Grassroots video transcript

Take a coffee bean: on its own, it’s just a bean. Add a grinder, a machine, a café, and a coffee lover — and you create a moment of delight.

Innovations work the same way. Alone, even great ideas can’t deliver full value. They need the right mix of players, tools, and conditions to come alive.

That’s the idea of a Minimal Viable Ecosystem: the smallest set of partners and resources an innovation needs to thrive.

In food and agriculture, too many sustainable ideas fall flat because the ecosystem for nature-inclusive farming, biodiversity, or smart water management is missing.

So here’s the challenge: how do we grow that Minimal Viable Ecosystem — just enough collaboration and connection to turn ideas into impact?

No one’s the boss here. Every partner has a stake, and together you create new value — and new stories — about a sustainable food system.

And when it works? More players, more ideas, more connections… until all the pieces fit, and the food system we’ve imagined becomes reality.