Solutions’ 2024 Report. Comparatively, on the opposite side of the District is Ward 3, a predominantly White neighborhood with a smaller population size but almost double the income average, and 15 full service grocery stores.

LaMonika Jones, Director of DC Hunger Solutions—an initiative of FRAC—cautions against calling Ward 8 a food desert. “A food desert is a naturally occurring part of our ecosystem,” Jones notes, preferring the term food apartheid, which contextualizes the lack of fresh food in low-income neighborhoods as deliberate, discriminatory policy decisions. “We want to speak to the reason and the cause of the ongoing disinvestment.”

Jones believes that addressing food apartheid is foundational to the Healthy Corners program. Stanton Supermarket is the first of the 56 participating corner stores in the program to expand its infrastructure at this scale. They have grown from one open-air fridge to an additional five full-sized refrigerators, two freezers, and robust shelving – all dedicated to produce. Roughly 30 percent is sourced from local farms.

Jones says the Stanton Supermarket model supports a “community nutrition approach,” enabling customers to meet all their food needs in one place instead of shopping for different types of products, using different benefits, at multiple locations.

Stanton Supermarket accepts both the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). They also offer a SNAP Match program—funded by the USDA and run by Healthy Corners—that allows SNAP shoppers to earn US$5 coupons toward more produce when they buy just one piece. Reichler hopes the expanded produce offerings will help eaters better maximize the SNAP Match program, at a time when it is most needed.

Following the end of pandemic-era emergency allotments and a temporary local benefit in 2024, the minimum monthly SNAP allotment for D.C. households has dropped to US$24. And new research from the Urban Institute projects that cuts to SNAP in the reconciliation bill could cost families about 40 meals per month, on average.

A policy brief from the National WIC Association also warns that the Bill may create higher barriers for women with SNAP and Medicaid to maintain eligibility for WIC benefits.

“With food access and benefit challenges increasing, the Stanton Supermarket produce department provides a consistent and reliable place for the community to purchase quality fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables,” Reichler tells Food Tank.

Choice is also important, Jones says, stating that clients consistently ask for a variety of fresh produce, greater access, and high quality.

And Reichler says Stanton is responding to these demands—that’s why it’s a success. One neighbor “felt like we had provided a dignified display, and she proceeded to call her family member to give her a virtual tour of the new offerings,” Reichler recalls, noting that customers frequently report that stores’ investment in their community informs their choice of where to shop.

“Listen to your customers…expanding produce isn’t just good business,” Haile tells Food Tank, “It builds trust and strengthens community relationships.”

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of D.C. Central Kitchen

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The burden of chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease is rising across the United States and especially harming the most vulnerable communities. 

This national challenge is becoming increasingly acute, driving up health care costs and undermining our nation’s economic strength by diminishing workforce productivity and resilience. Adult obesity rates have nearly tripled since the 1970s, while the number of Americans with diabetes has more than doubled since 2000. The Pentagon has even identified obesity as a national security threat as it reduces the pool of eligible recruits.

The challenge, then, is not just about caring for and treating these diseases today. More importantly, it’s about finding ways to prevent and slow the tide of disease progression.

Recognizing the urgency of the moment, Novo Nordisk shifted our social impact strategy in 2022 to focus on elevating community health outcomes by broadening access to nutritious food. Previously, our philanthropic efforts were primarily directed toward disease management, with an emphasis on diabetes education and self-care. We believed that improving nutrition would lead directly to better health, and we provided short-term, modest grants to support these initiatives. 

In contrast, our new strategy prioritizes multi-year, place-based programs designed to have long-term impact in communities facing the highest burdens of chronic disease. By shifting to larger, long-term interventions, we are now able to drive deeper impact and lay the groundwork for sustained improvements in public health.

This approach also demands collaborative thinking across the range of the social determinants of health—access to safe housing, good jobs, quality care, and physical activity—as well as to good food and nutrition. To do this, we quickly realized that we could neither go at it alone nor had the expertise in areas like housing, transportation, and care.

That’s why we launched The Interrupt—a place for like-minded organizations across the private and nonprofit sectors to bring about an integrated, whole health approach. By combining the expertise and resources of leading brands and organizations, partners of The Interrupt work together to deliver community-focused programs, events, and initiatives that address the everyday factors influencing health—such as access to nutritious food, opportunities for physical activity, and health education. 

The Interrupt and our partners are focused on real, practical action in communities. We are supporting urban farms that increase access to fresh food, health screenings for preventative care and job training programs that open up new opportunities. By teaming up with local organizations and national partners, The Interrupt is working side-by-side with communities to tackle the everyday challenges that shape health—making a difference where it matters most.

In early 2025, we started our work in Washington, D.C.’s Ward 8. The need for food and nutrition access in this area is high: the area has only one grocery store that serves 75,000 residents. Centering our efforts on a housing complex home to over 3,000 people—Washington View—we’ve invested in launching a community farm, a food pantry with healthy options, cooking classes, physical activity and job training for residents. To date, the pantry has seen nearly 400 visits, serving approximately 600 individuals with the marketplace distributing over 6,000 pounds of food. A 3-on-3 basketball program has been established for young residents.

Critically, we’ve done this in partnership with Bank of America, leveraging its expertise in increasing access to safe and affordable housing and health screenings. To date, Bank of America alongside the American Diabetes Association and Black Nurses Rock has seen about 20 residents each month for workshops and screenings. Together, we’re seeing how we can achieve more together than we can on our own. We are also working to bring in new partners to help address health care access, mental health, and so much more. 

We’re seeing a similar payoff through The Interrupt’s The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s (UAB) Live HealthSmart Alabama initiative. Novo Nordisk has been a long-standing supporter of work in Selma and Birmingham to improve health conditions through food and nutrition, built environment and health care access, but we brought Uber Health to the table when we saw many residents struggling to get themselves to medical appointments or the grocery store. 

Through the program, residents can get free Uber rides for any health-related need, including medical appointments, picking up prescriptions, and grocery store trips. Removing barriers to transportation alongside widening access to healthy food has allowed residents in Selma and Birmingham to gain access to resources that were previously difficult to acquire.

As we established programs in Washington and Alabama, a challenge we’ve grappled with is building trust—particularly in communities that may be more skeptical of outside interventions. Recognizing our limits, we work hand-in-hand with established community groups, local nonprofits, and trusted partners, integrating their input in designing initiatives.

Using the consistent brand name, The Interrupt, has also helped build awareness of, and familiarity with, different programs in the same community. It means there is one delivery point and residents recognize The Interrupt is when they see it on signs and posters, building recognition, and ultimately trust, behind community programs.

In partnering together, companies let go of a natural desire for their brands to be front-and-center and concerns they might over-step each other—because the platform lets individual brands showcase their initiatives while breaking down silos. 

In doing so, brands with strong local roots and presence have played a key role, whether its Alabama Power and Light or Cadell Construction helping make recreation spaces feel more welcoming through better lighting and easy access, JW and AS Marriott Foundation with their deep roots in the DMV supporting the program at Washington View through financial support of our physical and mental health efforts. 

As we continue our programs in Washington, D.C. and Alabama, we know measurement matters. While changing health outcomes takes time, quick wins build momentum. That’s why we’re delighted to have GW’s Global Food Institute alongside us as an evaluation partner in Washington, D.C., helping us understand how multi-interventional programs can create lasting impact. We hope to apply the learnings from D.C. to help establish a multi-SDOH measurement approach tied to community health that can be applied across programs under The Interrupt.

