Innovators
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Healthy Environments
Nicolas Métro
Nicolas Métro, operating in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe, quantifies the economic value of trees in generating nutrients, and supporting the health of nearby land and watersheds. In doing so he has connected disparate organizations in the business, government, scientific and non-profit sectors, demonstrating economic rewards of collaborating around reforestation and land regeneration. To-date, twelve of these cross-sectoral initiatives have attracted finance to replant and steward 3.5 million trees based on increases in healthy agricultural productivity, provision of clean water for people and industry, carbon sequestration in soils, increases in biodiversity, and other valuable results.
Dale Lewis
Dale Lewis integrates forest and wildlife stewardship with agricultural development across the 15,000-square mile Luangwa Valley in Zambia, bringing health and wealth to over 53,000 families and the surrounding ecosystems. His approach to managing the vitality of an entire geographic region links finance and information from privileged food markets to technical assistance and smart ecosystem cultivation schemes for local farmers, enabling over one million people to transition from foraging and animal poaching into healthy and sustainable agricultural enterprise.
Brendan Dunford
Brendan Dunford is preserving the ecologically and culturally unique Burren region in Ireland by putting the farmer at the center rather than the edge of strategies to protect marginal lands, providing the social and economic framework for farmers to develop creative solutions that improve the total economic and environmental vitality of the region. The resulting success in profits for farmers, economic diversification for local communities, and biodiversity conservation have led to expansion of the approach into additional regions.
Pushkin Phartiyal
Pushkin Phartiyal taps local leadership and governance in the Indian Himalayas to develop initiatives which tap external markets for sustainable food and consumer products and ecosystem services, like watershed maintenance, forest products, and carbon sequestration. Using a strategy of smart management of the entire landscape, his initiatives have increased local health, wealth and natural resources in parallel. Pushkin puts sophisticated economic analysis and new technologies in the hands of local farmers and governors, enabling utilization of the region’s natural resources in ways that support livelihoods while generating improved environmental conditions.
Willie Smits
Willie Smits of Indonesia pioneered the technological and business model for local villagers to harvest, refine and export liquid biofuels produced with sustainable inputs from wild sugar palms. Villagers now steward the wild forests in which the sugar palms grow, opening the door to additional value capture through biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration and more.
Osmond Mugweni, John Wilson
Osmond Mugweni, John Wilson, and others spread alternative livestock management practices in arid and semi-arid regions of Africa, North America, and Australia which regenerate grasslands, invigorate soils, halt desertification and improve livestock productivity and profits in the process. Building on their relationships with Allan Savory, these Ashoka Fellows provide training and finance for farmers graze their livestock intensively and in some areas to her their cattle collectively using these practices.
Nutrient Rich Farming
Dale Lewis
Dale Lewis integrates forest and wildlife stewardship with agricultural development across the 15,000-square mile Luangwa Valley in Zambia, bringing health and wealth to over 53,000 families and the surrounding ecosystems. His approach to managing the vitality of an entire geographic region links finance and information from privileged food markets to technical assistance and smart ecosystem cultivation schemes for local farmers, enabling over one million people to transition from foraging and animal poaching into healthy and sustainable agricultural enterprise.
Brendan Dunford
Brendan Dunford is preserving the ecologically and culturally unique Burren region in Ireland by putting the farmer at the center rather than the edge of strategies to protect marginal lands, providing the social and economic framework for farmers to develop creative solutions that improve the total economic and environmental vitality of the region. The resulting success in profits for farmers, economic diversification for local communities, and biodiversity conservation have led to expansion of the approach into additional regions.
Pushkin Phartiyal
Pushkin Phartiyal taps local leadership and governance in the Indian Himalayas to develop initiatives which tap external markets for sustainable food and consumer products and ecosystem services, like watershed maintenance, forest products, and carbon sequestration. Using a strategy of smart management of the total landscape, his initiatives have increased local health, wealth and natural resources in parallel. Pushkin puts sophisticated economic analysis and new technologies in the hands of local farmers and governors, enabling utilize the region’s natural resources in ways that support livelihoods while generating improved environmental conditions.
Sylvia Banda
Sylvia Banda is improving environmental and human health in rural Zambia by creating entrepreneurial hubs that serve as a marketplace for local produce and foods, fostering an appreciation and profitable market for traditional rather than processed foods in both rural and urban settings. With this approach she has boosted the wellness of rural and urban populations and conservation of natural environments (essential for traditional food production).
