Former Food Planet Prize Jury Member Jessica Fanzo is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Food Policy and Ethics at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. Professor Fanzo is an expert in the fields of diet, nutrition, and food security. She served as Co-Chair of the Global Nutrition Report and the UN High Level Panel of Experts on Food Systems and Nutrition between 2017 and 2019.

Q: What do you see as the most pressing issue(s) in reshaping the global food system?

To me, the food system is facing 3 major challenges:

1. Inequitable livelihoods
2. People’s inability to access healthy diets
3. Climate disruption

Q: What would you like to achieve by being a member of the Food Planet Prize Jury?

Identify projects that are bold enough to bring about real change.

Q3 What unique experiences or knowledge do you bring to the jury?

I am old and have done a lot in food systems! Kidding aside, I think my extensive experience would be an asset when analyzing projects aiming to improve our diets and nutrition, as that is my expertise.

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Food Planet Prize Jury Member Line Gordon is the Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University. Professor Gordon was awarded the Curt Bergfors Foundation Professorship in Sustainability Science with a  Focus on Sustainable Food Systems in February  2021. Her transdisciplinary research addresses food and water as entry points to a more sustainable and resilient biosphere. She is also a board member at the EAT Foundation.

Q: What do you see as the most pressing issue(s) in reshaping the global food system?

Right now, food is at the heart of multiple crises the world is facing, including the Covid-19-pandemic, the global geopolitical tensions accelerated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the climate emergency. Focusing on ensuring the accessibility of healthy and sustainable diets for all is more important than ever.

Q: What would you like to achieve by being a member of the Food Planet Prize Jury?

I would like to instill hope in people. The current environmental crisis can be overwhelming, and, at times, people lose hope. By finding and awarding innovative solutions that can support healthier people and a thriving biosphere, the Food Planet Prize helps illustrate that a sustainable future is possible. As a Jury Member, I get exposed to a range of brilliant initiatives, and the intense discussions in the Jury help me and all other Jurors not only pick the most promising idea but also enrich own our knowledge. We then further spread that knowledge through our respective channels as we continue to work on finding viable pathways forward.

Q: What unique experiences or knowledge do you bring to the Jury?

I bring an in-depth scientific understanding of the role food plays in biosphere resilience and sustainability, as well as a rich experience of transdisciplinary work, i.e. insights on how to collaborate across academic disciplines and with society at large, for maximum impact.

Organic apple farmer, Director-General of the Curt Bergfors Foundation and co-chair of the Food Planet Prize Jury.
Formerly director of MAD Academy, a platform for education and inspiration in the restaurant community that aims to make the food system resilient. Author and food philosopher, Magnus is also the former chef-restaurateur of the internationally acclaimed Swedish restaurant Fäviken Magasinet. 

Food Planet Prize Jury Member Olivier De Schutter is a Professor of Law at the University of Louvain. Appointed UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights in 2020, he also co-chairs the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food). Professor De Schutter previously served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food from 2008 to 2014 and as a Member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights from 2015 to 2020.

Q: What do you see as the most pressing issue(s) in reshaping the global food system?

Considerable efforts have been put into balancing efficiency gains and negative environmental, sanitary, and economic externalities of industrial food production. Experts have proposed increased specialization, economies of scale, and a range of technological solutions to manage that equation. In contrast, too little attention has been paid to the structural causes of our inability to change. We should now prioritize reaping the full potential of social innovations and democratizing food policies.

Q: What would you like to achieve by being a member of the Food Planet Prize Jury?

The single most important limiting factor in our ability to reform food systems towards greater sustainability and health is imagination. We need to favor experimentation, learn from what works and make the most promising innovations visible. This is what I hope to contribute to as a Member of the Food Planet Prize Jury.

Q: What unique experiences or knowledge do you bring to the jury?

As a former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, and current co-chair of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, I continue to be impressed by the diversity of approaches towards improving food systems. However, most scientific publications address challenges facing temperate regions and rich countries. The wealth of innovative practices in tropical regions and dry areas deserve greater recognition and visibility. Being an expert in this area is not about teaching; it’s about learning.

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Food Planet Prize Jury Member Lindiwe Majele Sibanda chairs the CGIAR System Board. Former Vice President Policy and Partnerships at AGRA and former CEO and Head of Mission of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), Professor Sibanda is also a serving member of Champions 12.3 coalition, and a serving Board member for Nestlé where she serves on the Sustainability Committee and Creating Shared Value Council. She has received numerous awards for her work with agriculture and food security in Africa. 

Q: What do you see as the most pressing issue(s) in reshaping the global food system?

To me, there are five pressing issues shaping the global food system:

1. Ensuring that we deploy technologies that utilize fewer resources while producing more food for the growing population.
2. Producing healthy, safe, affordable, and accessible foods.
3. Reducing food loss and waste
4. Ensuring that climate-smart technologies are upscaled
5. Making the food systems transformation agenda everybody’s agenda, as everyone has something to contribute – from consumers to producers, processors, distributors, scientists, and policymakers.

Q: What would you like to achieve by being a member of the Food Planet Prize Jury?

My expectations are high and two-fold. First, on a personal level, I see this experience as a great opportunity to learn from fellow Jury members and from the diversity of submitted initiatives we get to evaluate. It will broaden my knowledge and thinking beyond my discipline and connect me with like-minded planet ambassadors, which for me is invaluable. Second, for the common good, I hope to find genuine innovations and new paradigms that will benefit our planet.

Q: What unique experiences or knowledge do you bring to the jury?

Farming is in my blood. I am a practicing farmer but also an animal scientist who has worked as an agricultural researcher, an entrepreneur, and a policy advisor to numerous governments in Africa, as well as in international private and public institutions.