We’re at the foothills of what’s possible here and want to replicate what we’ve started to build in Washington, D.C. and Alabama in other cities and communities around the U.S. The scale of the challenge of chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes can feel overwhelming, but an integrated, whole health partnership can begin to turn the tide.

Photo courtesy of Daderot, Wikimedia Commons

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The Federal Government Shutdown Ends

Earlier this week, eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus sided with Republican colleagues by voting to reopen the government and end the longest shutdown in U.S. history. On Wednesday, the House passed the spending package, sending it to President Donald Trump, who quickly signed it into law.

Prior to the end of the shutdown, several states including New York, Delaware, Rhode Island, Virginia and Maryland allocated funding to their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs. Most states announced that residents enrolled in the program will receive their November benefits by the end of the week, but households in states such as Louisiana and Kentucky may have to wait a bit longer until all benefits are issued in full.

The end of the shutdown also came with an extension of the 2018 Farm Bill for another year.

COP30 Opens in Brazil as Food, Climate, and Finance Take Center Stage

The 2025 U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP30) opened this week in Belém, Brazil, where food systems, forest protection, climate finance, and agricultural adaptation are emerging as central themes. “Your job here is to fight this climate crisis, together,” U.N. Climate Chief Simon Stiell urged delegates during the opening session.

Ahead of the summit, 43 countries and the European Union adopted the Belém Declaration on Hunger, Poverty, and Human-Centered Climate Action, calling for a shift in how the international community addresses the climate crisis and recognizing that the world’s poorest communities often bear the brunt of its impacts. The declaration highlights a shift toward adaptation-focused finance. As Raj Patel of IPES-Food notes, “Brazil’s recent history proves that when governments back family farmers and prioritise social policies, hunger falls.”

The Brazilian COP30 Presidency also launched the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), designed to provide long-term, predictable funding for tropical forest protection. Brazil, Indonesia, Norway, and Portugal made initial pledges toward the initiative’s US$125 billion target. Food and agriculture action continued with the U.N. Environment Programme’s Food Waste Breakthrough, a four-year, US$3 million initiative to help cities halve food waste and cut methane emissions. The effort aims to tackle “the unforgiveable amount of food” wasted globally each year, says Executive Director Inger Andersen.

Separately, Italy announced it is joining the Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformations, committing to integrate climate action, nutrition, livelihoods, biodiversity, and mitigation across food systems policy. And Ethiopia is set to host COP32 in 2027, signaling increasing engagement from African nations in global climate and food negotiations.

Subscribe here to receive Food Tank’s special daily newsletter series throughout COP30, sharing on-the-ground updates and key developments from Belém. And see Food Tank’s first daily dispatches HERE and HERE, with reporting from week one of the Conference.

UNHCR Warns 250 Million Displaced by Climate Disasters, Urges Urgent Climate Finance Reform

A new report from the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR), No Escape II: The Way Forward, reveals that climate-related disasters have forcibly displaced 250 million people over the past decade—equivalent to 70,000 people every day. Floods, storms, droughts, and extreme heat are driving increasingly severe humanitarian crises, with 150 record-breaking weather events recorded in 2024 alone.

The report finds that climate impacts are compounding conflict, deepening poverty, and threatening food and water security through desertification, rising sea levels, and ecosystem collapse. By mid-2025, 86 million displaced people were living in areas facing high to extreme exposure to climate hazards, with many of the world’s largest refugee settlements located in zones of intense heat and flooding.

UNHCR warns that climate finance is failing to reach those most in need. Extremely fragile states receive just US$2 per person per year in adaptation funding, compared with more than US$160 per person in stable countries. “If we want stability, we must invest where people are most at risk,” said Filippo Grandi, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. “To prevent further displacement, climate financing needs to reach the communities already living on the edge.”

UNHCR urges governments and donors to bridge the growing gap between rhetoric and reality—“not with words, but with firm will, solidarity, and sustained climate action.”

China Ends Ban on U.S. Soybean Imports Following Trump-Xi Summit

China has lifted its months-long suspension on U.S. soybean imports, reopening its market to American farmers for the first time since the spring. The decision, which restores import licenses for three major U.S. exporters, follows last week’s trade summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

As part of the agreement, Beijing pledged to buy at least 12 million tons of U.S. soybeans before year-end, with purchases expected to rise to 25 million tons annually over the next three years. The move marks a key step in restoring agricultural trade between the world’s two largest economies, which has been strained by years of tariffs and retaliatory restrictions.

Chinese buyers have already booked 120,000 tons of U.S. wheat and a shipment of sorghum—their first in a year—after Beijing confirmed it had suspended additional retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports, including farm goods. However, a 13 percent tariff still applies to soybean imports, making U.S. shipments less competitive than cheaper Brazilian cargoes.

While the White House hailed the deal as a win for American agriculture, many U.S. farmers remain cautious. Two producers in West Tennessee told CBS that they expect to lose a combined US$800,000 this year despite the policy shift, reflecting years of high costs, low prices, and lingering debt. “It will help pay some bills, but that’s not fixing the problem,” says farmer Franklin Carmack, noting that farmers “can’t wait this out”.

Others remain hopeful. Missouri farmer Brent Foreman says he trusts the administration’s approach: “I think he’s tryin’ to make us the best deal he can—for the whole country, but for the American farmer, for the long term”.

East Africa Takes Steps to Boost Agroecology Through Regional Trade Commitments

The East African Community (EAC) is stepping up efforts to strengthen agroecological cross-border trade across its eight member states. A regional conference in Jinja, Uganda, concluded with the Jinja Declaration on Advancing Cross-Border Trade for Agroecological Produce, a landmark commitment to promote trade grounded in justice, sustainability, and ecological integrity.

The declaration urges governments to remove non-tariff barriers, improve market infrastructure, and harmonize agricultural and trade policies to benefit smallholder farmers, women, youth, and Indigenous communities. “Every stakeholder has a responsibility to ensure accelerated regional economic growth through agroecology,” says Dr. Million Belay, General Coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA).

The resolutions call for investment in cold storage, transport networks, and border facilities to strengthen supply chains and reduce post-harvest losses. They also emphasized expanding Participatory Guarantee Systems and traceability mechanisms to build consumer trust in sustainably produced goods. The commitments stress gender equity, financial inclusion, and capacity building for producers and traders while recognizing the vital role of traditional knowledge and biodiversity in regional food systems.

AFSA noted that the initiative goes beyond economic reform, describing it as a moral and ecological imperative for Africa’s sustainable future.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Phoenix Han, Unsplash

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Over the next two weeks, more than more than 50,000 policymakers, government negotiators, scientists, farmers, advocates, journalists, and business leaders are expected in Belém, Brazil for the 30th U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP30). This year’s Conference, according to the COP30 Presidency, will prioritize implementation over declarations, promising to address the climate crisis with the urgency it warrants. And central to this work are the world’s food and agriculture systems, framed as one of the six pillars foundational to the COP30 Action Agenda.

For this agenda to be truly successful, “we need to ensure that those who are most impacted by the climate crisis have a voice and a seat at the table,” says Anna Lappé, the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food.

