Food Innovation Nervecenter

Our goal at Food Innovation Nervecenter, is to end malnutrition, poverty and their underlying patterns in Africa by accelerating sustainable food production and consumption. Getting Elevate Prize fast-tracks this goal   by enabling development of three revolutionary solutions:

1.Plant-based chicken/fish fillet alternatives that cook, sizzle, smell and taste just like chicken/fish from inexpensive, local/precision-fermented ingredients. 58.82% of prize will accelerate development of alternative-proteins through dedicated research teams, precision fermentation labs, equipment, and remote collaboration tools. At scale, malnourished families will access inexpensive dietary proteins.

2.Geolocation-based food sharing/distribution service called FoodNerve oS  linking families to surplus, edible restaurant/market leftovers within neighborhoods. 35.3% of prize will complete testing/ roll-out of FoodNerve oS (app, listings, foodbank) across 2-10 communities. 

 https://youtu.be/AHCn2h3aAJQ

3.Community co-creation studios drawing global attention to Earth's food systems. Using culturally-relevant content, we're currently nudging local African traditions towards promoting protective diets, local prosperity, and sustainable consumption. 5.9% of prize will expand content co-creation, policy newsrooms and creative consumer-centric media (food shows, romantic comedy series, an orchestra, live festivals and graphic novels). These will also generate funding 'beyond-Elevate-prize' via digital sales and advertising revenues.

https://youtu.be/vBq41qUI2Cs

Beyond funding, we're much more excited about all the game-changing mentorship, training and collaboration opportunities this Prize promises.

I am Dr. Adefolami Agunbiade, a Public Health Physician, community youth leader, and agent of cultural change. Born into a dirt-poor, hungry, agrarian community in Nigeria, my neighbors, particularly the children, are malnourished with several underperforming in school. A few who escape the malnutrition and poverty, leave. I can't, because these problems are mine to solve.

Today, I lead a vision tackling undernutrition, micro-nutrient deficiency and metabolic disease in our communities by sustainably farming, producing and eating sufficiently varied diets with the right micro-nutrients (minerals and vitamins). This is the purpose I was born to effect.

To enable this vision, through our non-profit organization- the Food Innovation Nervecenter, we are bio-fortifying staple foods; shifting community and schoolchildren's food consumption towards protective diets*; diversifying protein** supply;  investing in food value chains; banning unhealthy food adverts; nudging consumers towards healthy choices with A.I. apps; and returning families to ancestral domestic gardening/tree-planting traditions.

Our goal is to shift mainstream mindsets, farming systems, production technologies, policies and supply chains across Africa to practices that promote protective diets* from sustainable sources; and cultivate healthy, thriving, economically inclusive communities.

*(vegetables, nuts, leafy greens, beans, pulses, fruits and whole grains)

**( Plant-based, cell-based and precision-fermented meat)

Today, Nigerian farmers are ageing out, discouraged and/or abandoning farming altogether; food production has collapsed, losses are huge and food inflation's skyrocketed above 22.5%.

In addition, 1 in 3 adults are unemployed, rural economies have collapsed and 90million+ Nigerians are trapped in extreme poverty (<$1 daily). The result: 2 million children and 3 million women (of childbearing age) dying of hunger and severe malnutrition.

Fueling these, is a complicated mix of entrenched colonial-era traditions that make land access for farming difficult and land theft by the political class easy; a culture that applauds only white-collar and deeply despises farm-work; obsolete techniques/technologies that generate large food losses; reduced food imports following the covid-19 recession; and ethnic cleansing by armed insurgents (Boko Haram terrorists) who kidnap and behead farmers in Nigeria's agricultural belt.

Through Food Innovation Nervecenter's multi-faceted, systems-led approach,  we're addressing root-causes of malnutrition and poverty by co-creating solutions with local communities; engaging food systems stakeholders, policymakers and law enforcement; and investing in research and intelligent distribution.

We are using every single resource possible: Video! Music! Stories! Web! Big Data! Scientific research! and Live festivals! to inspire a new global movement of foodies who will catalyze a continent-wide transformation for food.

Our work deploys an innovative mix of solutions ranging from culture-shifting content/practices to logistics/tech-enabled food platforms and new product development*.

Our work in collaboration with 32+ stakeholders across local, national, and global levels led to creation of FoodNerve, an innovative systems-led vision to transform Nigeria's food systems by year 2050 into one that ensures nourishment and shared prosperity.

Some examples:

Young farmers being trained in new food-loss prevention techniques via grassroots mentorship; Local farmers supported with data-driven distribution;

Awareness being built around nutrition using digital media and physical teaching farms; New dietary standards being created in collaboration with ministries of health and education;

Vulnerable families connected to surplus restaurant/market food via a food-sharing service;

New land policies debated at Lagos House of Assembly to replace outdated colonial-era land laws/traditions; and strategic private sector and government partnerships forged to address insecurity.

In addition, we validate our approach bimonthly through emergent learning. By rapidly building, testing and learning inexpensively, we're  prototyping new solutions, testing old assumptions and gathering evidence on outcomes so that grassroot teams' rapidly adapt and pivot.

In summary, our innovation is delivering nutrition and inclusion through a systems-led, human-centered, community co-created and emergent learning approach.

*(plant-based chicken/fish)

First, we are bio-fortifying staple food crops such as sweet potatoes, beans, maize and cassava through improved breeding, fertilizer and biotechnology. These improved crop varieties provide higher amounts of vitamin A, iron and zinc- three micronutrients identified by the W.H.O. as most lacking in diets globally.

We're also drafting public policies to incorporate protective foods like vegetables, nuts, leafy greens, beans, pulses, fruits and whole grains into school feeding programs. Over the years, this will correct malnutrition and improve cognition in school children.

We're diversifying protein supply to include alternative proteins like plant-based and cell-cultured meat. Ruminant meat farming is expensive and competes with our citizens for grains and leafy vegetables. Diversifying protein addresses malnutrition by providing inexpensive dietary iron and protein.

We're investing in cold chain, processing, storage, data analytics and  value chain infrastructure to enable local fruit/vegetable availability and reduce food waste. All these address malnutrition by making fresh, nutrient-rich vegetables easily accessible.

We're resurrecting ancestral traditions of planting/naming fruit trees when a child is named/christened. By inspiring our communities to plant fruit trees in every residential plot, school, sidewalk backyard, vegetable patch and indoor farm; micronutrients can be accessed through fruits, for free, by everyone, everywhere.