The Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on collaborative partnerships at the frontiers of science, technology, and innovation to enable individuals, families, and communities to flourish. We work to promote the well-being of humanity and make opportunity universal. Our focus is on scaling renewable energy for all, stimulating economic mobility, and ensuring equitable access to nutritious and regeneratively produced food. For more information, sign up for our newsletter at rockefellerfoundation.org and follow us on Twitter @RockefellerFdn.
The Food System Vision Prize
The Rockefeller Foundation announced the Food System Vision Prize in October 2019, issuing a call to disparate global food system actors to unite, source and support positive Visions for our future food systems.
History shows that systemic change requires shared direction, time, and collective effort. The purpose of the Food System Vision Prize was to light the way for populations across the globe to realize a more regenerative, nourishing, equitable, and sustainable future—a call even more poignant in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the widespread reckoning on race, equity, and power in 2020.
More than 1,300 teams representing over 4,000 organizations (including non-governmental organizations, farmers’ organizations, universities, governments, research institutes, and an array of private sector actors) submitted Visions rooted in the food systems of 119 countries. Visions were analyzed through an independent review performed by over 100 diverse judges, who selected 76 Semi-Finalists and then 10 Finalists.
The top 10 Visionaries are each being filmed by Hollywood-based Media RED on location to create a collection of short documentaries to bring these visions to life for people around the world. Showcasing the Visionaries themselves, the prototypes they’re building and the movements they’ve begun to cultivate, these films offer hope to a world hungry to understand: what will we eat, how will we produce it, and how can we fix our broken food systems by the year 2050?
Food 2050 Trailer
For release in 2022, Food 2050 points the camera at 10 of the world’s most innovative, optimistic and audacious visionaries, seeking to heal the planet and our bodies through food and repair what has been broken over the decades through our industrialized food systems.
Mini Documentary: NEW YORK, STONE BARNS
In Hudson Valley, New York, the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture envisions preservation as the pathway to creating a more sustainable food systems for 2050. Chef-in-residence Johnny Ortiz, and the preservation labs Director Cortney Burns, employ techniques from the past, and a renewed relationship to the land’s regional cuisine as an example for future farmers of hope for a more regenerative, nourishing, and just food future in 2050.
Mini Documentary:
7GEN VISION FOR THE SICANGU OYATE LAKOTA TRIBE
Rosebud, South Dakota is a food desert. Though it is four times the size of Los Angeles, it has only 3 grocery stores. After the mass slaughter of the buffalo, and forced relocation onto reservations, the Sicangu Oyate Lakota tribe — traditionally a hunter/gatherer tribe — is starting a new tradition by restoring their food system through the Sicungu Food Sovereignty Initiative. The initiative empowers regional food entrepreneurs to learn sustainable practices such as seed breeding, regenerative farming, indigenous cooking, and sustainable buffalo harvesting. The film lights the way toward 2050 and beyond with a 7-generation long plan to be “good relatives” to the land and its people.
Mini Documentary: FROM MAMA’S KITCHEN TO METROPOLITAN BEIJING
With a population of over 1.3 billion people and 300 million suffering from diet-related diseases, China’s future hinges on shifting to a truly sustainable and healthy food system. The Good Food Fund envisions China in the year 2050 returning to traditional Chinese cuisine without compromising nutrition or environmental impact. The fund aims for a plant-forward system; less meat on the plate, a closer relationship to animals, and a focus on regenerative practices. The film offers a glimpse of what this might look like with a prototype restaurant in Dali, China, Xiao Lo, that has started this movement toward a more nourishing and sustainable Chinese food system.