Food System Vision Prize Announces 79 Semifinalists

Danielle Nierenberg
Last week, the Food System Vision Prize announced the 79 semifinalists who have been selected to move on to the refinement phase of the competition. These teams, chosen from more than 1,300 entrants representing 112 countries, are developing broad coalitions and forward-thinking plans to answer the Prize’s central question: “How might we envision regenerative and nourishing food futures for 2050?”And the ideas for the US$2 million Prize are innovative and cross-cutting. A proposed project in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico outlines how ancient Mayan land practices can help restore biodiversity and resilience. Another blends modern technology with indigenous wisdom to bring food self-reliance to the cold desert of Ladakh, India. A team in Quito, Ecuador, aims to create a more participatory food system by increasing education and data sharing, and a collaboration of startups and NGOs in Trinidad and Tobago have designed an “intelligence-driven knowledge bank” to encourage better decision-making. Other detailed, actionable visions call for rethinking food distribution amid climate change in Stockholm, Sweden; modernizing sustainable aquaculture in Kukup, Malaysia; applying the traditional communal value of “ubuntu” to food relief in Nairobi, Kenya; and much more.
Now, semifinalists will be able to hone their proposals and receive feedback from a board of judges—and from the public. In May, finalists will be chosen to participate in a summer Accelerator program. Then, up to 10 will be selected as Top Visionaries and earn US$200,000 each to implement their vision. The Food System Vision Prize is launched by The Rockefeller Foundation in partnership with SecondMuse and OpenIDEO.
“We’ve become so good at describing the world we don’t want,” Roy Steiner, senior vice president of the Food Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation, tells Food Tank. “[But] what if we made all the right decisions? What would that actually look like?”
Contributing Author: Katie Howell
The Food System Vision Prize announced 79 Semi-Finalists with innovative, transformative ideas for a hopeful food future. Narrowed down from over 1,300 submissions from 112 countries around the globe, the ideas include farm-based health care, new agricultural technology, plans for food sovereignty, and more.
Launched by The Rockefeller Foundation, and supported by SecondMuse and OpenIDEO, the Food System Vision Prize asks the question “how might we envision regenerative and nourishing food futures in 2050?”
“We’ve become so good at describing the [dystopian] world we don’t want,” says Roy Steiner, Senior Vice President of the Food Initiative at the Rockefeller Foundation, “[We need to ask] what if we made all the right decisions? What would that actually look like?” The Prize aims to encourage communities to develop a positive Vision for the future, providing a direction and a way of thinking that will help avoid unintended consequences.
The Prize provides an opportunity to put decisions into the hands of the stakeholders themselves, enabling people to be the protagonists of their own future, Steiner tells Food Tank. “Food is one of the most powerful social technolog[ies] we have,” says Steiner, “food bridges a divide [in a polarized world]… and a Vision enables us to persevere when there is darkness around us.”
The semi-finalists are now entering the refinement phase of the process, further developing the ideas by engaging stakeholders and collecting feasibility data. A board of judges will continue to evaluate the ideas on the potential to inspire real, positive, bold transformation using six criteria: systems-focused, transformative potential, community informed, inspiring, feasible, and community co-created.
Recognizing the necessity of collaboration to address the interconnectedness of culture, environment, technology, policy, diets, and economics, the Foundation only accepted submissions from organizations.
In May, 10 Finalists will be chosen to move on to the final phase, before the Top Visionaries are announced in September. Up to 10 Top Visions may be chosen, receiving US$200,000 each and totalling

Danielle-Nierenberg

US$2 million.
(Danielle Nierenberg is President of Food Tank and an expert on sustainable agriculture and food issues. She has written extensively on gender and population, the spread of factory farming in the developing world and innovations in sustainable agriculture.)