Julie Carney
Through her organization, Gardens for Health, Julie Carney is transforming healthcare centers so that they are able to provide- in addition to medical services- education, psychosocial support and agricultural extension services to mothers affected by malnutrition and, in effect, is empowering them to become part of the solution.
Jason Potts
Jason Potts of Canada is creating a global cohort of financial service providers, sustainable producers and supply chain partners, dedicated to facilitating access to investment in sustainable agricultural production in the developing world.
Adam Tuller
Adam Tuller of Kenya has developed a tree farming approach, amongst his various initiatives focused on ecosystem regeneration in arid regions, in which rural communities produce charcoal for urban fuel markets using fast growing leguminous trees which also transfer nitrogen into the soils. This nitrogen byproduct of the tree growth then enhances natural grassland growth, regenerating local ecosystems and supporting livestock grazing as well. The primary and secondary financial flows in this business model make it attractive across rural East Africa and beyond.
Full Nourishment Foods
Genevieve Moreau
Genevieve Moreau of Belgium is spreading her Intelligent Nutrition branding system strategically throughout the European food chain, capturing market interest in healthy food to recruit restaurant owners, food stores, nutrition experts and consumer leaders. Premised on over 1,500 pages of scientific research and documentation, the Intelligent Nutrition label and simple branding messages about nutrient availability and environmental impact put practical certification and marketing systems in the hands of professionals throughout the food chain. This includes restaurant and corporate chefs, food retailers, farmers, doctors and pharmacists, and consumers. This system has begun to spark a set of innovative new approaches and measurable solutions built off recognition of interdependencies between these key stakeholders.
Sylvia Banda
Sylvia Banda is changing the way people choose and prepare their foods. Sylvia is both working to increase the nutrient content of foods people eat and increase demand for locally produced, traditional foods. Through her organization, Sylvia Food Solutions, Sylvia has created marketplaces for local farmers to sell their produce to businesses that need their products, including restaurants hotels and food processors. Farmers participate in training on food preservation methods such as solar drying that preserve the nutritional value of foods. These marketplaces also increase demand for local produce by fostering an appreciation for local food in both rural and urban areas. Healthy cooking techniques are also taught to rural women who use local ingredients. This holistic approach encourages the production of nutrient rich foods, healthy cooking techniques, economic development for farmers, and the use of traditional Zambian recipes.
Guillaume Bapst
Guillaume Bapst is revolutionizing the way low income households access and purchase food. In an attempt to improve the food distribution system in France, where access is often slow and bureaucratic, choices are limited, and quality and nutritional value are low, Guillaume has built a network of solidarity grocery shops.
Julie Carney
Through her organization, Gardens for Health, Julie Carney is transforming healthcare centers so that they are able to provide- in addition to medical services- education, psychosocial support and agricultural extension services to mothers affected by malnutrition and, in effect, is empowering them to become part of the solution. Julie sees that when mothers- who traditionally have the responsibility of deciding what food their families’ eat- are empowered to make better dietary choices, malnutrition can be sustainably rooted out of Rwanda. She has developed a groundbreaking training model, co-created by the mothers themselves. The simplicity of her training material, the fact that it is co-created by her beneficiaries, and the engaging and fun way in which it is administered, completely demystify complex nutritional concepts, making them accessible and easy to understand even to the most primitive rural communities.
These innovators are a select highlighted few of the many whom are working in this space. From their innovative approaches we see that there is great potential for building a movement in which nutrients are valued, leading to new practices of processing and distribution within the food chain. We need your help not only to scale and build on existing innovations, but to develop promising new strategies.
For example, how can we continue to increase demands for nutrient-smart processing by making the nutrient value of foods more apparent to consumers? What innovations in processing can maintain freshness and shelf-life without removing nutrients? How can last-mile distribution ensure that higher-nutrient foods currently on the market are able to reach those who need them most?
