Resource Stories: Food System 6

 “There’s a theory that throughout human history, there have been different phases in how humans produce and consume food. First came hunting and gathering; then came fishing, then foraging. We’re now in the fifth phase, industrial agriculture, which is defined by the question How do we get more yield? And it’s becoming clear that that’s just not sustainable.”

Food System 6 participated in Resource, and former Director of Strategic Development Kim Karris spoke with us about the way that GMO’s, over-farming and supply chain breakdowns have led to an inequitable food system. And how Food System 6 wants to change it.

Food System 6 is a business accelerator that provides coaching, mentorship, and connections to food and agriculture industry entrepreneurs as they grow. Co-founded by Renske Lynde and Peter Herz, they saw a gap in technical business and financial resources for those who are trying to change the food system, and set out on a mission to accelerate innovations that democratize wealth and lead us to a just, regenerative food system.

The organization has worked with fifty entrepreneurs over seven cohorts. Collectively their alumni have raised $30 million. Forty-five percent of the startups they have worked with are BIPOC-led, and eighty-percent of them are women-led. 

In this interview, Food System 6 shares how their work has evolved along with the needs of communities on the frontline, and their mission to build food sovereignty amid a global food crisis.

In 2020 we saw the breakdown of the food system right in front of our eyes. You literally saw lines at the food bank that were miles long and meanwhile images of farmers dumping milk and potatoes because they had nowhere to deliver them because their distribution system completely collapsed. You saw how fragile this food system is because it's so corporate and so privately owned. 

Meanwhile, at the neighborhood level, you saw that people were figuring it out. Folks were devising new ways to get food to families and children: Oh, you have eggs, you have that community garden down there? Can we use that as a safe spot to get some food to these kids who can't go to school? At the neighborhood level, people started to solve problems and you saw the power of community agriculture and community food systems. People doing the work in these rural and urban settings saw the innovation that happens every day when you are connected to the community. 

This was really when our board and staff really aligned on what is now our new mission – democratizing wealth and working with frontline communities and frontline entrepreneurs because they were dealing with an unjust food system, a global pandemic, a racial reckoning, and this existential dread of climate change—all at the same time. We decided, We can't just help any kind of entrepreneur, we have to focus our resources on the people who are working in the community.

What is the sixth food system, and what is the significance of the name Food System 6?

The food system is marked by several significant changes in the production and consumption of food over time. We are currently in our fifth phase, which is industrial agriculture, which continuously asks How do we get more yield? This phase has really pushed the limits with GMOs and the like. 

The first food phase was hunting, then gathering. Third was fishing, and foraging was the fourth. Our founders’ idea was that we could actually bring in this next phase of the food system. This system is healthy and sustainable, and it's owned by the people who have been stripped of their connection to food, which includes their foodways, traditions, and ways of stewarding the land. We need the sixth food system, which is our future food system.

What’s the history of Food System 6?

The Food System 6 accelerator was co-founded by Renske Lynde and Peter Herz, who are now on our board. They saw a gap in technical business and financial resources for those who are trying to change the food system.

There’s plenty of food and beverage corporations who want to create the next healthy or organic product, but where are the resources for people who are trying to actually change the food system? 

Renske and Peter believed that the quickest way to get to the sixth food system is through entrepreneurship because entrepreneurs are the ones who are innovating. They're failing fast, they're experimenting. So they decided to invest in the innovators and entrepreneurs.

That was back in 2014. They curated sessions with everyone from philanthropists and investors to food system experts. They created a curriculum and tested it out in the first cohort in 2016.

You speak about creating a “just” food system and “democratizing wealth”. What do you mean by that? 

We want to make sure that the people most affected by these problems in the food system are the ones driving the solutions. 

You look at the major challenges of industrial agriculture and the corporate monopoly food system: lack of food access. Nutritional insecurity. Ecological devastation. Climate change. We know that those impacts are disproportionately impacting what we refer to as frontline communities: BIPOC folks, queer folks, rural folks.

For this to change, we have to change the economics of food. The extractive food economy depletes the soil, depletes the land, and depletes the people. We need a new system based on restoration, regeneration, reciprocity, and justice. That’s when we see people growing their food and making sure that people have—not just access to buy the food—but understand culturally the need to preserve traditions.

We want to know: How do we reclaim those foodways that we've lost to this economic system that disconnects us from the land and our cultures? How do we create an ecological food system that heals our bodies and our planet?