Lappé, an award-winning author and internationally recognized expert on food systems, is the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, a strategic alliance of philanthropic foundations working for food system transformation around the world. Prior to joining the Global Alliance, Lappé had published three books on food, farming, and sustainability, including Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It, and contributed to nearly two dozen more. Lappé is also the founder or co-founder of three U.S.-based organizations, including Real Food Media. In this conversation with Food Tank’s Jessica Levy, Lappé discusses the encouraging progress that has been made to bring food and agriculture systems into climate negotiations, the ties between farming and the fossil fuel industry, and the organizations proving that a regenerative food future is possible. 

You have long said that hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food but a scarcity of democracy. Can you explain that distinction and its ongoing significance?

As some of your Food Tank readers may know, I stand on the shoulders of so many incredible food leaders, including my own mother! For decades now, she and many, many others around the world have been beating the drum that the ongoing scourge of hunger in the world—on a planet where more than enough calories are produced to feed every single person—is caused not by a productivity crisis, but a democracy crisis. 

We know that wherever people’s rights are not fulfilled, there is hunger. We know that where there is conflict, there is hunger, and that, despite the Geneva Conventions, denying access to food is still used as a weapon of war—as we’re seeing in Gaza today. We know that war and conflict are the single largest drivers of hunger worldwide. 

But we also know it’s not just the extremes of war and conflict-induced famine driving the crisis of hunger, it’s the everyday food insecurity we see in countries all around the world. In the United States, despite being one of the wealthiest nations on the planet, tens of millions of U.S.-Americans go hungry and nearly 42 million, about one in eight households, rely on government food assistance.

Do you think food and agriculture systems are overlooked in climate negotiations and policymaking? What factors continue to keep them on the sidelines?

You’re right that food and agriculture systems are still largely overlooked in climate negotiations, even though food systems contribute to about one-third of the emissions driving the crisis. And, even though, I would argue, reducing those emissions, if we had the political will, is one of the lowest hanging fruit for action on climate—with some of the greatest benefits: More climate-friendly food systems are better, not just for climate, but for health, biodiversity, animal welfare, community well-being, and for fishers and farmers, too. Whether it is climate adaptation, loss and damage, or just transition—integrating food systems into climate solutions is critical to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. 

With that said, I am pleased that food and agriculture systems are increasingly on climate negotiators’ and policy makers’ radar—thanks to years of organizing among social movements and civil society organizations, philanthropy, and visionary political leaders. Close to 90 percent of Nationally Determined Contributions plans have referenced food systems and agriculture, showing its inextricable link to addressing the climate crisis. But we have a lot of work to do to turn this awareness into action: When we analyzed the amount of public climate finance dollars going to food system transformation, the percentage is still staggeringly low. We need to take this awareness, and bold declarations, and move into tangible outcomes that address hunger, food and nutrition insecurity, and emissions from food systems.   

You challenge the myth that fossil fuel-intensive agriculture is necessary to feed the world. How has that conversation evolved over the past decade? How do you think we can shift the story more effectively at the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP30)?

Yes, many of us have been working to challenge this myth for a long time. It’s a stubborn one! It’s becoming increasingly clear that the impact of fossil-fuel intensive agriculture is not only a barrier to our climate ambitions, it is also causing so many other harms, from ecosystem pollution to public health crises related to petrochemicals used in agriculture like pesticides—to name just a few. 

I like to remind folks that the mythology of industrial agriculture’s productivity comes from a narrow focus on yields. To poke some holes in that myopic focus, consider the crop that has seen one of the largest yield gains in the past century: corn. Yes, corn yields have gone from 40 bushels per acre in the 1950s to a staggering 180 per acre in recent years, but at what cost and what benefit? Most of that corn raised in the U.S. is not food—it’s either headed to the bellies of cows or cars. And consider the cost: the agrochemical pollution, the topsoil loss, the dead zones from fertilizer runoff, and much more. 

What’s become clear through research by many around the world is the incredible abundance of agroecological and regenerative practices that don’t rely on fossil fuels to produce diverse, healthy food, yielding incredibly high nutrition-per-acre. There is so much evidence around the world about this, sharing just one example from India. 

I’m hopeful that the story is starting to shift, with more and more understanding that we need to phase out fossil fuels across our entire economy, not just in transportation and the built environment, but food systems, too. Our colleagues at IPES-Food have done so much to connect these dots, and make this point, most recently in their new report on fossil fuels and food systems. My organization also produced a report to lift up the message for shifting away from fossil field dependency in food systems and we co-produced a podcast on these themes with TABLE-Debates. We’ve been pleased by the feedback we’re receiving.

Can you share an example of an on-the-ground partner demonstrating that a food system rooted in agroecology and community resilience can deliver real results?

There are so many great examples around the world, but since COP30 is in Brazil, I thought it would be appropriate to lift up an example from Brazil: One of the largest and most successful social movements in the world, the Landless Workers Movement known by its Portuguese acronym MST, has been at the forefront of building agroecological knowledge across the country, creating agroecological schools for teaching these kinds of practices, building up cooperatives to help distribute products coming from regenerative farms, and working to advocate for the kind of policy reforms that have put Brazil on the forefront of addressing the roots of hunger and promoting ecological farming practices. 

What are some of the most promising policy approaches you’ve seen governments take—or that you’d like to see them take—to support a transition to low-input, fossil-free food systems?

Sticking with Brazil, the country has been a global leader in using public procurement as a tool to support a transition to more ecological food systems. In Brazil, for example, the national school food program (PNAE) has clear mandates for supporting local, small-scale farms, requiring that at least 45 percent of school food funds by 2026 support family farms, prioritizing organic producers. 

I was just at the Stockholm Food Forum and I got to hear the Deputy Mayor of Paris share what the city is doing to promote similar goals: Since 2015, Paris has been working to increase the production of organic and local food in its municipal catering services like schools, with a target of at least 50 percent local and sustainable. 

I could go on! We’re seeing so much political leadership—from local to national governments—to help create the enabling environments to support this transition to regenerative enological food systems. It is so inspiring.

The Brazilian COP30 Presidency has framed this year’s summit as an “implementation COP.” What would it take to make sure this COP moves beyond declarations and delivers real action?

We need to ensure that those who are most impacted by the climate crisis have a voice and a seat at the table, including Indigenous peoples, small-scale farmers, and traditional fishers. We’ve been part of an effort to bring frontline food leaders to the U.N. Climate Summits over the past several years, supporting 22 frontline leaders in Belém. 

And, we need to ensure that the largest corporations in the world that are driving this crisis—the big polluters from oil and gas corporations to petrochemical giants—are rightfully called to account for their deception and lack of action. We have no time for what I think of as the “dreadful d’s” of the climate crisis: industry’s disinformation, deflection, and delay. We need real action, and that includes supporting the agroecological and regenerative practices at the heart of food systems that are good for people and the planet. 

Photo courtesy of Fernando Rebêlo, Wikimedia Commons

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Businesses can be profitable without compromising their values or mission. That belief drives Nishant Roy’s work as Chief Impact Officer at Chobani, one of the world’s fastest-growing food companies. Creating a more sustainable and equitable food system is “not separate from our business—it is our business,” he says. 

Roy joined Chobani in 2017 as Chief of Staff to CEO and Founder Hamdi Ulukaya, later serving as Chief of Strategic Operations before stepping into his current role. Before Chobani, he built a career spanning multiple sectors, beginning in the U.S. Air Force, then holding positions at the Clinton Foundation and Goldman Sachs. In 2009, he joined the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where he served as a special adviser during President Obama’s administration and contributed significantly to President Obama’s “Feed the Future” and “Power Africa” initiatives.

