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Episode: Next Bite 2024: Reducing Risk for a Fair and Resilient Food System

Author: EIT Food
Duration: 00:45:04

Episode Shownotes

In this instalment of the Food Fight Podcast, recorded live at Next Bite 2024, Matt Eastland invites leading voices from across the food sector to discuss transformative approaches to building fair and resilient food systems. From grassroots innovation to systemic policy shifts, this episode explores how collective action, innovative tools,

and education can drive meaningful change in the agri-food landscape.

Full Transcript

00:00:01 Speaker_04
Welcome to another instalment of our EIT Food Next Bite Recap Series. I'm Matt Easton, and today we're diving into the critical theme of building fair and resilient food systems.

00:00:13 Speaker_04
In 2023, over 258 million people across 58 countries faced acute food insecurity, driven by climate change and fragile supply chains. EoT Food is tackling these challenges with our community through three key areas.

00:00:31 Speaker_04
Sustainable food production, shorter urban supply chains and equitable business models. Our vital mission to safeguard global food equity was a central focus at Next Bite 2024, where we connected with changemakers driving this transformation.

00:00:46 Speaker_04
Let's begin with Estefania Simon-Sasic, founder of Mycelium Gastronomy, futurist, strategic consultant, and Michelin-trained chef. Estefania, welcome to the Food Bite podcast. It is a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you for being here with us.

00:01:03 Speaker_10
Thank you for having me.

00:01:05 Speaker_04
It's an honor. Well, it's a pleasure for us. Before we get into it, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do, and the activities that you run?

00:01:14 Speaker_10
I am Estefanía Simón Sasik. I'm the founder of Mycelium Gastronomy Network, a network of food practitioners that are located globally.

00:01:23 Speaker_10
And we try to cover the diversity of what we call the gastronomy value chain, which is the food value chain, but through a cultural sensitive lens. So we have people working in retail, chefs, farmers, people working in the food industry, academia.

00:01:38 Speaker_10
The idea behind it is to bring people across silos together to collaborate in different projects, especially in the field of education, formal and not formal education, and product development, program development.

00:01:51 Speaker_04
OK, amazing. Thank you for summing that up for us. And I was reading your bio, which is amazing, by the way. So I'm going to read this out because there's a lot here.

00:02:00 Speaker_04
So you're a trained Michelin chef turned futurist and founder of a global collaboration platform that connects food scientists, hospitality groups, governments, institutions, local farmers to drive positive change in the food system. Quite a journey.

00:02:13 Speaker_04
So how did starting out as a Michelin chef set you on this road?

00:02:19 Speaker_10
I was born in Venezuela. When I was a teenager, we started having a lot of political unrest in the country that continues to the day. And, you know, food professions, vocational professions in food are very transferable skill geographically.

00:02:36 Speaker_10
So I think there was a bit of like, a way of learning a skill to find a better future somewhere else. I came to Spain after finishing culinary school in my country to a three Michelin star restaurant called Martín Berazategui.

00:02:51 Speaker_04
Three Michelin stars? Yeah. Wow.

00:02:54 Speaker_10
So I stayed there for two years and I really felt like the level of excellence was really hard to attain in my country in any other field if that makes sense. So I was really motivated of being like in the very best of something.

00:03:08 Speaker_10
Maybe I should have studied in a very great university, but that's not what happened. I guess there's a bit of like a proneness to action and also in the kitchen you learn so much about the world.

00:03:22 Speaker_10
Like you are confronted with people from everywhere in the world, with different cultures, different socioeconomic strata. It's really hard to get that kind of diversity and world outlook when you only work in an office.

00:03:35 Speaker_10
With all due respect, like I know my friends that work in, you don't have that kind of exposure. It's thrilling. And there's a lot of adrenaline, high standards. It was really exciting. But after I had a motorbike accident.

00:03:50 Speaker_04
Sorry to hear that.

00:03:50 Speaker_10
Yeah, I was like, I'm over reliant on my body. So I want to like explore other things and started exploring a lot of things. And one of them. So I got a great job at the Bass Culinary Center. Shout out. And he was in the R&D section. So that was run like a

00:04:09 Speaker_10
kind of like a startup, like it's a fire there, put it out, and now they're there.

00:04:13 Speaker_10
So you're doing like recipe development, product development, running workshops, you know, doing a talk, like doing all these different things in the realm of gastronomy.

00:04:21 Speaker_10
It really broadened my perspective of what can be done with, you know, a skill set in the food space. And then I said, well, I want to bring in more diversity.

00:04:31 Speaker_10
And I guess it's kind of circling back to Venezuela and the global majority and how our voices need to be heard. in more mainstream spaces. So that's kind of the underlying motivation of Mycelium in a way.

00:04:46 Speaker_04
Yeah, I mean, what a journey. And I can really sense that it's that kind of multicultural aspect plus the innovation side that you've got from working in the kitchens that's kind of pushed you on, which is really amazing. Love that.

00:04:58 Speaker_04
Do you have any great examples of success stories off the back of the collaborations that you're now driving that you'd like to talk about?

00:05:06 Speaker_10
A couple of them that come to mind, we created a methodology for workshops and gatherings called Transform that wants to leverage that.

