How We Cultivated Systems Change

The Rockefeller Foundation’s Food System Vision Prize invited changemakers from across the globe to dream, plan, and act bigger to transform the future of food by 2050. Leveraging the tools and support of the Prize, as well as their own passion, expertise, resilience, and radical collaboration, these Visionaries took the first, bold steps toward creating the systemic change the planet and its people need. Our Final Report captures the current moment of the Food System Vision Prize as we look both forward and back, drawing on the cumulative lessons and accomplishments of this initiative to propel a movement for food systems change.  

Imagine a world where food systems are regenerative and equitable, where nourishment — 365 days a year — for ALL is a reality, and where individual food cultures are honored. That vision is not just a dream. In October 2019, The Rockefeller Foundation announced the Food System Vision Prize (The Prize), issuing a call to disparate global food system actors to unite, source, and support positive Visions for future food systems. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic the call grew even more urgent, and was met with a response to equal the challenge. Over 1,319 teams of passionate Visionaries, representing 119 countries and over 4,000 organizations, heeded the call, laying the foundation to change the world’s food systems. And over the next 18 months, some started taking action on turning their Visions into reality.

Alongside the Visionaries, the Prize made measurable advances toward achieving its own Vision:

• Changing narratives on food systems
• Uncovering knowledge on the nature of food system challenges
• Initiating food systems solutions
• Building a network of food system activists and leaders

The journey laid out for the Visionaries was deliberate, based on a Theory of Change to facilitate the transformation of the world’s food systems by 2050. Teams were challenged to envision change through systems thinking, future-casting, and human-centered design. From there, teams would engage stakeholders to incorporate interdisciplinary perspectives, build inspiring stories to rally their communities behind their Vision, and create action plans to make their Vision a reality. The ultimate hope was that beyond the year 2021, diverse movements for food system change would emerge all over the world, galvanizing communities to connect, create, and employ diverse solutions.

Visionary teams rose to the challenge. Some teams made significant progress toward food system transformation. Others moved beyond progress, to piloting solutions and policy initiatives. The progress and impact of the Visionaries encompassed four key areas:

• Local Co-creation
• Global Network Activation
• Vision Pilots
• Policy Change

Our Final Report examines what the Food System Vision Prize and its Visionaries achieved, following the progress, action, and impact of the Visionaries. The report outlines the program that empowered the Visionaries to make big and meaningful strides toward their food systems’ futures and the process that guided them through the journey. The goal of this report is to inspire and also to compel the reader to engage with the Visionaries— to support them, link with them, and create change alongside them.