In this conversation with Food Tank’s Jessica Levy, Roy discusses Chobani’s work to alleviate hunger, the trust that is needed to build long-lasting community partnerships, and the business case for doing the right thing. 

Chobani has invested in hunger relief and expanding access to nutritious foods. What has driven that focus?

Our founder, Hamdi Ulukaya, has often said “A cup of yogurt isn’t going to change the world, but how you make it can.”

Chobani’s commitment to making natural, nutritious, and delicious foods more accessible has been at the heart of our organization from the very beginning.

When Hamdi came across a shuttered yogurt plant in South Edmeston, New York twenty years ago, he didn’t just see a factory. He saw a chance to create something special, to breathe new life into a community, and to reimagine what food could be.

Back then, the average cup of yogurt in the United States had about 43 grams of sugar, but Hamdi knew there was a better way. He perfected a recipe with 40 percent less sugar, twice the protein, and only natural ingredients. And when the first cups hit shelves in 2007, Chobani didn’t just launch a brand—it transformed an entire food category. It raised expectations for what Americans should demand of their food: healthier, cleaner, and more accessible.

But Chobani’s aspirations have never been just about yogurt—it was always about something bigger. It was about proving that wholesome food can be accessible. Food has the power to uplift communities, set new standards, and serve a higher purpose. That’s why we believe it’s our responsibility to use our resources to better the communities around us, especially when it comes to helping those who are facing food insecurity.

Hunger is not a distant problem–it is here, in our towns and cities. In a world of plenty, hunger is an insult to our common humanity. It’s our burden to share, and we need everyone—government, business, and society—working together to solve this crisis. That’s why we partner widely, advocate boldly, and act locally. We strive to be both a catalyst and convener, bringing together all those who share the vision of a nation where no family goes hungry.

Can you highlight a few projects that you think have made the greatest impact in Chobani’s work to eliminate hunger?

We know that a single meal can make a world of difference. That’s why we approach every effort to combat hunger with immense care and reverence for what it means to nourish our communities.

Much of our work is grounded in our hometown communities in New York, Idaho, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Because we’ve established longstanding, trusted partnerships with local leaders, businesses, and food pantries, we’ve been able to launch a range of programs designed to bridge food access gaps and support those most vulnerable to food insecurity. This includes our year-round efforts to stock pantries and bring more fresh foods to communities, and more customized initiatives like our Summer Program, which just wrapped in Southern Idaho.

Thousands of children in the region face food and nutrition insecurity. This is an issue that becomes even more urgent during the summer months, especially as Idaho has opted out of federally funded programs that would have provided additional SNAP benefits to families. In response, we’ve stepped up to help bridge the gap by distributing weekend meal kits to families across Twin Falls, Jerome, and Buhl counties. Our weekly distribution events became more than just meal drops—they were joyful community gatherings, complete with games and activities for the families.

Over 13-weeks, we distributed 12,000 plus meal kits to local families this summer. That’s over 48,000 meals in total—meaning 48,000 moments of relief for a parent and 48,000 times a child goes to bed with a full belly.

Another initiative that’s given us more national reach—and the ability to respond to the hunger emergencies we’re seeing as a direct result of the increasing rate of natural disasters—is Chobani Super Milk, a nutritious, shelf-stable milk designed specifically for disaster relief. Access to vital nutrients is critical in times of crisis, and this product helps meet those needs. Since the launch of Chobani Super Milk in July 2024, we’ve distributed more than 1.1 million cartons of this high-protein, lower-sugar milk to food pantries and directly to communities impacted by disasters.

These are just a few steps we’re taking to fight hunger, but victory depends on everyone joining in. Hunger is not unsolvable—lasting change is possible if communities, businesses, nonprofits, and policymakers stand together to ensure every person has enough to eat.

What strategies are key to designing hyper-local hunger initiatives that are scalable across different communities?

We place a strong emphasis on working hand-in-hand with our communities to develop programs that reflect their unique needs—because we know there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to eliminating hunger. Every community faces different barriers, and by building trusted relationships, we’re better equipped to understand those challenges and respond with solutions that are effective and lasting.

A powerful example of this in action is the origin of our mobile food pantries. Through our work with our local partners, we learned that while many pantries wanted to provide fresh food, they lacked the refrigeration and infrastructure to store or transport it. That gap led us to launch our very first mobile food pantry back in March of 2024, making more fresh foods available throughout Oneonta and Chenango counties in partnership with the Community Cupboard of Edmeston in New York.

The model worked—and we successfully expanded this effort in Idaho a few months later by partnering with the Idaho Food Bank on a second mobile food pantry that serves the Magic Valley community.

Since their inception, our mobile food pantries have distributed hundreds of thousands of pounds of nutritious food to communities where it’s needed most in New York and Idaho. It’s just one example of the impact that can be achieved through careful listening and close collaboration—an approach that, if embraced broadly, could fuel a movement of lasting, transformative change.

What advice would you give to companies that want to build effective community partnerships but don’t know where to start?

It starts with showing up. A lot of companies donate money or products and call it a day. But what truly strengthens community partnerships is having boots on the ground—and that begins with your people.

At Chobani, we’ve built a culture where employees at every level step out of the office, roll up their sleeves, and lend a hand. We have ongoing impact events and activations across our offices and plants, involve employees in on-the-ground efforts, and put community engagement at the forefront of everything we do.

When your people experience firsthand what it means to provide a meal or support a neighbor in need, the work becomes personal. And that builds trust—not just within your team, but with the community itself. Whether it’s packing meal kits, helping with distribution, or simply sharing a smile—that human connection on the ground matters. That’s where real change begins.

At the end of the day, we aim to be the support our neighbors can count on when other societal pillars fall short, and hope more businesses adopt the same approach: standing shoulder-to-shoulder with their communities to confront these challenges together.

What lessons can you share with other businesses trying to balance long-term impact with financial performance?

At Chobani, we’ve learned that long-term impact and financial performance aren’t at odds—they’re actually connected. Through our impact efforts, we’ve shown that it’s possible to grow a strong, profitable business without compromising on our values or losing sight of our mission.

We treat the positive outcomes we create for our communities and employees as essential measures of business health. Today’s consumers are increasingly values-driven—they want to see brands taking real action and moving the needle on the issues that matter. In that sense, doing the right thing isn’t just a moral imperative—it’s a business advantage. People want to support brands that reflect their beliefs and take real action.

Our impact is a key driver of trust. It’s what’s enabled us to build deep, lasting relationships with our consumers and communities. Because when people believe in your mission, they’re more than customers—they become advocates. And that kind of connection has the power to create a movement.

At the end of the day, we all have a stake in creating a more sustainable and equitable food system. That’s not separate from our business—it is our business. We measure our success not only in what we sell today, but in the future we leave behind. A future where food is natural, accessible, and abundant—for our children and for theirs.

Photo courtesy of Chobani

The post Doing the Right Thing Is Good Business: Q&A with Nishant Roy appeared first on Food Tank.

Of those surveyed by Citymeals, 65 percent live on US$15,000 a year or less and 32 percent do not receive social security. “These numbers demand national attention,” Shapiro tells Food Tank. “Federal policies must move beyond outdated models to ensure consistent, comprehensive nutrition programs for older adults.”

But Shapiro says the federal government is only adding strain to the organization’s meal recipients and anti-hunger partners across the country. “This federal bill will push more of our older neighbors into poverty and increase long-term healthcare costs,” she says.

The cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid as a direct threat to the safety net that communities rely on, according to Shapiro. “There is a misunderstanding that long-term care is funded through Medicare,” she says. “But once older adults run out of money—and we see that every day—they’re on Medicaid. And that’s what’s being cut.”

Shapiro says she sees the impacts on a regular basis, recounting the story of Julia, a 75-year-old stroke survivor who depends on a fragile network of services to survive. “Julia already has to choose between food, rent, or important medicine. These federal decisions don’t exist in a vacuum; they ripple through every part of the elder care system.”

Since 1981, Citymeals has expanded beyond daily deliveries to include weekend, holiday, and emergency meals, as well as pilot programs such as Mobile Grocery deliveries and Breakfast Boxes. The organization’s reporting shows that these services offer significant stability to older adults, with 87 percent reporting that home-delivered meals help them remain in their own homes.

Citymeals also runs programs that offer nutritional benefits and social connection. Their partnership with Life Story Club, for example, brings older adults together through virtual and in-person storytelling sessions. And their Social Calls program ensures no one spends holidays alone.

But Shapiro insists that while philanthropy plays a vital role to address hunger, it is not the solution to long-term systemic underfunding. “It is the obligation of our elected representatives to fight for the population’s needs,” she tells Food Tank.

“There should be policy that helps the older generation,” says Gladys Harvey, an Overseer Elder with the Morning Star Christian Center. “There should be a policy to help them keep there food. There should be a policy to help them keep their homes. There should be a policy to help them keep their medication.”

The Older Americans Act, passed in 1965 to provide federal funding for congregate and homedelivered meal programs across the country, offers some support. It mandates one meal each day, five days a week. “That’s not enough,” Shapiro says. “We need seven-day-a-week support and a societal shift that values older adults and provides for their specific needs.”

Following the 60th anniversary of the Older Americans Act, Shapiro urges lawmakers to modernize the legislation to reflect current economic and social realities. She also calls for increased utilization of programs like SNAP, which is heavily underutilized by older adults, who aren’t sure if they’re eligible.

“At this time, more older adults live in New York City than school-age children,” Shapiro tells Food Tank. “The increased need has been with us for a while. It is here now, and it will only grow in the future.”

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Citymeals on Wheels

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That is one of the key findings from the 2025 EAT-Lancet Report launched this month. The landmark scientific assessment captures how our global food system shapes human health, communities, and the stability of our planet.

Today, one in three people can’t afford or access a healthy diet. Over half suffer from diet-related disease. Meanwhile, the way we produce, consume, and transport food is a leading driver of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, undermining the very ecosystems that feed us. One third of food workers earn below a living wage.

Stark figures have already made headlines across the globe. Yet, amid these dramatic facts, one message easily gets lost—hope.

Science shows we have the tools to feed a growing population without destroying the planet. The new EAT-Lancet Report is our clearest scientific compass for how to get there, showing that healthy diets and sustainable and fair production could save 40,000 lives daily, while cutting emissions and pollution and restoring land and water systems.

The Report is not a lofty vision. It’s a call to choose a new path.

Scientists are not here to dictate what anyone should eat. The report advocates the freedom to choose, and freedom from hunger and from crushing medical bills. It shows how better food represents the freedom to drink clean water, make a decent living, or grow a business, in safe and resilient communities. It calls for equal opportunity for every parent to feed their children what they need to grow and thrive.

These freedoms, now enjoyed by only a lucky 1 percent, are within reach. A just food system is not just the goal, but a prerequisite to get there.

Science alone doesn’t create change. People do—farmers, policymakers, investors, chefs, entrepreneurs, and consumers. The world is not a dinner table, but in the global food system, we are all stakeholders, with much at stake, much to gain, and much to say. Lasting change doesn’t come from someone being told, but from everyone being heard.

Change is uncomfortable, especially when livelihoods and traditions are at risk. We can’t avoid tension, but we can move from statements to brave and honest conversation. Progress means listening across divides to find common ground, exploring new paths forward together.

In a world of complexities and divides, we need longer tables, not higher walls. Since 2019, I’ve met smallholder farmers, indigenous peoples, policymakers and corporate leaders worldwide. They unite, not through ideology, but through a shared hunger for better solutions.

The United Kingdom’s National Farmers Union (UNF) once fiercely criticized the first report. Now President Tom Bradshaw calls for a “greater collaboration” on X, guided by the updated EAT-Lancet findings, to build “resilience, profitability, and productivity”.

C40 cities like Paris, Tokyo, Lima, and Los Angeles are already committed, as are corporations like Lidl and Sodexo, and chefs and food influencers across all continents. Together they form a diverse choir of voices embracing a pragmatic transition and broader coalitions for a better food future.

Change takes time, but food habits evolve fast. Within a generation, global diets have shifted dramatically. You probably eat quite differently today than your parents did twenty years ago. Gen Z already craves healthier, fairer, more sustainable choices when they’re affordable and tasty.

Change is hard, yet we’ve made big strides before: doubling life expectancy in a century and halving child mortality in two decades. We feed more people with fewer resources. We can feed everyone better—if we choose to.

It will require up to US$500 billion a year, but deliver a tenfold return through reduced healthcare costs, higher productivity, and restored ecosystems. The cost of inaction is almost unimaginable.

Hope isn’t naïve. It is a proven strategy. Smiles are contagious. In a world too often paralyzed by doom, hope is a powerful, renewable resource. It is the fuel that brings more people to the table. And community builds resilience.

If the world were a dinner table, we have the time and the means to change the menu. The EAT-Lancet Commission concludes that we have the solutions. A growing number of change makers are leading the way. The question is no longer whether we can build a just and sustainable food future, but whether we’ll choose to come together to make it happen.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Fakhar Uddin, Unsplash

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Conflict is the largest driver of hunger and starvation, and food has become one of the cheapest weapons of war. More than 120 million people are currently displaced by violence or persecution, and 60 percent of the world’s hungriest live in conflict-affected countries. At last count, the Center for Preventive Action found 27 active conflicts around the world. From Gaza to Sudan and from Ukraine to Yemen, withholding food is now a deliberate strategy of war. 

The ongoing war in Ukraine illustrates this reality. Once Europe’s breadbasket, Ukraine’s farmland has been mined and blockaded, cutting off global grain supplies. Similar tactics appear elsewhere: in Gaza, famine now compounds the humanitarian crisis as food access is restricted as a part of Israel’s war against Hamas. Whether defined as genocide or not, the reality is that food deprivation is being weaponized to achieve military and political ends.

A Historical Pattern

Weaponizing food is nothing new. The Siege of Leningrad (1941–1944) starved over a million civilians. The Bengal famine of 1943, exacerbated by British policies, left millions of dead. During Nigeria’s Biafran War (1967–1970), famine was used to weaken separatists. In the 1990s Balkans war, Sarajevo was cut off from food supplies. More recently, Syrian forces bombed bakeries to terrorize populations, while Russian forces destroyed Ukrainian grain.

History makes clear: starvation is not collateral damage—it is a tactic. Yet international law still struggles to hold perpetrators accountable.

International Law and Limited Action

Since its founding in 1946, the United Nations has repeatedly confronted ongoing crises marked by manmade famine and starvation. The 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Protocols prohibit withholding food from civilians, but these are considered broadly as crimes against humanity. It was not until 2018 that the U.N.’s Security Council adopted Resolution 2417 condemning famine as a weapon. 