00:05:16 Speaker_10
So in the kitchen, sometimes you have a box of mushrooms or a box of whatever that you need to go through manually and you really get into this meditative state.

00:05:26 Speaker_04
To be honest.

00:05:28 Speaker_10
And I was like, this is so amazing to kind of like,

00:05:32 Speaker_10
come to this conversations of strategy or policy advisory or whatever from a different place, then I have my two cents to say, I'm going to repeat what I think and then we'll have like a little debate.

00:05:44 Speaker_10
Like it's well known in like creativity theory that this kind of multi-modal ways of engaging really like broaden your creativity.

00:05:52 Speaker_10
And so we did this with farmers, politicians, restauranteurs, sommeliers, people from academia in the Navarra region in Spain, to just prepare a very traditional vegetable called cardos, in English it's called thistles.

00:06:07 Speaker_10
So everyone was doing it, and you can already see the power dynamics shifting because the fancy guy that has the best word for the post-it is like, what? I don't know how to process a thistle.

00:06:17 Speaker_10
And so the farmer is like, I'm going to show you all how this is done. and the chef. And so, you know, like it kind of horizontalizes the space a little bit. So they came together.

00:06:26 Speaker_10
We were talking about what do we want the sustainable gastronomy of the region look like. And they actually came down to a manifesto that was published. We have around 5000 signing or subscriptors of the manifesto.

00:06:39 Speaker_10
And it's actually like a founding piece for the strategy for 2030 of sustainable tourism and gastronomy for the Nevada region. Amazing. So that's like a cool way that we have found that people can actually get to collaborate.

00:06:54 Speaker_10
And the other one, we're working with a huge private company from the US, billion plus revenue yearly.

00:07:02 Speaker_10
And they came to us because they didn't really know who to ask to train their commercial and sales team into like selling sustainability, like actually understanding what are the business benefits of... Sustainability in food or just sustainability in general?

00:07:15 Speaker_10
Sustainability is a holistic. So we can't really silo it or put it into little tight boxes like we've done.

00:07:21 Speaker_10
So of course sustainability in general intersects with food in terms of like the energy in manufacturing, the gas in transportation, of course like inputs and outputs of agricultural. So I'm not mansplaining or mansplaining this to you.

00:07:36 Speaker_04
The reason I was interested is because, you know, if they were coming to you talking about sustainability in general, then you've obviously done an amazing job in the space that you're in of projecting the fact that you're able to teach these things to people.

00:07:47 Speaker_10
So that's... Listen, we have over 100 members in our network. So the usual way we go about projects is, hey, guys, we have this thing. We sign NDAs because it's really important for people to feel comfortable with more innovative organization ways.

00:08:04 Speaker_10
And so this set of people that are both interested and have the more formal hard skills that are in this certain subject, we will brainstorm how will we approach this. We have created an amazing training module workshop.

00:08:20 Speaker_10
We have created a custom chatbot and a lot of really interesting tools. And it's really sitting in an intersection of hard skills that no one really, no one can say, I'm an expert in sales and sustainability. Do you know what I mean?

00:08:33 Speaker_10
So it's kind of like this knowledge brokering and this being in the middle that we really like to do. And we put ourselves in that position of like, explain it to me like I'm a three year old, because that's really what we need right now.

00:08:45 Speaker_04
I'm so impressed and at NextByte you've just moderated a session on cross-disciplinary collaboration and now I really understand why.

00:08:53 Speaker_04
So any key discussions, highlights or takeaways that you think that it's really useful for our listeners to know about?

00:08:59 Speaker_10
Right, so I think the EIT crowd comes from an academic sector, a more innovation, entrepreneurship, startup space, and I don't think we have yet tapped into the potential of food service to amplify certain messages that are really

00:09:19 Speaker_10
well known in this community, like net zero strategies, got microbiome, like you name it, right? Like things that in EIT food are just like everyday currency, but there's a gap between

00:09:33 Speaker_10
the big, bold ideas that we need to create a sustainable transition to avoid mass extinction. And, you know, bringing it down three levels so a three-year-old can understand that we can all get on board.

00:09:47 Speaker_10
Food service feeds everyone daily or by daily or weekly. I mean, I don't know what's your rate of eating out.

00:09:56 Speaker_04
These days, not so much because I've just had a baby. But yeah.

00:10:00 Speaker_10
Welcome to Vietnam. Literally, I got told that when I had my kid and I was like, that's the most accurate thing I've ever heard. Anyways, food service feeds everyone and we have the ability of translating concepts into sensorial pieces of information.

00:10:20 Speaker_10
And I think, you know, cross-discipline between food industry, academia, science, innovation, startups, and the food service needs to be less of, hey, there's this mycelium substrate, something, can you now make it tasty for I can serve it?

00:10:35 Speaker_10
Rather, let's collaborate from the get-go, because there are some really interesting pieces of information regarding the consumer acceptance culture that are held in the food service industry.

00:10:46 Speaker_04
Okay, I understand what you're trying to say. You start from the beginning and make sure everyone's part of that. Estefania highlighted how collaboration drives innovation in the food system, breaking down silos to create systemic change.

