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 the energy transition and debating pathways to a healthier, more sustainable food future.

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
• A Food Systems Approach to Climate and Nature: Why focusing only on agriculture will not deliver positive outcomes for climate, nature, health and livelihoods
• “Who” is the Food System: Discussion on the differing roles and actors that shape outcomes – from agriculture ministers to central bankers – and where you fit in

Session Two: Public 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
• Public vs. Private into the Future: Discussion on the balance between public vs. private financing, incentives and risk-sharing for driving the transition to sustainable food systems

Session Three: Transition and Litigation Risk – The materiality of policy and legal action 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
• Litigation risk and liability: How recent litigation is shaping the allocation of transition cost liability in food systems

Session Four: The Frontiers of Finance for a Food System in Transitions

• Learning from the Energy Transition: Key learnings from the energy transition – from renewables subsidies to coal phase outs – and how they apply to financing the food system transition
• 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.