So, I understand science, business, and sustainable food systems policy development, as well as what this means at the grassroots level.

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Food Planet Prize Jury Co-Chair Johan Rockström is the Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Professor in Earth System Science at the University of Potsdam. Furthermore he chairs the Earth Commission, the advisory board of the EAT Foundation, and is a member of the Earth League. Professor Rockström is recognized globally for leading the development of the Planetary Boundaries Concept. 

Q: What do you see as the most pressing issue(s) in reshaping the global food system?

There are, as I see it, two overarching and interlinked challenges:

1. To transform the global food system from being the single largest cause behind transgressing planetary boundaries to becoming a system that delivers food to all people within the safe operating space on Earth. This means food systems that go from source to sink, close nutrient loops, halt expansion into intact ecosystems, minimize chemical pollution, and stop overusing freshwater.
2. To transform food consumption and improve access to healthy diets that can halt the slow pandemic of 10-11 million people dying prematurely each year due to unhealthy food.

Q: What would you like to achieve by being a member of the Food Planet Prize Jury?

Contribute to the Prize successfully developing into a lever of change that boosts the development and implementation of innovative food solutions, in pace and scale.

Q: What unique experiences or knowledge do you bring to the jury?

I am an Earth system scientist, with my feet in both food systems and sustainable transformation research. I am also quite closely connected to the science-business-policy sphere on food and sustainable development.

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Franco Fubini is the Founder and CEO of Natoora, a seasonal produce supplier that works directly with over 600 small-scale farmers and over 2000 restaurants in London, Paris, Copenhagen, New York, Miami, and Melbourne. Fubini is a passionate advocate for radical change across the food system, from transforming the way food is farmed to educating consumers on the impact of their food choices. He is a professor of Sustainability Management at Columbia University and his first book, In Search of the Perfect Peach, on flavour and its power in fixing our food system is being published this autumn.

Q: What do you see as the most pressing issue(s) in reshaping the global food system?

It all comes down to the systematic de-education of consumers from the powerful industrial food system. A system that functions on a devastating combination of exceptional momentum and inertia. One in which complacency, uniformity, and efficiency override singularity.

Q: What would you like to achieve by being a member of the Food Planet Prize Jury?

The Food Planet Prize magnifies two principles that are at the core of my vision for a stronger food system: innovation and accessible scale. The opportunity to, not only learn firsthand about the transformative ideas and developments springing up across the globe, but also to see them through the eyes of such a multidisciplinary jury is invaluable. Going forward, I will undoubtedly draw from these fresh perspectives to help build a resilient, restorative and equitable food system through personal action and Natoora.

Q: What unique experiences or knowledge do you bring to the jury?

Since founding Natoora, I have spent two decades tackling the issues facing our food system head-on. Now connecting over 600 growers, 1600 world-leading chefs, and over 46,000 households across two continents, I find myself uniquely placed to put forward both ground-level and top-line experiences in farming and supply chain.

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Shenggen Fan (樊胜根) is a Chair Professor at the China Agricultural University where he heads The Academy of Global Food Economics and Policy, Former Director-General for the International Food Policy Research Institute (ifpri), he has worked on rural development, poverty reduction, hunger, food security, and nutrition in China, India, and Africa. 

Q: What do you see as the most pressing issue(s) in reshaping the global food system?

Food systems are both victims and contributors of climate change, natural resource degradation, and biodiversity loss. The COVID-19 pandemic is a wake-up call that should force us to use all available tools – policies, technologies, institutions, and investments included – to address the pressing need to completely transform our food systems, for human and planetary health.

Q: What would you like to achieve by being a member of the Food Planet Prize Jury?

Help select game-changing Prizewinners with the potential to tackle some of the greatest food system challenges in areas as diverse as policy, institutions, technology and partnership.

Q: What unique experiences or knowledge do you bring to the jury?

As a former Director-General of IFPRI and present Chair Professor at China Agricultural University, I have the unique experience of leading research on- and designing innovative agricultural and food systems policies that improve nutrition and health, as well as support the environment in both developed and developing countries.

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Paul Polman works to accelerate action by business to tackle climate change and inequality. As CEO of Unilever (2009-2019), he demonstrated that business can profit through purpose, delivering shareholder returns of 290% while the company consistently ranked 1st in the world for sustainability. Today he works across a range of organisations to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which he helped develop. www.paulpolman.com 

Q: What do you see as the most pressing issue(s) in reshaping the global food system?

The need for a clear shared vision and human willpower.
Never ever have we been so forewarned about what is going to happen but also forearmed with the tools to do something about it. Yet, we seem paralyzed at times. Nature-positive, people-positive, and climate-positive action is what we should aspire to and that starts with people in positions of influence taking ownership of the problem beyond their silos and driving higher levels of ambition. Governments and companies need to align their vision on challenges and opportunities.
The system is broken and needs urgent repair, if we are to feed the world in a sustainable and equitable way for generations to come. We cannot achieve the SDGs without drastically changing our food systems.

Q: What would you like to achieve by being a member of the Food Planet Prize Jury?

We need to catalyze the big ideas to transform our food systems and scale them with speed to achieve the impact needed. The Food Planet Prize can help accelerate the implementation of some of the smartest ideas for people and the planet.

Q: What unique experiences or knowledge do you bring to the jury?

Having run Unilever – one of the biggest food companies – for over a decade, having helped develop the SDGs, and now chairing the Food and Land-use coalition amongst other things, I am convinced that improving our food systems is one of the biggest opportunities to ensure harmony between people and planet earth. I hope to bring in more than the voice of the private sector, as it ultimately boils down to helping the ones left behind.

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