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The fifth session was How Investments in Farmland Can Drive Nutritional Outcomes. The panel conversation was led by RFSI and consisted of Mint Creek Farm, Iroquois Valley Farmland REIT, and the Rodale Institute. The session focused on: 1. What has happened to soils in the past century as the connection has been lost between growing food and soil health. Farmers have increasingly paid less attention to soil heath as they have been told that the most important metric is yield and biology has been replaced with chemistry. This has also included the fact that the idea has been lost that soil is te... Lire la suiteeming with life. For example, a teaspoon of healthy soil has more microorganisms than there are people in the planet. 2. How this degradation of soils has impacted human health from a medical professional on the panel. The medical professional shared their observations over multiple decades of observing human health from increased inflammation related diseases to increased obesity. These medical issues are highly connected to the amount of chemical inputs in agriculture that damage the microbiota of gut, reducing the body's immune system while also causing inflammation. Obesity can also be tied to the consumption or overconsumption of empty nutrient meals lacking the substance needed for the body to feel satisfied. 3. The difficulty that farmers face as they try to manage better agricultural systems. This includes the burden of farmers having to educate consumers on why regenerative practices or humane treatment is important, the difficulty of running a small business, lack of financial resources, lack of partners with the capacity and expertise to work with farmers that want to have better practices. 4. The importance of technical and financial assistance to transition land towards regenerative practices. The panel, including a farm owner, shared their experiences with consultancy and digital education efforts funded by state (e.g. Pennsylvania) or national governments for farmland transition programs that current land grant universities are not serving. Iroquois Valley Farmland REIT also discussed their work offering mortgages and lines of credit from 600 investors towards transitioning farmland across the US. 5. The Rodale Institute shared their increasing consultancy work assisting farmers supported by public funding. This includes a 2022 4-day summit for the medical community to have first hand experience with on farm soil health practices and their relevance to practicing medicine. Lire moins

The sixth session was The Wyse Guys: Two Brother's Journeys to Regenerative Agriculture Outcomes. It was a conversation facilitated by RFSI between the two Wyse brothers and their journey across farming, soil science, and investing. The brothers both had varied but similar journeys across the food system moving from scientific research on regenerative agriculture practices and ecological principles to academia to investing. One brother continues research through the Forever Green Initiative to develop the next generation of perennial and biodiverse crops for the Upper Midwest. The other brothe... Lire la suiter runs a venture capital firm investing in early to mid stage enabling technology companies for the regenerative agriculture space, including precision agriculture technologies, robotics, and genomics. Some key ideas mentioned: 1. The importance of the economics of climate change and agriculture by monetizing the ecosystem services of improved practices. For example, the low carbon fuel standard and carbon crediting system in California works with farmland in an effort to improve the economics of regenerative agriculture. 2. The increasing global demand for plant protein that can have lower demands on the land and people than current livestock sources. Lire moins

The seventh session was Supporting Entrepreneurs in Building Nourishment Economies. The panel consisted of The Croatan Institute, 1st Course Capital and Food Systems 6, and Nourish^N. Topics covered included: 1. Success stories from the panel. For example, Noursih^N was able to work on a water funding mechanism in Quito, Ecuador where funds were gathered from large water consumers in the city to support upstream water friendly farming practices. They also had a project in Zambia they want to replicate elsewhere working with Camaco and farmers across the country to gather soil data and determin... Lire la suitee carbon offsets. The resulting work has been able to support elephant conservation goals (a rare instance of major biodiversity outcomes from agricultural work) and supporting rural regenerative food and farming practices. 2. 1st Course Capital discussed their investing parameters and ideology focused on regenerative agriculture and early stage companies. VC makes sense in this space for capital efficiency and scaling of startups, but it's critical to have the right type of capital for the right type of innovation and startup. There is a growing space and work that can support this space around integrated capital, intelligent matching, and blended finance. 3. The importance of community and knowledge sharing for the work that entrepreneurs are doing. Not all entrepreneurs are motivated by financial returns and there are benefits of coming together in a community that are important for investors to understand. 4. The need to understand the various types of support that entrepreneurs need. This includes back office support, regulatory knowledge for the food industry, service providers that understand unique startup challenges, community and resiliency to support burning out, and other areas of expertise or network engagements. 5. The need for more messaging around soil health's connection to nutrition as the market needs more companies to push this engagement. This evolution will need different language and metrics, recognition of the interconnection, increased focus on quality of foods, and the overlay of wellness over sustainability trends. This space makes sense for entrepreneurs as they are recognizing the market demand of both and bringing them together. Lire moins

