Masterclass in Food Systems and Sustainable Finance

Masterclass in Food Systems and Sustainable Finance

Course Director:

Stephanie Walton is a financial geographer researching the connections, tensions, and trade-offs between what we need from our food systems and what we expect from our financial systems. She is a doctoral candidate with the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group where she is currently researching stranded assets in the transition to sustainable and healthy diets, with a specific focus on the cattle and beef sectors in the USA. Prior to joining Oxford, Stephanie was a research associate at the Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London. She has worked on the SHEFS project, funded by the Wellcome Trust, contributed to England’s National Food Strategy and the EU Food Policy Coalition’s work on the EU Legislative framework for sustainable food systems. Before academia, Stephanie worked in advertising in London and New York.
P3SA icon.

Format

4x sessions of 90 minutes

Online

Dates

  • 9 – 12 February 2026

 

This Masterclass is designed to equip civil servants, central banks, development agencies, and NGOs with a clear and actionable understanding of how food systems intersect with finance—and why transforming them is essential to achieving climate, biodiversity, health, and development goals.

Food systems are at the heart of many global challenges: they are a major driver of emissions, environmental degradation, and health burdens, while also being deeply embedded in livelihoods, trade, and public spending. As with the energy transition, transforming food systems will require bold policy shifts and creative financial solutions. Yet food systems introduce additional layers of complexity, from the politics of diets to the fragmentation of value chains and the risks of asset stranding in agriculture and land use.

The Masterclass provides an interdisciplinary foundation for understanding the challenges, risks, and opportunities at the food-finance nexus. Participants will explore:

  • The environmental and health consequences of current food systems—and what a sustainable alternative could look like;
  • The financial architecture of food systems, including the roles of public and private capital in driving outcomes;
  • The materiality of policy and transition risk in food systems, and how finance both shapes and is shaped by regulation;
  • The frontiers of innovation in food system finance, from blended finance to nature markets.

Participants will gain a deeper understanding of their institution’s role in shaping food systems, and how financial strategies and tools can help drive a just and sustainable food transition.

 

Fees

  • Free

Applications

Places on this course are strictly limited to those who have primary employment in:

  • central or local government
  • regulatory agencies
  • supervisory authorities
  • central banks
  • multilateral institutions
  • non-profit civil society organisations
  • registered charities
  • philanthropic organisations


Evidence of this may be requested and required.

To apply please complete the application form, for both individual and group bookings. We aim to respond within 14 working days of receipt of the application.

Apply now
P3SA icon.

Objectives

By the end of this Masterclass participants will:

  • Understand how food systems intersect with climate, nature, public health, and finance, and why transitioning them is essential to meeting global sustainability goals.
  • Analyze the roles of public and private finance in shaping food system trajectories, and explore how capital flows, incentives, and institutional structures enable or hinder a food system transition.
  • Examine the material risks and opportunities that policy, politics, and regulation create for financial actors, with a focus on transition risk, accountability, and influence.
  • Explore emerging financial mechanisms and strategic levers for financing food systems transformation, drawing lessons from across the sector and debating pathways to a healthier, more sustainable food future.


Masterclass syllabus

Session One: An Introduction to Food Systems for Finance – Challenges, Risks and Opportunities
  • Course Overview: Setting the stage for interdisciplinary discussions between ‘food practitioners’ and ‘finance practitioners’
  • Environmental and Public Health Impacts of Food Production and Consumption: Review of the double materiality of risks from and to agriculture and diets
  • Food Systems of the Future?: Exploration of the different proposals for sustainable and healthy food systems

Session Two: Public, Blended and Private Finance for a Food System in Transition
  • The Financial Architecture of Food Systems: The institutions and financial flows into and out of food systems shaping sustainability outcomes and trajectories
  • Public Finance: The role of MDBs and IFIs in shaping the food systems of today and current debates on taxpayer dollars for financing the food system of tomorrow
  • Private Finance: The influx of private capital into food systems and current debates on if financialization can drive the food system transition
  • Blended Finance into the Future: Discussion on the potential for blended finance to drive the transition to sustainable food systems

Session Three: Transition and Environmental Risk – The materiality of risk in in food systems
  • The Finances of Food Policy: Brief introduction to food system transition policies and their implications for financial outcomes
  • What is the role of finance in food policy?: How financial actors shape transition risk materiality, systemic engagement and transition plan credibility

Session Four: The Frontiers of Finance for a Food System in Transitions
  • Financing the Green Transition in Food Systems: New developments in the financial mechanisms intended to scale up sustainable alternatives in food systems – from nature markets to alternative proteins
  • Greening the Financing Already in the Food System: Current developments and debates on ESG, financed emissions and deforestation, stranded assets and other challenges
  • Food Systems of the Future: Final discussion revisiting the proposed ‘future food systems’ from the first session, and how we can finance and achieve a sustainable and healthy future food system.

Download Course Brochure

OxSFG was established in 2012 and is a multidisciplinary research centre working to be the world’s best place for research and teaching on sustainable finance and investment. We work globally across asset classes, finance professions, and with different parts of the financial system.