Shifting Food Systems

Listen in as the Country Director of Synergos Nigeria, Victor Adejoh, shares on the Synergos approach in Nigeria, of collaborative action that has seen significant transformation in the agricultural sector.

Hear from community members, Jack Algiere (Stone Barns Center), Alana Mooi (Farmer's Footprint & Project Biome), and Julia Mande (Project Biome) as they share on current projects engaging across the value change of food systems.

The collaborative action facilitated by Synergos, has transformed the lives of jobless youth: increasing their household income, shifting their mindset and approach to agriculture, and building a long-term collaboration with local farmers. Listen in as Regional Director of Synergos Ethiopia, Abera Tola, share on their vision, the model deployed, and the resulting impact on their food system so far.

January 21, 2025: To kick off our 2025 Learning Journey, our group came together for a dynamic and thought-provoking session, where we dove into the complexities of food systems. This workshop was designed to uncover our current understanding, challenge existing assumptions, and set a foundation for learning and growth throughout the Journey.

February 4, 2025: The question of how to feed the world in the face of so many intersecting crises commands policy-making spaces, news headlines, and research. Our global food system is most often framed as a singular, complicated, monolithic entity. But in reality, food systems are a mosaic of countless territories, economies, communities, and cultures. To begin to imagine new possibilities, we must first confront the centralization that has come to dominate both food systems and the ways we think about them.

March 4, 2025: No matter our differences — religions, political orientations, backgrounds — we all eat. This session focused on food as a reflection of culture, identity, and stories. Participants explored the ways food is embedded in cultural practices, values, and traditions, and how dominant narratives often erase the human side of food systems by prioritizing data-driven and development-focused approaches.

March 18, 2025: Our first PEER CONNECTION session created an intimate space for members, highlighted the work of community members in the food systems space, connected the learnings from previous sessions to our individual and community growth, and began building the path to collaborative action....

PART ONE

April 1, 2025: Shifting Food Systems Learning Journey & Collective Action project introduces us to Raj Patel, Author and Research Professor, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. Raj guides our community through a dynamic and revealing look at The Green Revolution, it's real intentions and the very real, lasting consequences to our food systems today.

Learn more about Raj Patel.

PART TWO

April 1, 2025: Our panelists, Raj Patel, Author and Research Professor, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, with Elizabeth Mpofu, Former General Coordinator of La Via Campesina, and Alfie Pulumbarit, National Coordinator at MASIPAG, focused on power imbalances, corporate consolidation, and why justice—not simply technological or scalable solutions—is central to sustainability.

April 29, 2025: Synergos' Shifting Food Systems hosted a session that explored different kinds of hope—not as passive optimism, but as a grounded, values-driven practice. Grassroots leaders, Lucinéia Freitas from MST (Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement) and Chavannes Jean-Baptiste from MPP (Haiti's Peasant Movement of Papaye), engaged our community in powerful stories of togetherness borne from strife, and the important voice of the peasant and landless farmer.

PART ONE

May 20, 2025: Synergos Shifting Food Systems Learning Journey brought our community together for another peer-to-peer connection, where community member Sherif Hosny from Mishkat Agritech shared on Mishkat's mission and progress with Saudi Arabia, in providing healthier, local and more sustainable food options to the public.

Learn More about Mishkat

PART TWO

May 20, 2025: Synergos Shifting Food Systems Learning Journey brought our community together for another peer-to-peer connection, where Steering Committee Member Teresa Corção from Instituto Maniva shared on the importance of leveraging all the factors along the food chain (from production to consumption) and on the action project, Identity Food Workshops, brought to schools in Brazil and Wales, to introduce children to foods of which they are ancestrally connected via a methodology of teaching history, culture, nutrition and conscious eating.

Learn More about Instituto Maniva

June 3, 2025: We often think that the “right” solutions in agriculture can be found through the numbers, through looking at the right data. But which solutions we opt for depends far more on values than we often care to admit. Sometimes it takes unlearning the ways in which we were taught to see the problem in order to allow space for creative solutions to emerge.

Take in the powerful voices of Bayo Akomolafe (The Emergence Network), Sinegugu Zukulu (indigenous Activist & Author) and Daojai Siri (Thai Youth Leader) as they highlight the importance of the elements that surround and are within us.  

June 17, 2025: This session featured GPC Member Victoria Engelhorn and Stef van Dongen, as they shared the recent work of Pioneers of Our Time, a new operating system for resilient landscapes & communities in the Muga Valley, Spain.

Watch Film: MUGA, When she stops flowing, so will we

View Presentation

PART ONE

July 1, 2025: Join the journey as we hear from Dr. Debal Deb (Vrihi Seed Bank), whose pioneering work in seed conservation and traditional rice varieties challenges the monocultural logic of industrial farming...and Helena Norberg-Hodge (Local Futures), as she shares on the systemic importance of local food economies as a counterforce to globalization and corporate consolidation.

PART TWO

July 1 2025: This session invited Dr. Debal Deb, Founder of Vrihi Seed Bank, to share on the agroecological model that he built that sustains the largest open source rice seed bank in the world, saving over 1400 varieties of indigenous rice.

