Development Lab: The Global Center for Food Systems Innovation (GCFSI)
Overview
The Global Center for Food Systems Innovation (GCFSI) Development Lab led by Michigan State University will contribute to sustainable food production and consumption over the next 10-15 years. The Development Lab will develop a sophisticated understanding of mega-trends affecting global food systems: population growth, rapid urbanization, climate change, pressures on land, and skills gaps in the food system workforce. This knowledge base will be used to inform USAID’s programs aimed at developing and scaling locally-appropriate solutions to global hunger and health.
Background
The Lab's holistic approach to global food systems combines expertise from multiple disciplines -- including agriculture, anthropology, biotechnology, economics, education, and engineering -- to understand global food systems more thoroughly. The Lab will address these trends through several approaches aimed at finding new development solutions.
Planned Activities:
| Engaging Academics | Teams of academics throughout the world that employ experimentation, rapid prototyping and locally relevant application to solve problems in food systems |
|---|---|
| Data Analysis Center (DAC) | A DAC will be created to focus on conceptualizing problems, critically evaluating complex systems and alternative approaches, improving decision making, and informing USAID policymakers |
| Grant Competitions | Competitions with other institutions to stimulate innovation and work with USAID Missions on implementing new solutions |
| Transitional Scholar Corps (TSC) | Involve students in disseminating global food security trends and solutions |
Goal
Tested solutions that help bend the trends toward equitable development of the global food system and are relevant to countries’ local conditions. GCFSI’s solutions will be broadly disseminated to influence stakeholders big and small, including donor agencies like USAID, agro-industry businesses, farmers, traders, and other food system workers throughout the globe.
Last updated: February 22, 2013
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