The way we do agriculture, the way we manage our soils, the way we process our food, and the way we get our food from farm to table all influence the levels of nutrients we find in our food. Conversely, there are also many things that influence our body’s ability to use what nutrients are available. Better understanding this complex relationship between agriculture, food, and health is of increasing importance as we face both environmental and health crises ranging from climate change to chronic illness and exorbitant costs due to a primarily reactive healthcare system. Regenerative food sys... Lire la suitetems – ones that value nutrient density from soil to stomach – are seen as a solution to these challenges and present enormous opportunities for further learning, development, and investment. RFSI’s Rooted in Health event dove in to the under-explored connection between regenerative agriculture and nutrition, the pathways to improving human health through agriculture that already exist, the work yet to be done, and the investment levers that can be pulled to advance human health and nutrition. Addressing an issue as complex as this requires a systems-based, multi-stakeholder approach. This event is for investors and practitioners across the agriculture, food, and health spectrum and is designed to provide: 1. A foundation of understanding of the connections and complexities that exist between agriculture, food, and health; 2. A roadmap for work to be done by various stakeholders involved; 3. An exploration of the investment and funding opportunities that exist along the path from soil to stomach; 4. A vision for what comes next and how you fit in. The event frequently highlighted the importance of working on these two areas in tandem with each other as they are complementary and tackled this topic as something that covers across all five Action Tracks. This includes building the connection between food and health, supporting sustainable farming practices that promote carbon, water and other ecosystem services, supporting rural economies and nutrition access, and creating climate smart agricultural systems. Building the connection between soil and human health is a two way street in ensuring that nutrient dense food makes its way from the field to the person, but also that consumers are primed to accept and assimilate nutrients from regeneratively grown food. It will also require breaking down siloes between different industries and sectors to ensure that people are recognizing the holistic and interconnected dynamics of agricultural practices and nutrition. Lire moins

Main findings included: 1. The directionality of food system towards quantity instead of quality has been deleterious to human and environmental health. The way it is possible to breed for a cardboard tomato shows the potential to breed for more nutritional and regenerative food products. 2. Growing more nutritious foods influences human health and shows the connection between how we manage landscapes and how manage epidemiological health. There is an opportunity to not only improve health outcomes and food equity, but also store carbon and support other ecological services through regenerativ... Lire la suitee growing practices that produce more nutritious foods. 3. Soil ecologies and agriculture systems if continually perturbed can go from a stable to an unstable state and the same happens with the human gut leading to immunity and inflammatory issues. 4. There are some relatively easy principles and a framing of nourishment, healing, or nutrition wisdom that can interrogate the complexity of these individual issues and allow people to understand the connection between soil health and human health. 5. Breaking down the siloes between food, agriculture, health, insurance, policy, finance and other sectors are key to having a systemic approach that acknowledges the connection between responsible growing practices, increased nutritional quality, better tasting food, and more accessible better foods. 6. There is a great deal of interest to continue to figure out the dark matter of nutrition to understand all of the unknown compounds within foods, the variation of nutritional quality in different foods and their connection to different growing practices, and how to better educate not only consumers but also policy makers and the medical community around the importance of nutritious food that come from responsible growing practices. 7. Food is a human right, not only enough quantities of food, but also nutritious food that nourishes the body and regenerates soil systems. 8. The growth of the idea of food as medicine and the immediate opportunity to expand this on a societal level lies with businesses and innovation to make changes as the medical community and public policy moves more slowly. Lire moins

