Food Tank is excited to announce that we are launching two collaborative efforts over the next year with support from the McKnight Foundation. These projects will marshal increased awareness and groundbreaking research on democratizing innovation and true cost accounting.

Food Tank will be collaborating with smallholder farmers, local researchers, development practitioners, academics, food and agriculture experts, policymakers, and YOU to explore solutions for sustainable local food systems.

As part of McKnight Foundation’s Collaborative Crop Research Program these partnerships will help significantly scale up, broaden, and deepen connections around global agriculture problems through research, strategic collaborations, events, webinars, videos, databases, and more.

Throughout the next year, Food Tank will assess how agricultural innovation spreads among communities and in rich and poor countries alike and the potential for those practices to be replicated, scaled up, and used around the world.

Farmers, scientists, researchers, NGOs, and others are currently creating innovative, on-the-ground solutions for a more nourished world. At the same time,the prices consumers pay for food rarely reflect the true cost of its ingredients, from fertilizer production and water use to land degradation and greenhouse gas emissions.

Food Tank is incredibly excited to collaborate with the McKnight Foundation on these issues. It’s more important than ever to find ways for farmers, businesses, and policymakers to replicate innovations and understand the true cost of food.

And now Food Tank is asking you to send suggestions and become involved in these discussions as well. We need your help to share groundbreaking innovations in agriculture and highlight the true cost of cheap food!

Food Tank invites you to send your answers, suggestions, and feedback on any or all of the following questions:

• Is “democratizing innovation” the right term for how innovation spreads and is replicated and scaled up?
• What are the most useful tools for true cost accounting?
• How can we help consumers understand the real cost of the food they buy?
• What organizations or individuals have created groundbreaking innovations in agriculture that should be replicated and scaled up?
• How can the economic system reward methods of food production that deliver benefits rather than damaging the environment and human health?
• How can we harness current innovations, knowledge, and evidence to improve food and nutrition security?
• How can nutrition be equitable and affordable?
• Where can policy intervene in true cost accounting?
• What resources do you use to find solutions for local, sustainable food systems?

Send your responses directly to  Danielle@foodtank.com