While sanctions are intended to enforce international law by penalizing those who obstruct humanitarian assistance, accountability remains elusive. The International Criminal Court (ICC) established in 1998 includes intentional starvation of civilians as a crime. Yet, as a recent review by Chase Sova highlighted, prosecutions remain rare, the legal framework is weak, and U.N. investigations often stall as powerful states block enforcement.

Meanwhile, millions continue to suffer. Today, Sudan, Yemen, Haiti, northern Nigeria, and South Sudan are on the verge of famine. These crises share a common thread: deliberate obstruction of food.

Why Food is a Powerful Weapon

Food’s power lies in its universality. It is also the cheapest weapon of war. Starvation kills slowly, demoralizes populations, and erodes cultures. Women—often primary farmers—are disproportionately targeted and their livelihoods destroyed. 

Modern communications now expose these crimes in real time. As global famine expert Alex de Waal notes, in the age of social media, perpetrators can no longer hide famine. Anyone with a cell phone or a laptop can see what is happening in real time. Instead, countries resort to “statistical denialism,” contesting or suppressing data to obscure accountability. But suppressing the news to deny what one can see is no longer an option. 

Still, visibility alone does not translate into action. Global outrage rarely leads to intervention. The U.N. has limited tools to enforce accountability, and political divisions prevent coordinated responses.

Today’s Urgent Challenge

The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals pledged in 2015 to get to Zero Hunger by 2030. Yet progress is faltering. It will get worse since the United States withdrew its support for the SDGs in September.

According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture’s State of Food Insecurity 2025 report, 673 million people–or 8.2 percent of the global population–remain hungry. Hunger has declined slightly since 2022, but ending hunger by 2030 is now unlikely. Unless we address the connection between conflict and food, the cycle of manmade famine will continue.

The moral urgency is clear: starvation should be treated not as an inevitable byproduct of war, but as a deliberate crime. Sanctions, international monitoring, and accountability mechanisms must target those who use food as a weapon. Governments and civil society alike must insist that the global community move beyond condemnation to action.

Ending the Weaponization of Food 

From Leningrad to Gaza and Biafra to Ukraine, the lesson is the same: food is not only sustenance, but also a cheap weapon. Conflict-driven hunger is man-made, preventable, and one of the gravest injustices of our time. The world must recognize withholding food as an inhumane act of warfare, strengthen mechanisms to prosecute perpetrators, and mobilize political will to protect civilians.

Striving to end global hunger by reducing the number of people on this planet who are hungry is a means of conflict prevention. What we do know is that since the U.N.’s founding global hunger has been reduced because of great advances in agriculture such as the Green Revolution, the increased coordination of humanitarian assistance, and economic development in places like India and China. Working to get to Zero Hunger by 2030, however, may not happen as other factors such as climate change, epidemics, and ongoing conflicts create insurmountable barriers, headwinds that destroy the progress made in the last eighty years. 

Unless the global architecture is refreshed so that access to food no longer becomes the main driver of global conflict, we are likely to see more suffering and death going forward. That means we must focus on democratic governance and giving voice to people remains essential to the fight against global hunger. At the end of the Cold War we saw a window to expand the benefits of more open societies across the globe and there was documented progress in many parts of Africa and Asia. Linking this message to the discussions about food weaponization is essential.

Ending hunger will not be possible without ending the weaponization of food. Until nations commit to resolving conflicts and holding aggressors accountable, we will continue to witness famine not as a natural disaster, but as a deliberate tool of destruction.

Photo courtesy of Jaber Jehad Badwan, Wikimedia Commons

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World Food Day—Thursday, October 16—celebrates the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which is marking its 80th anniversary this year. Over the past eight decades, FAO’s research, advocacy, and lifesaving on-the-ground work have brought food security to millions of people.

But global hunger is far from solved—2.6 billion people worldwide, or 1 in every 3 of us, cannot afford healthy diets. That means we have to work together, more strongly than ever before, to scale up these proven solutions and nourish the world.

Next week, we’re hosting the official North American World Food Day 2025 celebration alongside FAO, Arizona State University’s Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, and the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation. If you’re in Arizona, I hope you’ll join us at the Walton Center for Planetary Health in Tempe, with more info HERE.

Expert speakers and moderators from across food and health systems will help drive conversations: Selena Ahmed, American Heart Association/Periodic Table of Food Initiative; Arnott Duncan, Duncan Family Farms; Nick Konat, Sprouts; Crystal FitzSimons, Food Research & Action Center, Denisa Livingston, Community Health Advocate, Heirloom Food Grower; Kathleen Merrigan, Arizona State University; Michel Nischan, Wholesome Wave; Thomas Pesek, FAO; Pierre Thiam, Yolélé Foods; and Lyndsey Waugh, Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation; Jenna Lea Rosen, Broadway actress; Debra Utacia Krol, The Arizona Republic; Clara Migoya, The Arizona Republic; and more.

Discussions at this Summit, including interactive breakout sessions with participants, will inform a future white paper to drive future policy and civil society outcomes surrounding food is medicine.

“Food is not just about nourishment—it is medicine, and it holds the power to shape our health, communities, and planet,” Kathleen Merrigan, Executive Director of the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at Arizona State University, reminds us.

As a Food Tanker, you get access to this exclusive event! Click HERE to register, and use the code WorldFoodDay to access the registration page.

This year’s World Food Day theme—“Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future”— underscores the conversations we’ve been having about the urgent need to break down silos, to work across industries, and to prioritize productive dialogue and collaboration.

“World Food Day is a moment to reflect on the critical links between our food and our health,” says Thomas Pesek, Senior Liaison Officer at the FAO Liaison Office for North America. “No single solution or actor alone will solve this challenge—but collaboration across health, agriculture, and education sectors can move us closer to a future where healthy food is available and affordable for all.”

I was so heartened and inspired last month to see so many citizen eaters join Food Tank for our 15 Summits during Climate Week NYC, where we witnessed firsthand the power of this cross-discipline approach.

The experts we had on stage were clear-eyed in discussing the challenges we all face, and they spoke just as powerfully about where we can find solutions. Division, fear, and hopelessness are not the way forward. The future of the food system will grow from joyous, empowered communities, and as the World Food Day theme reminds us, we need to work hand-in-hand to make it a reality.

There’s one quote in particular that has really stuck with me, and I hope it’ll inspire our thinking—and our collaborative action—this World Food Day.

“My abuela María…taught me that food isn’t just sustenance—it’s dignity. It’s love,” regenerative farmer and community organizer Sea Matías told us. “Land, like love, is not meant to be owned. It’s meant to be shared.”

If you’re able to join us for the official North American World Food Day 2025 celebration, you can CLICK HERE to register.

“Investing in the next generation’s understanding of food and health creates long-term impact—not just for personal well-being, but for the strength of entire communities,” says Lyndsey Waugh, Executive Director of the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation.

World Food Day is a worldwide event, so it’s up to all of us to take action in our own neighborhoods and communities, too. If you’re already advocating for food security and nourishing, planet-friendly food systems where you live, tell me about your efforts! If you don’t know where to start, tell me that, too—and let’s share resources and make those connections that’ll push us forward.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Chantal Garnier, Unsplash

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In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to embrace remote learning models, we had to decide what to do with the food hubs and farms at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC). We couldn’t tend to the produce from our homes, but we realized what we were doing was too important to stop. Lines at food banks were getting longer and the need from the community was only growing. We chose to keep the farms rolling. Each week, we loaded up UDC’s food truck with our produce and delivered it to our partners at the nonprofit Martha’s Table and local D.C. churches, who then distributed it to keep our neighbors—and our city—fed. 