00:10:59 Speaker_04
Building on this, Adele Jones from the Sustainable Food Trust shares how data and transparency are empowering farmers and influencing policy, ensuring regenerative agriculture becomes both measurable and financially viable.

00:11:13 Speaker_04
Adele Jones, welcome to the Food Fight podcast at Next Bite.

00:11:16 Speaker_08
It's a pleasure to have you here. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me on.

00:11:21 Speaker_04
It's really our pleasure indeed. Just before we get into the topic, so can you explain to our listeners a little bit about who you are and the Sustainable Food Trust?

00:11:30 Speaker_08
So I am Adele Jones, Executive Director of an organisation called the Sustainable Food Trust. We are a UK-based non-profit working to accelerate the transition towards regenerative food and farming on a global scale.

00:11:42 Speaker_04
You obviously come all the way to Rome, so can I ask you what is it that you are looking for next, what are you hoping to achieve?

00:11:49 Speaker_08
So we're actually in fairly early stage conversation with EIT and many of the partners you work with about doing some work together, particularly on data and transparency, on regenerative agriculture metrics and how we use those to make supply chains more transparent, help government understand policy that needs to be implemented.

00:12:11 Speaker_08
as well as helping finance flow through to regenerative farms in a better way. At the moment, the best business case is to produce food without worrying too much about the environment or public health.

00:12:22 Speaker_08
And what we'd love to do is help shift that balance of financial advantage towards farming, which is good for nature, good for people and good for the climate. And to do that, you need data. It's a bit boring, but you do.

00:12:33 Speaker_04
It's not boring at all. We love data on the show. And I know that one of the areas that you're particularly focused on is measuring on-farm sustainability, right? So can you tell me how you're actually going about doing that?

00:12:45 Speaker_04
Because I imagine that's extremely complex, isn't it?

00:12:48 Speaker_08
It is complicated and it's something we set out upon about eight years ago now, where we basically said to a group of farmers, big, small, from different parts of the country, starting in the UK, what do you think you should be measuring and what would you like to be paid for, in terms of the things that as society we don't yet value in monetary terms, like soil health, clean water, good animal welfare.

00:13:13 Speaker_08
And so we put the challenge back to the farmers and said to them, why don't you help us using the best bits of stuff you already do, design a holistic, so looking at the social, environmental and economic sustainability of farms, a holistic framework of metrics.

00:13:26 Speaker_08
And that's really where our project, the Global Farm Metric, as it's now called, began. And the Global Farm Metric is as much as anything a mission to bring people together to agree on metrics. But through that process, we have a framework,

00:13:39 Speaker_08
with 12 categories of assessment which farmers can use but also companies and government can use to help understand the holistic sustainability of farms.

00:13:47 Speaker_04
That's cool. So I imagine that farmers embrace this because farmers basically originated it, right? They fed into it and they've helped you decide what to measure. So they must be embracing what you're doing.

00:14:00 Speaker_08
Yeah, it's, it's been a journey. And of course, there's the more, you know, the farmers who have been thinking about this for a long time, and then there's those who this is all quite new for.

00:14:09 Speaker_08
And I think one thing just to be a bit sort of pragmatic about is that this is going to be a bit of a headache for everyone in the next few years, we don't

00:14:19 Speaker_08
have primary data from farms which tell us in quantitative terms the impact that individual farms or individual products coming from farms are having. So it's a new thing.

00:14:30 Speaker_08
We're going to streamline the process and there's going to be amazing tools and companies that help farmers do that. But it's not going to be easy.

00:14:37 Speaker_08
I think we'd be lying if we said this whole data thing, this whole transparency thing is going to be super easy. Just, you know, sit back and relax. It is going to be difficult, but we need to make sure farmers are involved in the process.

00:14:47 Speaker_04
From farmers all the way up to, because you advise lots of governments in creating these metrics as well, I understand.

00:14:53 Speaker_04
So what challenges have you had to overcome in the policy space to make sure that policymakers understand the value of this and that they're really on board with it?

00:15:04 Speaker_08
I think the biggest challenge is short-term thinking in government.

00:15:08 Speaker_08
Obviously, administrations are generally in for four years, but even civil servants who are around for longer than that, the benefit of collecting this sort of data is perhaps not going to be seen for quite a few years.

00:15:21 Speaker_08
We actually advocate for collecting both practice and outcome data with the Global Farm Metric because outcome data really only becomes useful after a few years.

00:15:31 Speaker_08
Because of things like climate shocks or perhaps what your next-door farmer is doing, which might have an impact on your biodiversity, it's actually all about context when it comes to outcomes and that context builds over time.

00:15:43 Speaker_08
So what we suggest is that we also collect practice-based data because we can then make an assumption about impact in the shorter term whilst collecting that actual impact data to start rewarding things like increases in soil organic matter in the longer term.

00:15:57 Speaker_08
And that's just something that governments don't get. They kind of want answers immediately. And so building that business case in to policymaking thinking is really key.

00:16:07 Speaker_08
And a great example is the National Health Service in the UK at the moment, which is on the verge of going bankrupt potentially. And yet we're funding industrial agriculture through the subsidy system.

00:16:19 Speaker_08
So turning around that sort of thinking is like an oil tanker. It takes a huge amount of time.

00:16:26 Speaker_04
Yeah, and I can only wish you the best of that. What an important thing that you're trying to do there.

