21 - 22 November 2026
Berlin
Keynote Speaker
Bruce Friedrich
Founder of The Good Food Institute and author of Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity’s Favorite Food – and Our Future.
Keynote Speaker
Alison Feeley
Shaping healthier food environments and enhancing food security for school-age children.
Consumer engagement
Wendy Matthews
CEO, Veganuary
Public Health
Dr Shireen Kassam
Founder, Plant Based Health Professionals UK
Our tracks
Policy Change
Accelerating government-facing policy work across Europe and globally, with:
Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl
Vegetarian Society of Denmark
Rafael Pinto
European Vegetarian Union
Lasse Bruun
UN Foundation
Raphaël Podselver
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Philanthropy
Seeding and growing a strong plant-forward movement with:
Diana Ugalde
Healthy Food Healthy Planet
David van Beveren
Craigslist Charitable Fund
Jay Karandikar
Karuna Foundation
Olivia Ladinig
ProVeg Grants
Retailer Engagement
Accelerating plant-based progress in retail, with:
Nico Muzi
Madre Brava
Indy Kaur
Plant Futures
Julian Cottee
ProVeg International
Leslie Ewing
Camelot Business Development
Public Food
Plant-forward programmes across schools, universities, and hospitals, with:
Colette Fox
Planetary Plates Network
Elisa Niemi
WWF
Marcela Borges
The Pollination Project
Thomas Goodman
Plant Dining Partnerships
Public Health
Modernising national dietary guidelines and engaging public health professionals with:
Roberta Alessandrini
PAN International
Anna-Lena Klapp
ProVeg International
Alison Feeley
UNICEF
Dr. Shireen Kassam
Plant Based Health Professionals UK
Consumer Engagement
Scaling consumer engagement campaigns, with:
Wendy Matthews
Veganuary
Tobias Leenaert
ProVeg International
Melanie Joy
Beyond Carnism
Careers & Talent
Identifying and developing the movement’s next generation of talent, with:
Lauren Mee
Impactful Policy Careers
Rachel Atcheson
Food Policy Pathways
Sebastian Joy
Kickstarting For Good
Alexander Kok
School for Moral Ambition
Corporate & Industry
Aligning plant-based food businesses and associations, with:
Thomas Schobesberger
European Alliance for Plant-based Foods
Jeff Doyle
Plant Based Foods Association US
Joel Scott-Halkes
WePlanet
Marin Vandamme
The Protein Project
Capacity building
Collaboration between the groups that build movement infrastructure, with:
Tim De Smet
Agora
Krista Hiddema
For the Greater Good
Devika Suresh
ProVeg Incubator
Laura Picot
Upside
Universities
Scaling university engagement across campaigns, careers, and research, with:
Navin Durbhakula
Food For Thought
Laura Wenzel
Plant-Based Universities
Amy Huang
Good Food Institute
Samantha Derrick
Plant Futures Initiative
Research & Academia
Translating the latest evidence into actionable insights, with:
Kristof Dhont
PHAIR Society
Björn Ólafsson
Better Food Foundation
Fatma Sabet
University of Exeter
Seth Ariel Green
Stanford University
Communications & Media
Coordinating narratives across the movement, with:
Emilie Fitch
People for Better Food
Robbie Locke
FoodFacts.org
Amy Williams
Good Food Institute
Dr. Laura Sommer
Green Nudges Consulting
AI Skills Development Day 2026
Follow-on event: Monday 23 Nov
A practical, hands-on day for changemakers who want to work smarter, think more strategically and unlock new possibilities
With our partners
Why you need to be in the room
The Plant Food System Summit will accelerate the transition towards a plant-rich, sustainable food system by bringing together the key actors from around the world driving real-world change.
Plant-powered food is gaining popularity among policymakers, in the excel sheets of procurers, in the eyes of the public health system, in the kitchens of culinary professionals, in the profit-margins of corporate supply chains, and in the fields of farmers. With so many interventions gaining momentum, the opportunity is enormous – to accelerate each one, and to create maximum synergy between them.
Apply to speak
Do you wish to contribute to the programme, with a presentation, workshop or panel?