Today, 55 percent of the world’s population lives in an urban environment, and this is projected to increase to almost 70 percent by 2050, according to the United Nations. But limited food access and nutrition security, rising food costs, limited space for local food production, and—from my personal standpoint—low or nonexistent urban farming literacy are pushing the urban environment to its limits.

To nourish a growing urban population, we need the same social values—dignity, equity, political awareness—that we upheld in our D.C. community during the pandemic. The good news is that urban agroecology (UA+) offers an ecologically sound and socially just framework to reshape food systems in cities in this way. 

Both Urban Agriculture (UA) and UA+ can increase food production in urban areas by enhancing food and nutrition security. But UA—like agriculture—is a broad term that can include subsistence, organic, and industrialized ways of growing food. In contrast, agroecology is a movement and practice that prioritizes diversity, knowledge co-creation, economic and social well-being, and food culture. When applied in cities, UA+ addresses the need for equitable food systems in which people can exercise choice over what they eat and how and where it is produced. 

Put simply: UA+ makes the urban environment more resilient because it is run for and by the people who reside there.

There are many challenges to scaling UA+, including limited land access, a lack of economic resources, and bureaucratic barriers. Urban land remains limited and expensive, and cities tend to prioritize housing, retail and commercial development due to their ability to generate immediate tax revenue. This means that urban food producers are priced out, even if their work contributes to better living standards.

In Washington, D.C., the Urban Farming and Food Security Amendment Act of 2016 was enacted to enable qualified residents to lease vacant, District- and privately-owned land for urban farms.The owners of the property could then pay reduced property taxes. But the number of vacant plots is limited and access to them is inequitable. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) farmers are less likely to receive loans, grants, capital, and investments to start their farms. And most importantly, they are often left out of the urban planning processes, which means their food needs are not centered in policy decisions.

But we need UA+ more than ever. One reason why: in the US, science is increasingly mistrusted and under threat, which can lead to weakened food systems and poor public health outcomes. UA+ offers an antidote to this, as it creates hands-on and personal relationships with science. Composting, crop rotation, soil testing, pest control, and crop biodiversity are all examples of science in action.

This year, UDC’s Center for Urban Agriculture and Gardening Education implemented a new program called the Citizen Science and Food Systems Project. This project recruits people from the community, who may not have the time or space to tend to an urban garden, to participate in the science of UA+. In June, the program kicked off at our food hub sites, where we are looking at container crop production. Participants are able to collect yield data, monitor pests, manage nutrients, and select crops specific to this way of growing food. 

We may start talking about a bambino eggplant and other crops that grow well in small spaces, but it’s a domino effect. UA+ helps to build ecological literacy, which helps humans mitigate climate instability such as urban heat, flooding, fire, and water shortages. We are educating people for sustainability in the 21st century. 

Fortunately, this is also a model that can be replicated. When we teach communities to embrace the values and practices of UA+ and apply these in their own cities, it can help them create independent, sustainable cooperatives. And this, in turn, can support community-controlled food systems, foster economic self-reliance, and promote collective ownership and decision-making. 

Urban agroecology is not a cure-all. But it is a crucial piece of the food systems puzzle. If embraced equitably and ecologically, it offers the urban environment a path toward greater resilience, justice, and sustainability.

Photo courtesy of Che Axum

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At the “Food is Medicine and Eating for Health” summit during Climate Week NYC 2025, which Food Tank hosted in partnership with the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation, leaders in food, health, policy, and culture spoke about how food can strengthen communities and support a healthier future despite these challenges.

“It is baffling to me, in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, that we would force people to choose whether they are going to eat or get healthcare, have dinner or pay their rent, and that’s really what [these SNAP cuts are] going to do,” says U.S. Congressman Daniel S. Goldman. “But this actually provides us with a unique opportunity to reimagine how we want to provide healthcare and food assistance.”

Goldman adds that “the impact of all of this on our small businesses is exacerbating significant problems.” But according to Grace Young, James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and food historian, a food-is-medicine approach can also help sustain those small food businesses that need support now more than ever, as inflation and tariffs create economic uncertainty. 

“One of the great hidden secrets is to shop in Chinatown, where the quality is so high and the prices are so low, because Chinese customers are very frugal,” says Young. “You can find everything in Chinatown, and the fruits and vegetables are generally local. This is an opportunity to eat local and support mom and pop restaurants.”

Panelists agreed that food insecurity is a multidimensional issue, one that requires a multidimensional approach to solutions. 

“It’s no one discipline’s job to solve food insecurity,” says Dr. Christine Going, Senior Advisor at the Food Security Program Office within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “It’s rare for food insecurity to exist in isolation; if you’re food insecure, there’s probably something else happening.” 

For example, issues like “poverty [are] inextricable from this food as medicine conversation,” says Brandon Lombardi, Chief Sustainability Officer at Sprouts Farmers Market.

A‑dae Romero‑Briones, Vice President of Policy and Research at the First Nations Development Institute, also emphasized the systemic factors at play when it comes to health and food security. America is a highly individualized society, but health is a collective issue to solve.

“Health is not only dependent on what one person does, it’s dependent on what the community around you does and how healthy the environment is,” says Romero-Briones. “In America, when everything becomes an individual action or an individual fault, we really lose sight of all these other impacts that create a healthy person in a healthy community and a healthy environment.”

And any conversation about health in the U.S. must include gender and race, says Tanya Fields, Executive Director at The Black Feminist Project. 

“The medical system is invested in keeping Black women and children sick…we sterilize these conversations and make it seem like these discrepancies and disparities don’t exist,” says Fields. “This is happening because people are profiting from it.”

Fields sees food as a form of radical resistance. She works to uplift stories of successfully using food as medicine within her own community: “I’m so sick of people coming to the Bronx and only talking about us through the lens of pathology. There are good things happening in the Bronx,” says Fields, who urges the audience to fund organizations like The Black Feminist Projects and others led by women, immigrants, people of color, and members of the queer community. 

Finally, Lyndsey Waugh, Executive Director of the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation, challenged the audience to engage with the next generation about the interconnected issues discussed at the summit—and empower them to take action.

“What would it look like to pick out one thing from this panel that inspires you and talk to a young person about it?” says Waugh. “People are becoming more connected with how food makes them feel…Future voters, the kids who are out there seeing this swirl around them, they care, and I think it’s our responsibility to play a role in helping them see themselves as part of that work.”

Watch the full livestreamed event on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo by Ryan Rose for Food Tank.

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“School meals are a very powerful connector. They can really connect the plate, production, and everything that comes with it,” says Aulo Gelli, Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. “For every US$1 spent [on school meals], you’ve got a US$4 return…It’s a very good investment.”

School meals are a social safety net that improves attendance, academic performance, and critical nutrition for children. With regenerative school meals, these benefits extend far beyond the classroom: Locally and regeneratively grown crops produce significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional crops by enhancing soil carbon sequestration, reducing synthetic fertilizer use, and limiting shipping distance and storage time. This supports local economies while providing more nutritious meals to children.

“It’s human dignity and respect, everyone has the right to food, but it also makes good economic sense, to develop these communities, you have to start there,” says Paul Polman, the former CEO of Unilever and co-author of Net Positive.