00:16:33 Speaker_04
Adele offered an inspiring perspective on how collaboration, transparency, and a deep understanding of soil health are key to transforming the food system. Her insights on sustainability set a powerful foundation for innovation.

00:16:48 Speaker_04
Next, we turn to Lorraine Allen, a seasoned expert in incubating food startups, to explore how these ideas translate into real-world business growth and groundbreaking food technologies. Lorraine Allen, welcome to the Food Fight podcast.

00:17:02 Speaker_04
Thank you very much for your time today.

00:17:03 Speaker_06
Great to be here. Thanks for having me.

00:17:04 Speaker_04
Thank you very much. So before we get into it, Lorraine, if you could give us a little bit of background about who you are and what is it you specifically do for EIT Food.

00:17:13 Speaker_06
Sure, I suppose my background is of about over 25 years in the food industry, working for various multinationals across UK, Ireland and Europe.

00:17:21 Speaker_06
Always within innovation, both the kind of front end of the creation and then the commercialisation of that.

00:17:26 Speaker_06
So for the last five years I've been working kind of independently as a consultant, but more and more I was finding myself in the startup space. I love the space, connected with the IT food.

00:17:36 Speaker_06
working with the European Commission, working with some of the government bodies in Ireland that support startups and scale-ups. So I just love the space, I love the energy.

00:17:44 Speaker_06
So as a result, I was invited to work with the Seabed Incubator, with the IT food, which I was delighted to do.

00:17:50 Speaker_04
Amazing, amazing. And you're right, there is a lot of energy. And is that why you're here at NextByte? I mean, obviously you're supporting the startups, but what is it specifically that you were looking to get out of the days, should I say?

00:18:00 Speaker_06
For me, I suppose, I have a massively keen interest in sustainability.

00:18:05 Speaker_06
I really want to see where the future of food is going, looking at new technologies, how those are being supported from start-up stage to scale up to being launched into the marketplace and being commercialized.

00:18:18 Speaker_06
There's so much amazing science being created in universities, and how do we transition that out into the marketplace? and support the scientists who are doing that.

00:18:27 Speaker_06
So they need commercial partnerships to do that, either via industry or via support as they spin out as a startup.

00:18:33 Speaker_04
Okay. And on that point specifically, so I'd love to talk to you about incubating. Sure. So how do you even go about incubating a company? Where does it start and where do you then come in to help?

00:18:45 Speaker_06
Sure. It generally starts with a very passionate founder. They have an idea, they have a purpose. Either they have come from a science research background or they have a very purpose-driven mission. I've come across both.

00:18:59 Speaker_06
I've worked with both and they come from maybe a different background completely and they're looking to create something in an opportunity that they see. So it either is science-driven or opportunity-driven.

00:19:10 Speaker_06
Eventually they have to validate it in market, and I suppose they're looking for skill sets, complementary skill sets to their own skill set, and often that's a commercial skill set.

00:19:20 Speaker_06
So somebody who's created innovation, who's commercialized it, either

00:19:26 Speaker_06
a seasoned entrepreneur or someone who's been in industry and business and has commercialized and knows, I suppose, the skill sets that you need to mobilize and have that kind of multidisciplinary approach to get a product to market.

00:19:37 Speaker_06
Because there was a discussion earlier and they were talking about, you know, a CEO of a startup has to be a jack-of-all-trades or a jill-of-all-trades, so therefore they're trying to find support systems on small budgets, they're on grants, so

00:19:52 Speaker_06
Places like EIT food where that's offer mentorship and offer incubation and offer supports is very attractive And what sort of challenges does a new business or a new founder face?

00:20:05 Speaker_04
I mean other than actually, you know, the commercial aspect of just getting some money But I mean what what is it that we're helping them overcome?

00:20:12 Speaker_06
We're helping them overcome Obstacles and failures I always say fail early. The key to innovation and bringing it to market is de-risking it as much as possible. And investors want it de-risked. And they themselves as a company want it de-risked.

00:20:29 Speaker_06
They're first going to have more success in market. So turning as many of the assumptions that you've created around your business into facts as you learn, either from the marketplace, from the consumer, from the customers.

00:20:40 Speaker_06
And there's a lot of peer-to-peer learning as well that goes on. So they're the kind of obstacles they have to overcome. Obviously the funding landscape is another obstacle they have to navigate.

00:20:50 Speaker_06
Be it, you know, early stage grants, spinning out from university, also protecting the IP that they've got in their company.

00:20:57 Speaker_06
So there's a lot that they have to upskill in very quickly and a lot of things that they kind of have to keep, I suppose, spinning all the plates that they have as a CEO of a startup.

00:21:09 Speaker_04
There is obviously so many startups here at NextBite. Are there any that you've come across that you're particularly excited or interested in?

00:21:17 Speaker_06
I've just come from a talk on biotechnology shaping the future of food and I think food and biotechnology colliding is a really exciting space.

00:21:27 Speaker_06
I've seen and I've worked with a number of startups and I think the ones that have stood out to me are the ones that are very determined but they're open-minded.

00:21:38 Speaker_06
They're wanting to learn, they're hungry to learn, they're eager to get opinion, they're eager to get ideas bounced, and they're also bouncing off each other.