The first session was Digging into Agriculture's Ties to Human Health Outcomes, highlighting the expertise of the Bionutrient Food Association, the Croatan Institute, and Basil's Harvest. The session mainly covered the findings of an upcoming report from the Bionutrient Food Association and the Croatan Institute around the nexus of soil and human health. Human bodies and agricultural ecologies mirror each other. The session highlighted the four levels of nutritional interventions that exist in the space: 1. Replacement, including healthier options and whole foods; 2. Free from chemical and dru... Lire la suiteg inputs; 3. Differentiated nutrient density, including how we begin to select food that has nutrient levels that are differentiated and detailed; 4. Microbiome centric, meaning a more harmonious relationship between microbes in the environment and microbes in our bodies. Moving forward this work will require a focus on: 1. Prioritizing more nutritious food; 2. Harvest and processing to ensure that harvest and transport time is optimized to maximize nutrition, and midstream practices are changed to stop separating whole foods from their core nutritional components (e.g. as happens with wheat); 3. Purchase, access and preparation as systemic racism and inequities have created a major lack of food access, high cost around regeneratively grown food, and increasing difficulty around having the time, energy and resources to properly prepare food to make the nutrients most available; 4. Digestion and absorption, meaning ensuring that human guts and bodies are in healthy places (free from chemicals, stress and chronic illnesses) in order to best absorb nutrients. 5. General human health to ensure access to more nutrients, reduce chronic health issues, and improve the health of the gut microbiome. Dialogues throughout the session briefly mentioned some other key ideas: 1. The idea of nutritional dark matter and the lack of information/science that we have around nutrition. 2. Compost application can greatly improve the health of soil systems as mirrored with human gut microbiomes that can have improved health with increasing research around fecal transplants. 3. Society needs a new vocabulary around this nexus as regenerative agriculture, nutrient density and other individual terms do not cover the suite of how interdependent these relationships and work are. 4. There is a need for a stable and profitable market to pay farmers and investors that are valuing these contributions. Lire moins

Equitable livelihood (i.e., women empowerment) -WET markets can advance equitable livelihood and this underrated benefit should be discussed more and considered as a goal in future projects.

• A need to create a coalition for market owner and researchers in related fields. -It is of great significance for non-profit organizations to unite researchers and stakeholders to work collaboratively to address challenges and manage wet market for public good.

• Incentive programs that provide founding opportunities and help vendors start online business needs further discussion. • Sustainable farming and ways to shorten supply chain of fresh produce in China need further exploration.

• Participation of capitalism in leading the market transformation -Should the government lead the project for public good? -Will the competitive bidding process bring a positive impact as expected?

• Recognize uniqueness of challenges faced by each market o Gentrification follows as economic develops at a rapidat rapid rate in cities in China. City planners should be aware that food can promote gentrification in certain way. Thus, food price and access to healthy food should be ensured in every community, especially in those vulnerable groups (eg. low-income groups).

• Local government (i.e., Beilun District, Ningbo City, China) will find guidebook launched in the dialogue a helpful tool to help advance WET market transformation. o Through dialogue, together with EAT Foundation, the policy boot camp developed by Dr Nazia Mintz Habib would like to provide research tools for Beilun Bureau of Health on policy systems reform. The boot camp is expected to propose transformation plans fit for Beilun wet markets.

Communication with real estate developers -Increased transparency of communication can facilitate WET market transformation.

• Identify the value and challenges for wet markets in China • Analyze problems of current interventions • Explore the trend of development of markets • Propose effective strategies to revitalize wet markets in China

• Adaptation on market management and a shift on consumption behavior (through education) among young people are equally vital. • Inspiring ideas along with worldwide best practices should be collected in guidebook and introduced to practitioners in China.