Anna Lappé, Executive Director of The Global Alliance for the Future of Food, says that the return on investment speaks for itself: “One of the key messages is not to think about this transition [to regenerative school meals] as a burden or cost but an investment that will pay over and over again.” 

However, panelists stressed that school meal programs are at risk amid limited financial resources and a changing global climate.

“We are losing meals today, and we will be losing more meals tomorrow,” says Sara Farley, Vice President, Global Food Portfolio, The Rockefeller Foundation. “So what we’re really talking about here is how we future-proof our food system.”

Jennifer Burney, Professor of Environmental Social Sciences & Earth System Science at Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, presented data on how regenerative school meals offer a win-win opportunity for students and farmers. According to Burney, across Africa alone, 2.62 million more children could be fed in the current climate with regeneratively grown grains, and “for almost every country in the world, a switch to regenerative agriculture means higher yields.” 

However, speakers emphasized the complexity of building the infrastructure to grow, transport, prepare, and serve regenerative school meals so communities can reap these benefits. According to Tufts University, one in four school meals is of poor nutritional quality, with school kitchens relying on imported foods and ultra-processed snacks. There is a need for investment in regional supply chains as well as education around preparing and serving fresh, locally grown dishes at schools.

Mariana Mazzucato, a Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, argued for tackling these challenges the way the United States tackled reaching the moon—with deep investment and involvement across numerous government agencies and sectors. 

“Imagine if the mission was to make sure that every child in the world had access to at least one, maybe two, meals a day from regenerative food, generated with local manufacturing,” says Mazzucato. “Imagine if we actually took the idea of school meals as an opportunity to do exactly what we did to go to the moon? As long as we just see school meals as part of the social safety net of the government, then it ends up being, by design, not taken seriously.”

Gerardo Martinez, Founder and Owner at Wild Kid Acres, presented a powerful case study of what’s working from Edgewater, Maryland. In 2019, Martinez bought five acres of cheap land—an “unofficial dump”—and set out to become a first-time farmer. He invested in regenerative agricultural practices and opened the farm up to the community, bringing children in to work and help build the strategic vision of the farm. Last year, the farm saw 50,000 children in total and fed the local school using donations. 

Several children from Wild Kid Acres took to the stage to discuss the questions that arose once they connected with the land: “I wonder why the food in my school tastes different from the farm’s food. Why aren’t there farmers who look like me? How do we grow food ethically and still care for our planet?” And finally, “Why isn’t anyone helping the farmers?”

Panelists agreed that producing healthy school meals is an incredibly complex challenge that requires participation across sectors, significant investment, and deep systemic changes. But Adam Met, a multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated musician with AJR and Founder of Planet Reimagined, argues that significant strides could be made—especially in reaching across political aisles—with simple tweaks to language.

“The language of climate change—of 1.5 degrees, sustainability, or even something like regenerative agriculture—that is not resonating with people,” says Met. “Effective policy is just as much about the policy itself and the implementation of it as the language that we’re using when we’re talking to people on the different sides of the political sector…We need to be creating more collaboration and talking to people who disagree with us.”

Watch the full event on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.

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Photo by Ryan Rose for Food Tank.

The post School Meals Can Nourish Children—and Regenerate the Food System appeared first on Food Tank.

The invitation-only event explored how climate extremes—from floods to droughts to conflict-induced hunger—are impacting food systems worldwide, and how bold solutions in science, policy, innovation, and community action are responding.

Watch the full livestreamed event on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.

Throughout the afternoon, speakers emphasized the scale of the humanitarian crisis unfolding right now. In July, United Nations experts reported that close to 100 people were dying every hour since President Donald Trump suspended U.S. foreign aid. And recent reports project that ongoing U.S. funding cuts could result in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, including 4.5 million deaths among children younger than five years.

“It’s a very troubling period of time right now. I wish those who don’t understand the need for food aid could talk to the 300 million people around the world who are suffering from acute food insecurity. These are human lives, and I believe we have a moral and ethical responsibility to help those who are hungry,” says Barron Segar, President and CEO of World Food Program USA.

Chase Sova, Vice President of Advocacy & Engagement at World Food Program USA, says food insecurity further drives instability globally, leading to social unrest, political instability, and increased conflict.

“For the longest time, we’ve known that conflict produced hunger, and that’s true for every manmade crisis in human history. What we’ve been less interested in is how food insecurity itself can be a driver of instability,” says Sova.

“Hunger doesn’t just weaken bodies, it weakens states, it feeds unrest, and it fuels conflict,” says Cynthia Yue, Advocacy & Engagement Manager at World Food Program USA. “There is no better way to create disruption and to radicalize populations than exploiting people’s desperation.”

Yue pointed to the youth initiative of World Food Program USA, called Zero Hunger Generation, as a testament to the power of community-building in creating change.

“Young people everywhere are pitching in what they can to make a zero-hunger tomorrow a reality starting today. They are proving that food is more than just fuel or politics,” says Yue. “Food is a movement.”

Content creators also joined the stage to discuss the power of storytelling, particularly its ability to amplify the on-the-ground efforts already underway globally. 

“They’re doing the hard part, I just get to help amplify the incredible work and teach people why it’s important and interesting,” says Maddy DeVita, celebrated private chef and recipe developer, who serves on the Zero Hunger Activist Council for World Food Program USA. “I’m sharing sourdough bread and also talking about donating to this cause. It’s very integrated and helps put a face behind the people who care about this.”

DeVita and Detroit-based chef and cookbook author Jon Kung agree that positivity is critical at a time when the new cycle feels bleak to many young people. 

“A kind of nihilism has permeated through the young internet. But it’s OK to care. We have to try to make that cool,” says Kung. “As content creators, we can lead by example. Positivity can be the protest.”

Panel conversations covered a wide range of solutions, from AI to school meals, and emphasized the need for cross-sector collaboration to tackle these complex, multifaceted issues. Organizations cannot afford to work separately.

“The opportunity cost of siloed work is unacceptably high,” says Nick Cain, Vice President of Strategy & Innovation at the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. “We as a sector need to reframe how we think about the opportunity in front of us to use the tools.”

But speakers agree that all solutions—including those developed through cross-sector collaboration—must be created alongside those working on the ground.

“If you’re going to design a solution, integrate into what farmers are already using, rather than trying to create something new that just would not get used,” says Alex Diaz, Head of AI for Social Good at Google.org.

And investing in communities through collaboration is not just the right thing to do, panelists say—it’s good business: “This isn’t philanthropic, this is an investment from a corporation to strengthen the supply chain,” says Kelly Goodejohn, Chief Social Impact Officer at Starbucks Coffee Company, which partners with World Food Program USA to improve food security and nutrition for Indigenous women and children in Guatemalan coffee-growing communities.

Andrew Zimmern, renowned American chef, restaurateur, and TV and radio personality, emphasizes that solutions to global hunger already exist—now is the time for action. 

“Hope is not abstract. Hope is operational,” says Zimmern. “The task that we have in front of us is scale and speed. And that’s not an easy task…but we already have programs that are working, we’ve already figured out how to solve the problem, and now we have to figure out how to scale it and speed the plow.”

However, Zimmern adds, there is no time to waste: “The window is narrow, but it’s open…Every season we waste is a season where someone is going hungry.”

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo by Ryan Rose for Food Tank.

The post Cross-Sector Solutions To Global Hunger: “Every Season We Waste Is a Season Where Someone Is Going Hungry” appeared first on Food Tank.