00:21:48 Speaker_06
So it's leveraging the network that's here, it's leveraging the mentorship supports that are here, and being willing to adapt and change.

00:21:57 Speaker_06
Having a vision for the future for their business, but at the same time being savvy enough that they know how to navigate

00:22:03 Speaker_04
You've got to be flexible with it.

00:22:04 Speaker_06
Flexible and dynamic to shift the concept slightly or reshape their value proposition.

00:22:10 Speaker_06
And the value proposition for me is a key to be really crystal clear about what your concept is, being able to pitch it in a way that is meaningful to a customer and having that customer validation is a really important step to actually get that value proposition refined.

00:22:26 Speaker_04
Following Lorraine's insights on the challenges and opportunities in scaling food innovation, we now turn our focus to the next generation of food industry leaders.

00:22:35 Speaker_04
First we hear from the Future Foodmakers, a dynamic group of young food system activists at the forefront of revolutionising how we think about food production.

00:22:45 Speaker_04
Then we dive in a conversation with representatives from EIT Food's Young Professionals platform, where emerging leaders share their perspectives on the future of food, bringing fresh, bold ideas to the table.

00:22:57 Speaker_04
Future food makers in the house, welcome to the Food Fight podcast. So in our studio today, it's a little bit cosy, but we have Carlos, Maria, Nicole and Elena. Welcome to the Food Fight podcast. Great to have you.

00:23:10 Speaker_05
Thank you.

00:23:10 Speaker_04
Thank you for having us. And I think this is amongst all of you, I think this is the third time we've actually had you on the show. within different people. So yeah, it's great to have you back.

00:23:20 Speaker_04
Before we get into it, for people who don't know the future food makers, shame on you, who are you and what do the future food makers do? So what are you trying to achieve? Who'd like to start?

00:23:31 Speaker_01
So basically, the Future Foodmakers is a job-led non-profit organization that we strive to make the food system here in Europe more sustainable, equal for everyone.

00:23:42 Speaker_01
We just had a manifesto called the Menu for Change, where we outlined which reforms we think are prioritary for the European food system.

00:23:51 Speaker_01
And we just actively strive to make it better through our actions, our activism, and the dissemination of information in our social media. and also attending to events like Next Byte.

00:24:02 Speaker_01
We are really proud to be here thanks to EIT Food and one of our partners. Thanks to that, we are here with UE. Amazing.

00:24:10 Speaker_04
Well, it's so good to have you back. I mean, really, we're going to talk about what you've been doing over the last year, I think, since we had you on. So we'll get to that.

00:24:19 Speaker_04
But before we do that, so what are you hoping to achieve with NextByte over the two days? I guess we've had the first day, but how's it been? Any highlights and any takeaways that you have?

00:24:30 Speaker_05
So yesterday we presented one of the newer projects that we're working on with the YPP, Youth Professional Platform, alongside with EIT and YPARG. And today we just want to network a little more, see if we find any useful connections at NextByte.

00:24:49 Speaker_04
Fantastic. And you mentioned the Young Professionals Platform. What's the project that you're working on together?

00:24:55 Speaker_05
It's a menu for change challenge. So we're looking for groups of three people who have a solution to one of the items in our menu for change. And the applications are already open.

00:25:09 Speaker_05
And it's going to be like a yearly long process with the finish in the next byte. So next by 2025, we'll be announcing the winners.

00:25:19 Speaker_01
The winners. Yeah. So yeah, the proposals are as the name, Menu4Change, are based in one of the demands of the Menu4Change. So we are looking for those teams who have any local initiative that targets one of those demands and have any action.

00:25:33 Speaker_01
that want to, you know, level up, take it to the next level, we'll pick the best teams and they will have like a mentor and they can work on the proposal for more than six months and present it next year at NextByte where we will announce the winner.

00:25:45 Speaker_01
So we are so excited to be part of it. I can see that.

00:25:48 Speaker_04
That's super cool. Congratulations. And you keep mentioning the menu for change. And again, I know the menu for change very well, but for our listeners who don't, what is it specifically that you're looking to change through the menu for change?

00:25:59 Speaker_04
What's in there?

00:26:00 Speaker_05
We have six demands. We want to tackle the food waste in Europe. We want to tackle the agricultural practices that are being done.

00:26:08 Speaker_01
To be regenerative, like target as much as land as possible into the regenerative practice, which we are hearing that maybe it's not regenerative, but more back to traditional practices.

00:26:19 Speaker_01
also try to introduce true cost accounting in the lifecycle assessment of products to make the more sustainable and closed-circuit products accessible and easier for people so they can switch to healthier and sustainable diets.

00:26:33 Speaker_01
We have a strong focus on education to implement more focused and sustainable courses in the curricula.

00:26:40 Speaker_01
So little kids can start knowing about how the food system works and be aware of the choices they are doing when they are eating, because they will have like a lot of meals in their life. So they need to be conscious about the impact in the long term.

00:26:52 Speaker_01
Maybe if we eat like a pot of chocolate for breakfast, anything won't happen. But if we try to... We would never do that. Exactly. But if we eat ultra processed food every day, it's not good for our health.

