Brighter Green
Good Food Hero Summit 2019
Brighter Green is co-hosted The Good Food Hero Summit in Suzhou, China, along with the Good Food Fund, part of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation from August 15th – 17th. Every summer, we invite change-makers from across China—the Good Food Heroes—to share their project ideas at the Summit and learn and receive mentorship from global leaders about how to practically promote research and action towards a sustainable food system in China and beyond. This is the third summit and information about the first and summits can be found here and here.
This year’s theme was “Into the 2020s.” The 2020s is going to be the turning point in human history and it will be an important decade to achieve the UN sustainable development goals, mitigate climate change, slow the biodiversity loss, and meet the rising demand for food. Centered around this theme, the summit invites its speakers and delegates to think ahead for the next ten years how we can bring about/back a plant-forward diet, support better practices in animal welfare, and reduce food waste and plastic pollution.
Speakers are came from world-level academic and professional backgrounds. They included, our Executive Director, Mia MacDonald, Rafi Taherian (Yale University), Peggy Neu (Monday Campaigns), David Havelick (Harvard University), Becky Ramsing (John Hopkins University’s Center for a Livable Future), Kelley Wind (Coalition for Healthy School Food), Chavalit Frederick Tsao (IMC Pan Asia Alliance Group), Xi Chunling (International Cooperation Committee on Animal Welfare), Zhou Zunguo (Compassion in World Farming), Melinda Hou (Compassion in World Farming), Shi Yan (Shared Harvest), Dr. Yuan Changzheng (Zhejiang University), Prof. Zong Geng (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health), and Simon Yang (MSC).
The Summit kicked off on August 15th with a talk and book signing by food historian and Yale Professor of History, Paul Freedman. The highlight of this year’s Summit was on day 2 with the official launch of EAT-Lancet Report in China. This report, published earlier this year, brought together 30 world-leading scientists from across the globe to reach a scientific consensus that defines a healthy and sustainable diet. Day 3 of the Summit featured a 
Chef 3.0 Forum, which brought together chefs committed to plant-forward diets and waste reduction to share their perspectives and delicious recipes. Chefs signed a Chef Declaration, which commits to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The renowned chefs included Anita Lo, Elizabeth Falkner, Paul Then, Tan Zhihao, Yiwen, Chris Huang, and AJun. The Summit also gathered youth for a Youth Roundtable, with an 8-year-old as the youngest member. The Youth Good Food Pledge was presented by the Youth Roundtable leader, Wang Shuyi.
A number of media outlets covered the Summit. Mia MacDonald was quoted in The Paper 澎湃 speaking about the need to discuss different issues together when discussing the environment, saying, “when people talked about environmental protection, topics such as air pollution, wildlife protection, and resource crisis were separated. But I found that the border is being broken. This generation of young people is full. Enthusiasm, enthusiasm, and thoughtful thinking, they understand environmental protection in a more systematic and coherent way.” You can find all the press coverage here.
More about our partners:
Approved by the State Council, registered in the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and supervised by the China Association for Science and Technology, the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF, or GDF) is a nationwide non-profit public foundation and social legal entity dedicated to biodiversity conservation and green development.
GDF’s mission is to raise awareness and facilitate action at all levels of the society to support biodiversity conservation and green development, preserve resources of national strategic value, provide guidance to sustainable socio-economic development, promote the implementation of the concept of ecological civilization.
The Good Food Fund under the GDF focuses on research, communications, policy advocacy, events, public education, and incubating entrepreneurship related to the food system. It aims to facilitate shifts in food production, distribution, and consumption patterns towards a healthier, more environmentally friendly, and more sustainable food system.