• Adaptation o Market management: the value of a WET market should be widely recognized by vendors, local government officers, consumers and market management team. One innovative idea is to utilize night market as places where the youth can learn how to cook, where to find food that tastes good, and where to incubate future livelihoods. This considers time constraints and busy schedules of young people living in urban areas in China. o Consumption behavior: It is emphasized that consumption habit can be guided and adapted to a more sustainable way. One solution proposed is to involve chefs ... Lire la suitein the transformation. Chefs, especially celebrity chefs, can help promote a plant-based diet while guiding young consumers to re-appreciate food from production to consumption end. Lire moins

The focus of this particular UNFSS "China Dialogue" is to explore how plant based diet can contribute to the transformation of the food system. The transition to a plant based diet has a direct and far-reaching impact on the transformation of the current food system, as well as public health (chronic diseases, zoonotic diseases), planetary health (carbon neutrality, biodiversity), animal welfare, food security, and rural revitalization. Whether it can be timely and effective depends largely on how the vegan community utilizes systematic thinking, integrates issues of humanity, international po... Lire la suitelicies, and modern scientific research methods to promote plant based diet and lifestyle creatively. Lire moins

1. Traditional Chinese religions and their principle beliefs (i.e. vegetarianism of Chinese Buddhism and its principles of compassion), have a positive impact on food transformation. Our keynote speakers discussed plant based diet from a Taoist longevity perspective, and others advocated for plant based diet as a new way of practicing mercy release (the practice of purchasing live animals sold for food for the purpose of freeing them in nature). The combination of traditional wisdoms and the daily practices of the new generation can and do provide solutions for various challenges. 2. Engagemen... Lire la suitet of government agencies and corporations play a crucial part in the transformation of the food systems. Key decision makers can and do support the process of achieving fundamental changes on a regular basis. Solutions rooted in practical needs of industries and social development are particularly impactful and effective. 3. The research and development of plant based foods have been rapidly growing around the world, especially in Europe and America. In China, as of 2020, new types of plant meat, dairy and egg products have also begun to flood the market. This new development domestically is still in its early stages. Compared with Western countries, consumer response is very different. Opportunities and challenges for the development of plant based products in the country coexist. The objective of many brands is to establish effective communication with consumers in a positive way to better contribute to changes in diet and food systems. Lire moins

1. How do faith based communities contribute to healthy and sustainable food transformation? In the 2020’s, faith based communities can make contributions in the following ways: - Share wisdoms of faiths and provide the public with alternative options. - Utilize traditional wisdoms of faiths practical ways so that they can be easily practiced and used to meet daily challenges. - Continue to advocate for plant based diet as an alternative to the practice of mercy release, which has environment consequences; these purchases in such high quantities still support the local factory farms thus not... Lire la suite solving the issue at its root. - Inspire members of the faith based community into practices of healthy and sustainable food transformation with its guiding principles, so that the wisdoms of faiths can be implemented into dietary practices. 2. How to maximize the influence of institutions and activists to jointly promote the "2030 Initiative" (the goal of reducing meat consumption by 30% in 2030)? Explore ways in which the plant based community and its supporters can collaborate, form consensus, and jointly promote our shared objectives. Sustainable transformation of the food system, animal welfare, youth leadership, and other initiatives promoted by the Good Food Fund, World Animal Protection, Act Asia, and other related organizations play an important role in enhancing the public's concept of plant based diet. Projects that solve practical issues and provide inspirations for diet transformation can support the process. For example, the Good Food Fund announced the launch of the “Meatless Monday” project in China and a list of initial participating restaurants and organizations. Representatives of some award-winning institutes also shared keynotes and visions for how they would promote this initiative. 3. How can domestic and international plant based products contribute to changes in diet and food systems in a positive way? Guests from domestic and international plant meat and dairy brands shared with us their experience in achieving this goal. From the perspective of the supplier, it begins with product innovation, offering the public an opportunity for lifestyle changes, and ensuring quality of products and users experience Food suppliers use localized brand strategies to spread a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, advocating young people to establish sustainable consumption habits, and obtain more recognition and support from consumers, thereby turning to more sustainable food consumption. Lire moins

The practice of "mercy release" by Buddhists has a more obvious faith based background, and the key audience may be limited to faith groups and individuals. When communicating with the public, it is easy to form a stereotype of "veganism in connection to faith". Faith based communities are vegetarians. It is possible, however, to achieve more cooperative and innovative ideas in terms of advocacy.