00:27:03 Speaker_05
or for the health of the planet, to be honest, because what's healthy for us will have also an impact in the health of the environment.

00:27:10 Speaker_04
Yeah, I love the highlights of it. And actually, everybody, please go and check out the Future Feedmakers menu for change. It is brilliant. And I've been watching your progress over the last couple of years.

00:27:20 Speaker_04
So other than the menu for change, other than the work you're doing with the Young Professionals platform, what have you been doing together over the last year, I think, since we last spoke?

00:27:30 Speaker_05
On one of the first projects that we worked on was an evaluation report of the menu for change. So what has been done in Europe to work towards these demands that we have. And we put that out around early months of this year.

00:27:45 Speaker_05
And we have been working on a policy and we have also been working on the policy and deliberation challenge that we actually presented yesterday at the World Food Forum.

00:27:53 Speaker_05
Yeah, we were one of the three finalists and we developed this policy around healthy diets for humans and the planet. Yeah, it was really exciting.

00:28:02 Speaker_04
Fantastic. So you're the finalist at the FAO session, which is just okay.

00:28:06 Speaker_01
We were there yesterday. There were three categories and we were finalists in the health and sustainable diet presenting our proposal to try to implement

00:28:13 Speaker_01
healthier and sustainable diets in public procurement places, like taking university canteens as our pilot, as we are like a young lead organization.

00:28:21 Speaker_01
We just wanted to give that focus to young people who are studying and don't have time to cook or don't have the skills and resources. So we include not gene theory with true cost accounting, which is one of the demands of the menu.

00:28:32 Speaker_01
And we are just really proud. And actually, we are trying to look out for partners who would like to try to implement implement this and do a pilot experiment.

00:28:40 Speaker_01
We are having first approaches with universities interested, but just bringing the call here on the table that someone is listening and is interested more in the project, please reach out to us because we are open to discuss it with everyone.

00:28:52 Speaker_04
It's been so amazing to watch you evolve over the last couple of years and here you are, you know, going for finalists in awards, doing partnerships, you know, massive congratulations.

00:29:02 Speaker_04
And so going forwards then, so what does the future look like for the future food makers? What's coming up next for you?

00:29:09 Speaker_01
So we are going to start this month our mentorship program that we've been working on for the past month with Julia. You know her, like she's been in the podcast.

00:29:20 Speaker_01
And it's just a program focused for students and recent graduates that want to engage in the agri-food system and do a career there.

00:29:28 Speaker_01
We are connecting them with mentors that have a professional background in the agri-food system to give them advice into their career path and transition to the workplace.

00:29:38 Speaker_01
And we actually have the privilege to invite them to attend the Food Ingredients Europe next month in Frankfurt. And we are also doing workshops with them, with mentees and with mentors, to give them soft skills and work on different aspects for

00:29:54 Speaker_01
not to help them into the development. And we'll tell you next year how it has been, but we have a really strong, we have more than 60 applications. We have 10 amazing mentees that we match with 10 mentors with lots of experience in the agri food.

00:30:09 Speaker_01
And yeah, we are really proud of what is coming up. And also that's why we have more people, because we need more hands in those projects to make them as easy as possible for them.

00:30:20 Speaker_04
Everybody, Young Professionals Platform in the house with the Food Fight podcast. Welcome everybody. I am actually slightly intimidated. There's so many of you in here. So we have, I believe, Maria, Jenna, Karina, Federica and Francisco.

00:30:33 Speaker_04
So welcome everybody to the show.

00:30:36 Speaker_09
Thank you so much. Thank you for having us.

00:30:38 Speaker_04
Great. So before we start talking about, you know, all the kind of great work you're doing, can you just for our listeners outline what is the Young Professionals Platform and what are you looking to achieve?

00:30:50 Speaker_09
Okay, so the Young Professionals Platform is an initiative that was launched by EIT Food earlier this year, and we launched it because we believe that the youth are the actual change makers of today and tomorrow, and we want to build this community of youth-led organizations who share our goals of creating a more fair and resilient food system where there is healthy food for all.

00:31:16 Speaker_04
Amazing. And what brings you specifically to NexBite? What are you hoping to get from the next two days?

00:31:23 Speaker_07
Yeah, I mean, we're really excited to spread the word about the Young Professionals Platform, because we think that young people can take part in our organizations if they want to network together and learn more about the food system.

00:31:35 Speaker_07
But we also want to announce the Menu for Change Challenge, which young people can apply to with their interesting projects, win prize money, mentorship, and visibility with YPP and EIT Food.

00:31:50 Speaker_04
OK, and just briefly explain to me the challenge. What can people do to get involved?

00:31:56 Speaker_07
So they can apply through November 15th, of course, with either early phase projects that are at the idea stage, and they can also apply with their projects that are already started and already making exciting changes.

00:32:11 Speaker_04
OK, great. And my understanding is that the Young Professionals Platform and Future Foodmakers have had a kind of an integration piece going on here. So how does that all work?

00:32:19 Speaker_05
It's based on many food chains, and we have six demands that we believe can transform the food system. And we hope to have different teams tackle these demands from regenerative agriculture to policy implementation.

00:32:35 Speaker_05
But it's all in our website, and they can look it up and see if they're teams align with the menu for change.

