The new Collaborative for Food Systems Innovation will equip the next generation of leaders who will reimagine and transform the food system.
Will Rosenzweig is cementing his legacy at UC Berkeley through the launch of the Collaborative for Food Systems Innovation at Haas.
Their inaugural event, the Food Systems Innovation Summit,will be held Friday, Nov. 13, at Haas.
Headliners include Alice Waters, BA 67, founder of Chez Panisse; Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill; and John Foraker, MBA 94, co-founder and CEO of Once Upon A Farm,
For decades, social impact leader Will Rosenzweig has invested in food systems innovation at UC Berkeley and Haas.
“I’ve been here for more than 25 years teaching, working in the field, investing in companies, and basically cultivating a lot of young entrepreneurial leaders to change the food system,” said Rosenzweig, co-founder and former CEO of Republic of Tea.
Will Rosenzweig has taught hundreds of students at UC Berkeley and Haas for 25 years.
Though he will retire from teaching on the professional faculty at Haas after this semester, Rosenzweig’s work will carry forward through the new Collaborative for Food Systems Innovation, equipping the next generation of leaders to lead. At the helm of the new collaborative as executive director is Elaine Hsu, MBA 19, a climate leader and one of Rosenzweig’s former students.
“Food sits at the center of our biggest challenges, from climate change to public health to social equity,” Hsu said. “The new collaborative will support the growth of the next generation of leaders who will reimagine and transform the food system to something that serves the health of people, the planet, communities, and the land.”
The Collaborative kicks off with its inaugural event, the Food Systems Innovation Summit on Friday, Nov. 13, at Haas. The theme is “Reigniting Imagination” and leaders headlining the event include:
Alice Waters, BA 67, chef, author, educator, and founder of Chez Panisse, credited for launching the farm-to-table movement, and founder of the Edible Schoolyard project.
Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill, co-founder of Row 7 Seed Company, and author of “The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food,” a landmark book that urges Americans to move to a “third plate” aligned with seasonal productivity, natural livestock rhythms, whole-grains, and small portions of free-range meat.
John Foraker, MBA 94, co-founder and CEO of Once Upon A Farm, and longtime former CEO of Annie’s, who steered the company toward organic offerings.
“Our summit is really about questioning the status quo and inviting food systems leaders, including farmers, product companies, and investors, to engage in conversations around supply chain collaboration, innovative capital structures and how we influence the cultural conversation around health and climate,” said Rosenzweig.
A vast list of food systems accomplishments
Rosenzweig’s career accomplishments are vast, including serving as vice president of juice maker Odwalla during the mid-1990s, and as an advisory Board member at The Culinary Institute of America. In 2010, he flew to Oslo to receive the Oslo Business for Peace Award for Ethical Leadership in Business. The award, which he called the highlight of his career, is presented in the same hall as the Nobel Peace Prize. “I was in extraordinary company and feel this was a significant validation of the path I chose to follow as a business leader,” he said.
In 2010, Rosenzweig received the Oslo Business for Peace Award for Ethical Leadership in Business.
Rosenzweig said he fell into teaching in part because of the positive response to the 1992 book “Republic of Tea: How an Idea Becomes a Business,” which addresses the challenges of building a values-driven startup. He co-wrote the book with Mel and Patricia Ziegler, his Republic of Tea cofounders, who also founded Banana Republic.
At UC Berkeley Haas, he continued to nurture new ideas over the decades. He co-founded the Center For Responsible Business and the pioneering Global Social Venture Competition, which was held for 20 years around the world before closing seven years ago.
His courses have included the pioneering UC Berkeley Edible Education 101, founded in 2011 by Waters and food journalist Michael Pollan. Watch Rosenzweig interview Pollan about food systems below.
The course, a hybrid public lecture series and undergraduate class that Rosenzweig co-taught, became one of the Berkeley campus’ most popular electives focused on food systems, entrepreneurship, and ethics.
Don Moore, who serves as faculty director of the new Collaborative, said he was inspired to support Rosenzweig’s generations of work mentoring “generations of Haas students motivated to build food systems that better serve the welfare of people, communities, and the planet.”
L-R: Rosenzweig with former students who took his Food Systems Innovation Studio course: Aaron Hall, PhD 20, (Materials Science & Engineering) and Jessica Heiges, PhD 22, (Environmental Science, Policy & Management). Photo: Jim Block
This fall, Rosenzweig is co-teaching “Systems Change for a Small Planet,” a graduate class that digs into the worldviews and broken systems behind the planet’s biggest crises, and “Food Systems Innovation Studio,” which is split into two tracks—”food serious” and “food curious”—for students to pursue their own ideas.
Aligning values with a professional path
Over the years Rosenzweig has mentored startups including Revolution Foods, now the largest K-12 school meal vendor in California, co-founded by Kristin Richmond and Kirsten Tobey, both MBA 06; Indiegogo, one of the world’s first crowdfunding sites, co-founded in 2006 by Danae Ringelmann and Eric Schell, both MBA 08; and Diaspora Spice Co., where Pooja Bag, MBA 22, joined as an intern and rose to director of sales before joining Ramen Bae.
While this will be his last semester of teaching at Haas, it won’t be the end of his involvement with Berkeley. “Food has become such an important topic that’s drawing students who want to align their values with their professional paths,” he said. “Food connects us all.”
Elaine Hsu, MBA 19, executive director of the Collaborative for Food Systems Innovation. was Rosenzweig’s former student.
His partnership with Hsu reflects their shared commitment to mentor students who become a critical part of the Haas sustainability ecosystem. Hsu currently serves as curriculum director of FARMpreneurs, which brings graduate level executive education to farmer entrepreneurs. She was also the first employee and head of operations at Planet FWD, which launched Moonshot Snacks, a maker of climate-friendly crackers that sold to Patagonia Provisions in 2023.
“I’m excited to bring all of that experience back to this work to help cultivate a new generation of students who will be the change makers within the food system,” she said.