What to expect
Celebrate
Showcase success stories and achievements
Communicate
Share best-practices and learnings
Connect
Connect changemaker globally working on similar and across different programs
Collaborate
Empower the full ecosystem of change by co-developing shared strategies and synergies
Our iconic venue
Our venue is the iconic bUm Berlin, converted from an historic electrical substation and the home to many social enterprise initiatives.
It lies next to the Landwehrkanal (Landwehr Canal) in the scenic, tree-lined promenade of the Kreuzberg district of the city.
Frequently-asked questions
What is the summit aiming to achieve?
The plant-forward food system movement has no shortage of good programmes.
The pieces are there. What remains is connecting them.
The Plant Food System summit is built on a simple premise: a more connected ecosystem of changemakers is a more impactful one. When the people running programmes in health, policy, farm adaptation, public food engagement, education, and beyond know each other, share learnings, and build on each other’s work, the whole movement moves faster.
That means two things in practice. First, deeper collaboration between people working on similar programs – so practitioners working in the same space can align strategies, avoid duplication, and accelerate what’s already working. Second, catalysing connections across tracks – surfacing synergies that wouldn’t emerge if people stayed in their own silos. Shared framing, shared language, and cross-sector relationships make it easier to advocate collectively, attract funding, and bring in new allies.
The summit is where that coordination begins.
Who is in the room?
The summit brings together the people running the food system movement — not its audiences. Policymakers, corporations, and consumers are the targets of our programmes. The summit is for the organisations and individuals doing that work.
That includes:
- Leader of civil society organisations driving food systems transformation across the different programs
- Programme experts – the practitioners leading day-to-day implementation, with real interventions and real results
- Researchers generating and translating the evidence base that underpins the field
- Funders and movement strategists helping to build, sustain, and scale the ecosystem
Each track brings together people working in the same intervention area — depth of expertise within each room. The cross-track sessions are where the diversity of the full 250–300 person gathering comes alive.
The summit is global in ambition. In this first edition, we expect the room to be weighted toward Europe — a practical reality for a new gathering, and one we intend to correct as the summit grows.
Can I present at the summit?
Yes – and we encourage it. The summit is most valuable when the people in the room are also shaping the agenda.
If you are running a programme, leading research, or working on an initiative relevant to one of our streams, we want to hear from you. Contributions can take a number of formats – a presentation, a workshop, a panel, a lightning talk, or a facilitated roundtable. You know your work best; we’ll work with you to find the right format.
How to apply:
The contribution application form is open and is available at foodsystemsummit.org. You’ll be asked to describe your work, which topic it relates to, what you’d like to share, and what format you have in mind.
How we select:
We review contributions based on:
- Relevance – does it speak directly to the challenges and opportunities practitioners in the topic we are working on?
- Utility – will participants leave with something they can use? A new insight, a tool, a connection, a challenge reframed?
- Fit – does it complement what others are bringing, and help build toward the track’s shared output?
We are not looking for polished keynotes or sales pitches. We are looking for people with something real to share – hard-won lessons, emerging evidence, honest questions, or a programme that others in the room should know about.
What are the outputs? What happens after?
Each track enters the summit having already done preparatory work – identifying key opportunities, surfacing tensions, and developing a shared output. That output gets pressure-tested and built on in Berlin, with input from the wider group.
After the summit:
- Each track’s outcomes and learnings are written up and shared with all participants
- Cross-track connections and synergies are similarly documented and circulated
- The summit marks the beginning of a conversation, not the end of one
We are also exploring how to build light-touch coordination infrastructure to help participants stay connected and continue collaborating – whether through regular convenings, shared resources, or other mechanisms. Details to follow.
Who is organising it?
The Plant Food System Summit is organised by a coalition of organisations working across the plant-based food systems space, in partnership with track leads and co-organisers embedded in each intervention area.
If you are interested in joining as a partner, we’d love to hear from you – reach out at david@foodsystemsummit.org
How big is it?
250–300 participants, across more than ten tracks. Deliberately small enough for real conversation, large enough to represent the breadth of the movement.
Is there a cost to attend?
Yes, a participation fee applies. Participation costs €400 and includes catering on both days.
In special cases, financial support is available for participants from smaller organisations or under-resourced regions – please indicate this in your application.
- 21 - 22 November 2026
- bUm Berlin, Paul-Lincke-Ufer 21, 10999, Berlin, Germany