Episode 16: Food Foundations Part 4 - Rooted in Smallholder Farmer and Nutrition Support: Grameen Foundation

"Food Foundations" is a play on words that highlights foundations that work on improving global food and agriculture. The focus is on how food science could improve lives by increasing food supplies, extending shelf life, improving packaging and storage, reducing post-harvest loss and consumer waste, integrating nutrition and agriculture, training and education, food safety, sustainable food systems, etc. Other aspects may also be covered, depending on the foundation’s specific work. This episode features Grameen Foundation.

Guests

Mona McCord
Director, Agriculture Innovations, Grameen Foundation, is a committed international development professional with 15 years experience developing and implementing agriculture and food security programs. At Grameen Foundation, she leads the innovation in agriculture transformation strategy and oversees engagements with a range of public, private and government partners. She is a co-author on USAID’s Feed the Future publication Data-driven Agriculture: The Future of Smallholder Farmer Data Management and Use, which outlines the transformative aspects of digital farmer profile data to support market-led smallholder engagement strategies more efficiently, effectively and sustainably. She has professional experience related to agriculture finance for smallholder farmers in Malawi, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Kyrgyzstan. Mona holds a Master’s degree in International Agriculture Development from the University of California, Davis, and served as a small enterprise development volunteer with the U.S. Peace Corps in Mali.

Co-Host:

Donna Rosa, 2018 - 2019 Feeding Tomorrow Liaison of the IFT International Division, is an international business development services (BDS) consultant specializing in food processing and agribusiness. She works with micro- and small enterprises in developing countries, offering advisory services such as business analysis, business plan development, market research, training, organization development, and counseling. She has a special interest in food security and utilizing food science to address it.

Host:

Matt Teegarden, Ph.D., recently completed his Ph.D. in Food Science at The Ohio State University where he also completed his B.S. and M.S. He now works as a Scientist in Product Research and Development at Abbott Nutrition. Matt’s scientific focus is in food chemistry and functional foods. He is also an active science communicator, as a co-founder of Don’t Eat the Pseudoscience and host of the IFTNext Food Disruptors podcast.