Launched on the 17th of March 2016, the EAT Foundation has an ambition to reform the global food system under the vision of “healthy food from a healthy planet”. The initiative is co-funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Stordalen Foundation, who will each invest £3 million in EAT Foundation over the next 3 years. Stockholm Resilience Centre will act as a coordinator of science related activity of the Foundation.
The three organizations with a unique set of expertize in health, science, policy and sustainability aim to break the sectorial silos, bringing together policy makers, industry leaders, researchers and civil society to develop practical solutions for transforming the way we produce and consume our food. The Foundation will act as a catalyst, funding and supporting collaborations between individuals and organizations across the globe.
While helping to translate research findings into policy making or business, the EAT Foundation will also facilitate researchers to work collaboratively with other stakeholders and to facilitate better understanding of research findings in a commercial or political context. To begin with, the EAT Foundation will focus its work on three topics: Metrics for health and sustainable food, multifunctional landscapes and seascapes and consumer behavior and choices. Other topics that the EAT Foundation is planning to address in the longer term include the economics of food systems, stewardship and culture and synergies, trade-offs and spillover effects.
“We need a Food Revolution 2.0, which is as much about quality and sustainability as quantity. The global food system is driving some of our time´s greatest health and environmental challenges, such as the epidemics of obesity and non-communicable diseases, climate change and loss of biodiversity. Despite their intertwined nature, these food related challenges have mainly been handled in silos. However, to catalyse a transformative shift in the global food system, that delivers healthy nutrition to a growing world population, we need an urgent multistakeholder effort across sectors and disciplines. The core objective of the EAT Foundation is to drive new interdisciplinary knowledge and facilitate translation into policy development and business actions”, – said Gunhild Stordalen, Founder and Director of EAT and Chair of the Stordalen Foundation.
“Understanding the connections between our food, our environment and our health is vital if we are to fully understand the challenges the world faces. That’s why Wellcome has made investing in research in this area a priority. But research alone will not drive the transformative change that’s needed – evidence needs to be translated into action, which is exactly what the EAT Foundation will do. It will help decision-makers use research to build a healthy future for people and the natural world that we all rely on”, – said Clare Matterson, Director of Strategy at the Wellcome Trust.
The EAT Foundation builds on the work of EAT Initiative, created by the Stordalen Foundation in 2013, which hosts the annual EAT Stockholm Food Forum. The third EAT Stockholm Food Forum in June 2016, will provide a meeting place for around 500 progressive thinkers from science, business, politics and civil society. The Forum will act as a springboard for projects which will then be supported by the EAT Foundation.