Basil Kransdorff
Basil Kransdorff has created a bio-available nutrient supplement that, added on top of regular diet, delivers the full range of nutrients to people. This is particularly valuable for whose ability to absorb nutrients is compromised. Basil, a retired chemical engineer in South Africa, invented a nutrient supplement which is showing remarkable results improving the health of people with compromised immune systems, including patients with HIV/AIDs. Private sector production of e’Pap now exceeds 50 tons per month. Basil’s technical insight in creating this pre-cooked, fortified cereal is that essential nutrients must “bioavailable” to the body, not just present in the product. His accompanying social insight is that the product must come in a form that is easy to use and culturally appealing if it is to spread in private markets. Ashoka is working closely with Basil on spreading his ideas and innovations beyond South Africa.
Steve Collins
Steve Collins of Ireland, operating in crisis regions of the world, is a medical doctor specializing in nutrition. He is changing the architecture of nutritional treatment, and transforming the practices, principles, and strategy towards the care and prevention of malnutrition. Traditional centralized feeding centers –formerly the primary method for treating acutely malnourished people are ineffectual, incubators for disease, and requires extended in-patient treatment regimes that uproot lives. To address acute malnutrition, Steve has created Valid Nutrition; a non-profit organization following best business practices in order to make the product in developing countries out of locally grown ingredients. Valid Nutrition lowers the cost and expands the range of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) products designed for the prevention of chronic malnutrition, and improves the integration with agricultural development activities.
Revolution Foods
Revolution Foods is transforming nutrition in low-income communities by providing healthy, portioned school lunches, and changing attitudes of school leaders, teachers, and parents about what’s expected and possible with regard to nutrition standards in low-income schools. Kristin Richmond and Kristen Tobey of Revolution Foods are creating demand through an approach that supplies low-cost, healthy food. Revolution Foods teams engage with schools as partners; they supply food and advance the discussion of health with school leadership, transforming the nutritional offerings available in schools. In addition, Revolution Foods has developed a nutrition education toolkit and deploys it within schools, with modules that teachers may include in their classes. Cooking demonstrations, family nights, and wellness fairs are among the programs Revolution Foods offers to support the purchase and consumption of nutrient rich foods.
F.G. Winaro
F.G. Winarno has created the infrastructure for the production of safe and secure food in Indonesia. Known as the father of food science and technology, he has established the field of food security and localized job opportunities in the food processing industry. In collaboration with the Ministries of Health and Women’s Empowerment, Winarno developed a community-based campaign to support local food. In addition to providing nutritional support for pregnant women and infant children, Winarno promotes breastfeeding as the best nutritional food source for newborns. He also recognizes the importance of supporting small and micro food businesses to improve food safety. Winarno’s work with street-food sellers supports the application of new food processing technologies. Winarno founded the Indonesia Food Laboratory Association (ALPI) in 2011 to expand the network of accredited food laboratories available in the country. With the ALPI, the growing number of smaller food processing businesses can prosper. That, along with the new research Winarno has supported will push Indonesia’s food industry to meet international food standards, enabling people to have healthier more nutrient-rich foods.
Wellness and Vitality
Benjamin Mbakwem
Benjamin Mbakwem, an experienced community organizer, is enabling people to achieve vitality through an integrated package of wellness services. Benjamin is initiating a community wellness program in Nigeria that combines nutrition, clean water and front line diagnosis and health education, led by community health workers using new mobile health technology. These basic health services, delivered to community members, enable people to take ownership over their own health by preventing disease and managing conditions that, without attention, could become serious.
Tobias Leennaert
Tobias Leennaert has developed high-impact and socially acceptable solutions to the health and environmental issues related to meat consumption that can be achieved with modest changes in our consumer lifestyles. Both environmental health and human health can be positively impacted from reductions in certain types of meat production and consumption. Tobias has developed a messaging campaign that highlights the benefits of incorporating vegetarian meals into diets, and has also developed a business-friendly approach that is opening ways for businesses to be socially responsible and profitable at the same time.
Genevieve Moreau
Genevieve Moreau of Belgium is spreading her Intelligent Nutrition branding system strategically throughout the European food chain, capturing market interest in healthy food to recruit restaurant owners, food stores, nutrition experts and consumer leaders. Premised on over 1,500 pages of scientific research and documentation, the Intelligent Nutrition label and simple branding messages about nutrient availability and environmental impact put practical certification and marketing systems in the hands of professionals throughout the food chain. This includes restaurant and corporate chefs, food retailers, farmers, doctors and pharmacists, and consumers. This system has begun to spark a set of innovative new approaches and measurable solutions built off recognition of interdependencies between these key stakeholders.