Danielle Nierenberg is a world-renowned researcher, speaker and advocate, on all issues relating to our food system and agriculture. She is president of Food Tank, the think tank for food, and an expert on sustainable agriculture and food issues. She has written extensively on gender and population, the spread of factory farming in the developing world and innovations in sustainable agriculture.

Nierenberg founded Food Tank with Bernard Pollack in 2013. It is a global convener, thought leadership organization and unbiased creator of original research impacting the food system. Matching innovative ideas to today’s most pressing challenges, Food Tank bridges domestic and global partners to build sustainable agriculture and food systems. Hope, success and innovative ideas in our food system are highlighted through original daily publications, research articles, a chart-topping podcast, interviews and events, and summits in major cities around the world. Food Tank has more than 250 major institutional partners including The Rockefeller Foundation, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Christensen Fund, Oxfam America, Slow Food USA, U.N. FAO, the Crop Trust, the Sustainable Food Trust, and academic institutions in all 50 states.

Prior to starting Food Tank, Nierenberg spent two years traveling to more than 35 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America, meeting with farmers, scientists, researchers, policymakers, government leaders, students, academics and journalists, documenting what is working to help alleviate hunger and poverty, while protecting the environment. She is the recipient of the 2020 Julia Child Award. She has an M.S. in Agriculture, Food and Environment from Tufts University and spent two years volunteering for the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic.

This program is made possible by Week Eight Presenting Sponsor Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, AHN Westfield Memorial, and HealthNow Administrative Services. This program is also sponsored by The Barbara and Herb Keyser Fund. Our Food Festival Events are presented by Curtze.

Brian Frank is the founder and general partner of FTW Ventures, bringing decades of experience in building transformative technology that impacts the way people work, play and live. In 2015, Frank turned his attention to how technology can improve the lives of every person on the planet by building a better food system. He raised two early-stage funds for investments into food and agriculture technology businesses with FTW, partnering with the leading executives and corporations in the field.

Now at FTW, Frank continues to build a more sustainable, resilient, productive and profitable food system through leveraging advanced science and technology in the $10 trillion food and agriculture sectors. He cultivates urgent, essential technology that reshapes the global food and agriculture industries. To support the company’s three core values — preserving and amplifying nature’s offerings, modernizing science, and nurturing humankind — Frank and his team support the innovators who think beyond the box and have a unique perspective on improving the food system.

Prior to founding FTW, Frank led the creation of industry-defining products in mobile communication, social media and AI at numerous startups and Fortune 500 Companies over his 25-year career. As an entrepreneur, he directed three venture-backed businesses to successful exits, returning more than $100 million in capital to investors. Frank is a graduate of Cornell University with dual degrees in computer science as well as science and technology studies with a concentration in human-computer interaction (HCI).

This program is made possible by Week Eight Presenting Sponsor Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, AHN Westfield Memorial, and HealthNow Administrative Services. This program is also sponsored by The Reginald and Elizabeth Lenna Lectureship in Business and Economics and The Joseph H. DeFrees Memorial Lecture. Our Food Festival Events today are presented by Alexander Construction.

Anna Lappé is the executive director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, a strategic alliance of philanthropic foundations working for food system transformation around the world. Before joining the Global Alliance in July 2023, Lappé had worked for more than 25 years as an internationally renowned expert on food systems and a respected advocate for sustainability and justice along the food chain. She has conducted research on food and sustainability across the United States and in countries worldwide. She will share her experiences and expertise in remarks closing Chautauqua’s weeklong discussion on “The Future of Food: Climate, Technology and the Next Agricultural Revolution.”

Lappé is the founder or co-founder of three national organizations. In 2012, she founded Real Food Media, a communications strategy initiative housed within the non-profit Corporate Accountability. She is also the co-founder of the Small Planet Fund and in 2016 launched the Food Sovereignty Fund of the Panta Rhea Foundation. Named one of Time magazine’s “eco” Who’s-Who, Lappé is the co-author or author of three books on food, farming and sustainability, including the national bestseller Hope’s Edge and the critically acclaimed Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It. Most recently she helped edit the U.S. edition of The Pesticide Atlas and relaunch her mother’s 1971 classic Diet for a Small Planet with a new introduction and all new recipes from celebrity chefs, including Padma Lakshmi and Jose Andres.

A recipient of the James Beard Leadership Award, Lappé’s work has been translated internationally and features on Lappé and her opinion writing can be found in a variety of prominent outlets. She holds a master’s in international affairs in economic and political development from Columbia University and also graduated from Brown University. From 2004 to 2006, she was a Food and Society Fellow, a program of the WK Kellogg Foundation. She is an active board member of the Rainforest Action Network and the Castanea Fellowship.

This program is made possible by Week Eight Presenting Sponsor Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, AHN Westfield Memorial, and HealthNow Administrative Services. This program is also sponsored by The McCredie Family Fund.