00:32:42 Speaker_04
Okay, amazing. And how are the future food makers and the young professionals on the platform going to work together as part of the challenge? Is there, I believe there's some kind of mentorship thing going on, is that right?

00:32:53 Speaker_03
So yeah, basically once this team apply and we choose the team that most aligns with the menu for change,

00:33:01 Speaker_03
We will provide a successful team, a mentor and some fundings to actually develop their idea further and that's how the mentor is going to help them.

00:33:14 Speaker_04
Amazing, thank you. And can I ask you all, as undoubtedly the leaders of the future of the food system that I have right here with me, what is it that you are all wanting? If you have a demand, what are you asking for as part of your work?

00:33:29 Speaker_07
I mean, we would throw it back to the menu for change, right? This is a document that has been developed by young people, and it shows the demands. And we're using that to actually then say, OK, and young people are doing these things.

00:33:40 Speaker_07
We know that they're in the environment. Let's invest in that. So it comes back to that menu for change, I would say.

00:33:45 Speaker_04
There's a lot of work that's been done on the menu for change, so that really makes sense.

00:33:49 Speaker_04
And over the event, and I know you've been at other events as well, I'm interested, so how do we go about encouraging more young voices into the debates that we're having, but also the actions that you want to take off the back of this?

00:34:02 Speaker_02
Well there's obviously has been a struggle from some young people to get into the industry and to get involved in the food system in general and what we want from this YPP platform is that actually those people come in, they give the input and we facilitate the reaching out of

00:34:20 Speaker_02
either networking, industry, tools to like the mentors for the Money for Change.

00:34:26 Speaker_02
And this is basically our goal with the YPPs to bring all the youth together and empower them and give them a voice and make them feel like they are understood and they are heard and that they play the role in today's society.

00:34:39 Speaker_04
Amazing. And it's so worthy what you're doing. I'm really, really supportive. And can you just say then what's next for the Young Professionals Platform? What is it?

00:34:48 Speaker_04
Maybe you have a call out to people that you want them to do other than to apply, but maybe there's something else.

00:34:55 Speaker_07
Yes, I mean, they definitely should apply for the Menu for Change Challenge, but then also get involved in our organizations, right? Because we're connecting with each other.

00:35:03 Speaker_07
We're learning together so that you can make your dreams a reality or take them to the next level.

00:35:08 Speaker_04
And where can people go to find out more information? I need the website and anywhere else channels people.

00:35:14 Speaker_09
Well, you can find more information about the Young Professionals Platform on EIT Food website. You can just Google Young Professionals Platform EIT Food and you will definitely find it.

00:35:25 Speaker_04
The future food makers and young professionals are clearly shaping the future of food innovation. Now let's shift our focus to Dr. Martin van der Kamp from EIT Food.

00:35:35 Speaker_04
He shares vital insights into the critical skills needed for food system transformation and the importance of strategic, long-term planning to build a sustainable, innovative future. Martin van der Kamp, second time on the Food Fight podcast.

00:35:49 Speaker_04
What a joy to have you back. Welcome to the show. Thank you very much, Matt. It's a very much pleasure to be back here and to do it as part of Next Bite in Rome. Indeed, indeed.

00:35:58 Speaker_04
And it's for people who haven't listened to the amazing episode that we had previously. Can you please explain a bit about yourself, who you are and what it is that you do at EIT Food?

00:36:08 Speaker_00
Yeah, so I'm the Director of Education for EIT Food and so I've been working really on those questions about how do we provide the right kind of skills, what are the skills gaps that we've got in the food system and how do we address that, particularly aimed at food system transformation.

00:36:23 Speaker_00
So it's the innovation skills, it's

00:36:25 Speaker_00
some of the food system skills that we really need to add, complementary to what normal skills providers are already providing, but to really make sure that the entire workforce in the food system has the capabilities to drive that food system transformation forward.

00:36:40 Speaker_04
Okay, so really making sure that we have the skills and the generation now that we're going to need now and going forwards for the future food system.

00:36:48 Speaker_00
Yeah, and so this is the really interesting thing. So we've got this very short-term kind of timeline. When we train skills, it's very applied, it's very immediate, and you get interesting ideas out of it for now.

00:37:02 Speaker_00
But actually, a lot of the skills that we're training, people are going to only use that in their career, maybe in four, five, six years' time. And so from an employability perspective, we're talking about a different timeline.

00:37:13 Speaker_00
When we talk about food systems transformation, we're again talking about a completely different timeline, and here we are already needing to anticipate skills gaps that we know are going to exist in 2040, 2050, to start addressing those now, because it is going to take that long to get a generation of innovators through the system to the point that they can actually be effective driving change forward.

00:37:35 Speaker_00
Yeah, we've got really these three timelines at all times in our minds.

00:37:40 Speaker_04
I don't envy the challenge there, Martin, but well done for doing it. You've just come off a panel where you're talking about capacity building within this space.

00:37:50 Speaker_04
Can you explain for our listeners what you mean by capacity building and maybe give some key takeaways from the talk that you just had?

00:37:57 Speaker_00
Yeah, so capacity building is broader than just talking about skills. So we need to also have the structures to support this.