July 15, 2025: This peer-to-peer connection introduced us to the fascinating work of Ruchit Garg, Founder of Harvesting Farmer Network (HFN). Ruchit shared with us his innovative model for creating & supporting smallholder farmers linkages to markets in India.

PART ONE

July 24, 2025: This Peer Connection brought together our Asia-based community members and highlighted the work of Sangita Kathiwada from Kathiwada Foundation. She shared on the generational work of her family to support the environment and food systems within India, and upcoming projects to expand.

PART TWO

July 24, 2025: A prominent partner and friend to Synergos in our food systems work, Jean-Yves Chow from Tsao Pao Chee (TPC) also presented to our community members on how TPC approaches food systems and the supply chain. Synergos is proud to have TPC as a partner of this Learning Journey and Peer-to-Peer Connections.

PART ONE

September 2, 2025: The dominant culture — of competition and polarization — has eroded faith in our ability to build bridges across sectors. To grow the conditions for deep, lasting change, we must find common ground between civil society, the private sector, and government. Our journey brought us Dr. M. Jahi Chappell, political agroecologist and Director of the Center for Regional Food Systems at Michigan State University, whose work bridges research, policy, and movement strategy; Dr. Million Belay, General Coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, who has spent over two decades advancing agroecology and farmer-led seed sovereignty; and Galina Angarova, Buryat Indigenous rights advocate and Executive Director of the SIRGE Coalition, leading global efforts for a just transition to a green economy.

PART TWO

September 2, 2025: Listen in as we hear from Dr. M. Jahi Chappell (Center for Regional Food Systems at Michigan State University), whose work bridges research, policy, and movement strategy, as he shares on his book "Beginning To End Hunger" and the work done in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, turned the right to food into policy and practice.

PART ONE

September 16, 2025: Shifting Food Systems September Peer Connection highlighted Sophie Oppenheimer, Executive Director of The Valley Foundation, Co-Founder & CEO of the Earth Allies Restoration Network (EARN). Sophie has worked as a professional researcher and valuation consultant for 12 years, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for 2 non-profit organizations, Wild Earth Allies and Mainsprings. Listen in as Sophie supports how people can live in harmony with nature to produce their food, and a nature-based approach to agriculture.

PART TWO

September 16, 2025: Shifting Food Systems September Peer Connection highlighted I Nyoman Suma Artha, Founder of Balizen, a Bali native with a strong commitment to preserving local Balinese culture, and helping build a greener and more sustainable future for Bali. He's the main facilitator for the Balizen community outreach and organic farming programs, and is the leader of a Balinese farmers cooperative, and spearheading a large commercial, community-based organic farming and reforestation project in Bali. Listen in as he shares a human-centered, and nature-centered, approach to growth.

October 7, 2025: What happens to food after it leaves the field? This session follows the journey beyond the farm gate—into the hands, kitchens, rituals, and markets where food gains meaning and power. Palestinian social entrepreneur Nasser Abufarha (Canaan Palestine) and Oglala Lakota chef, and activist, Sean Sherman, shared stories of the journey of olives, and a regional dish, showing how post-harvest life can be an act of resistance, remembrance, and renewal.

PART ONE

October 21, 2025: This Peer Connection highlighted the LEAF (Leading an Ecological & Accessible Food System) program from Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture. Hear from Shannon Algiere and Carolina Saavedra, on the amazing journey of LEAF participants as they explore growing their own food, learning about new, healthy food options, and connecting with farmers.

PART TWO

October 21, 2025: This Peer Connection introduced us to Robert "Roman" Haford (Restorative Justice Coordinator), Ariel Clark (Odawa Anishinaabe Attorney), and Seth Weiner (Life Comes From It), 3 champions of indigenous and human rights, restorative justice and the importance of funding small communities. Listen to their passion and excitement, as they share on their work.

November 4, 2025: There is immense potential for philanthropy to nourish grassroots movements...yet between funders and movements lie vastly different histories, worldviews, and understandings of time. Listen in to Daniel Moss (Agroecology Fund), Anna Lappé (Global Alliance for the Future of Food) and Jennifer Astone (Integrated Capital Investing) as they share on philanthropy's role in the future of food systems.

PART ONE

November 18, 2025: Synergos Shifting Food Systems Peer Connection highlighted community member, Dilafruz Khonikboyeva from Home Planet Fund. Peer Connections create a space for our community to learn from each other's experiences, models, and practices what has worked, what hasn’t, and key learnings along the way.

PART TWO

November 18, 2025: Synergos Shifting Food Systems Peer Connection highlighted community member, Stephen Posner from The Garrison Institute. Peer Connections create a space for our community to learn from each other's experiences, models, and practices what has worked, what hasn’t, and key learnings along the way.

December 9, 2025: This session invites everyone to pause and look back at how far we've come, in learning, connection, and growth and to look ahead together at our 2026 plans. Through this final wrap up session of 2025, we honour both the milestones reached and the possibilities ahead.

After a full year of profound exploration, connection, and learning, the culminating retreat of our Learning Journey: a four-day in-person gathering near the ancient city of Uxmal, in Yucatán, Mexico was a time of connection, community, building bridges and forging new paths forward.