00:38:06 Speaker_00
Of course, we need to have skilled individuals that can drive food system transformation, but we need to have sufficiently skilled individuals. So in terms of the volume of people that we need to train, we need to really skill that up.

00:38:18 Speaker_00
and then they of course need to have the right skills. So that's part one.

00:38:21 Speaker_00
The second bit is that actually we need to look at the role of employers in this and how do they see the progression of their workforce in a way that makes sense with regards to corporate strategy but also with that broader impact in mind so that in 20, 30 years time they're still relevant businesses because if you now don't invest in skills then in years to come

00:38:44 Speaker_00
you're going to have issues with retaining talent, they're going to leak away, and you're going to have issues with attracting the right kind of talent. So what's happening there?

00:38:51 Speaker_00
But then once you start going down a little layer there, well, what happens then with regards to HR practices? How do HR teams actually make particularly those innovation skills apparent in your recruitment practices? Because actually,

00:39:06 Speaker_00
a lot of those skills are very difficult to get from a CV. So technical skills are very easy to gain. Okay, you've got a qualification, et cetera. You know that someone can do a particular task.

00:39:17 Speaker_00
Whereas innovation practices, that is a lot more difficult. But then, again, we need to go a further layer on this one because then also we need to start thinking about what's the role of universities in their local ecosystems?

00:39:30 Speaker_00
and how do we need to provide capacity for them to become that integrator to actually be able to do technology commercialization, to do sort of industry-sponsored research in a more effective way in order to drive open innovation, etc.

00:39:46 Speaker_00
So we're talking not only about the individual, but we're also talking about the entire web of knowledge partners, industry partners, startups, to make sure actually that we really open up this conversation.

00:39:58 Speaker_00
And one of the things that we've noticed is that capacity and capability building is still far away from what people are talking. So the panel, I had a fabulous panel.

00:40:10 Speaker_00
And there are already some amazing examples out there, but because nobody knows about it, it's under-highlighted.

00:40:16 Speaker_00
So, for example, Yildiz Holdings in Turkey is having this amazing women program to get them as part of their workforce, but also as part of their suppliers into their systems.

00:40:27 Speaker_00
So there are these amazing examples out there, but it's not part of a conversation.

00:40:33 Speaker_00
So for me, it really is important that we start this conversation and that we take this seriously as an entire ecosystem and as an entire industry, that we actually start thinking about this because otherwise we're not going to be able to transform the food system at the rate that actually we need to.

00:40:49 Speaker_04
Okay, now I understand that and it does sound incredibly complex. Concretely then, what are the next steps in terms of making sure that we build this capacity? So what is it that you would like to see going forward?

00:41:03 Speaker_00
I think for me we need to start that conversation and I think industry needs to start asking themselves when is the last time that they've thought about skills and capacities.

00:41:14 Speaker_00
for where the food system is going, and not to look at it in very short term of, okay, I've got a vacancy, I need to fill it, but actually to think more long term strategically, how do we actually prepare for the future, because as I said, retention and recruitment is going to be an issue.

00:41:31 Speaker_00
So I think that is one part. I think the second part is that as an ecosystem, we need to start thinking more about where are their capabilities, shared capabilities, or in some way, capabilities where we don't need to duplicate.

00:41:45 Speaker_00
Because I see still a lot of duplication in the food system. And that's costing resources, it's costing efforts, and so how can we be smarter about those kind of things?

00:41:56 Speaker_00
And then of course the final bit is sort of those innovation and entrepreneurship skills.

00:42:01 Speaker_00
to actually start investing in those, because when we talk with corporates, most of them say that, well, actually, we're really only interested in what's happening in, say, for example, algal biotech, the kind of the latest technology developments, or we want to know what's happening with the microbiome or with protein diversification or something like that.

00:42:20 Speaker_00
And that's fine, of course that question is there, but actually what is never part of that question is that, hey, what do we need to do to make sure that our workforce can actually have effective collaborations within and outside of the boundaries of the organization?

00:42:38 Speaker_00
How do they actually engage with startups that have such a different culture? So we're talking about a whole range of skills. that we are also going to need to develop. And here I would like to make one plug.

00:42:50 Speaker_00
So a lot of people are calling these soft skills. And this is where you might remember from the previous podcast. I am very, very allergic to that skill because that would almost imply that they're optional. Well, they're no longer.

00:43:02 Speaker_00
They are really underpinning everything that we can do as an ecosystem, as an industry. So let's also then talk about them as underpinning skills in that way and really to start building up those stories.

00:43:15 Speaker_04
Yeah, thank you, Martin. Actually, off the back of that, I have stopped saying soft skills, so it has stayed with me.

00:43:22 Speaker_04
As we've heard, building fair and resilient food systems requires innovation and collaboration, supporting startups and developing the skills needed for future transformation.

00:43:33 Speaker_04
For more insights, visit EIT Food's website at www.eitfood.eu and join the conversation using the hashtag EITFoodFight on our LinkedIn channel.

00:43:45 Speaker_04
In our final Next Bite series episode, we'll explore healthier living and the role that food systems play in improving public health. Thanks for tuning into the Food Fight podcast. Don't forget to hit the follow button so you never miss an episode.

00:43:59 Speaker_04
Thanks, everyone.