In the context of COP30, the panel “Collective Effort for the Transformation of Brazil’s Food Systems: Reimagining the Role of Philanthropy” highlighted the growing maturity and urgency of the debate on food systems in the country. Organized by Tilt Collective, Porticus, and Instituto Ibirapitanga, the initiative was presented as an invitation to reflect on the role of philanthropy in this transformation — not only from Brazil’s position as host country, but as a leadership capable of centering the human right to adequate food and the structural transformation of food systems.

Democracy, Rights, and Food Systems By situating the debate in historical perspective, Elisabetta Recine, president of the National Council for Food and Nutrition Security, noted that the very presence of an activity dedicated to philanthropy and food systems at COP signals a relevant turning point. Two decades ago, an alignment between philanthropy, a rights agenda, food sovereignty, and social justice would have been unlikely. Today, this dialogue reveals the emergence of a philanthropic field that recognizes itself as part of a broader political project to confront inequalities.

Elisabetta emphasized that food sovereignty and social justice are built in the daily life of territories, and that it falls to philanthropy to make these experiences visible, connect them, and prevent them from remaining isolated.

Democracy ran as a central thread through her remarks. Recalling the dismantling of Consea — particularly in 2019 — Elisabetta pointed to the denial of hunger and social participation as hallmarks of a recent period, contrasting them with civil society’s resistance between 2019 and 2023, symbolized by mobilizations such as the Banquetaço. Her message to philanthropy was direct: strengthening movements rooted in territories, expanding capacities, and sustaining networks of resistance and creation are conditions for dignity to remain the organizing principle of collective action.

The Contested Transition Arilson Favareto, full professor at the Josué de Castro Chair at USP and at the Graduate Program in Territorial Planning at UFABC, organized his contribution around the urgency of transforming the Brazilian agri-food system. Noting that, in Brazil, this system is the main driver of greenhouse gas emissions, he argued that the agri-food transition is not optional, but a precondition for any consistent climate strategy.

Arilson raised two central warnings: the reduction of the agenda to carbon, ignoring the “triple monotony” of landscape, production, and consumption; and the risk of dissociating the climate transition from social justice, thereby deepening inequalities. For philanthropy, he outlined four strategic fronts: (i) strengthening networks and experimentation; (ii) investing in social and institutional capacities; (iii) supporting knowledge production in dialogue across different ways of knowing; and (iv) contributing to changing the rules of the game, expanding the capacity to influence structures and financing regimes.

Narratives, Power, and Visibility Drawing from journalism, Eliane Brum, director of Sumaúma, presented the initiative’s work as a strategy for contesting power and visibility. Operating at the epicenters of deforestation, wildfires, and violence in the Amazon, the project was described as a process of power transfer, aimed at training forest journalists capable of narrating the world from other points of view.

Eliane challenged the debate by dismantling idealized representations of the Amazon and exposing the centrality of cattle ranching in the destruction of the biome, citing São Félix do Xingu as a symbol of this model. In dialogue with indigenous knowledge, she proposed shifting the focus from “agroecology” to “water-ecology,” emphasizing the interdependence between food systems, hydrological cycles, and survival.

By denouncing the volume of tax exemptions granted to agribusiness and large corporations, she connected food systems to fiscal justice, environmental racism, and coloniality. Her intervention reaffirmed journalism as a strategic field in the contestation of meanings, visibilities, and power.

Reimagining the Role of Philanthropy For Andre Degenszajn, president and CEO of Instituto Ibirapitanga, philanthropy is not external to civil society, but a constitutive part of it. Its strategic value lies not in financial scale, but in its capacity to take risks, support long-term processes, strengthen institutional capacities, and back counter-majoritarian agendas.

Andre highlighted that the food systems agenda is still recent and underfunded in Brazil, often accessed through the climate lens with an excessive focus on carbon. He advocated for building a more diverse and less technocratic philanthropic field, capable of integrating health, food culture, and inequalities, while also playing a role in shaping agendas and creating spaces for dialogue.

Sarah Lake, CEO of Tilt Collective, presented the international organization as a philanthropy committed to a holistic approach at the intersection of climate, food, health, and social justice. In her view, it is impossible to think about global food systems without Brazil. Tilt’s work in the country is anchored in the opportunities and strength of an already existing movement, which Tilt seeks to fund, strengthen, and catalyze — respecting territorial diversity and rejecting standardized solutions. Acknowledging the scale limitations of philanthropy, Sarah emphasized its role in mobilizing other actors and aligning efforts to avoid fragmentation.

Support for Territorial Experiences and Democratic Governance In closing, Paulo Petersen, special envoy for family farming at COP30, affirmed that food systems are now the main entry point for addressing the climate crisis. Family farming was presented as an alternative agricultural economy, rooted in territories and carrying structural solutions, capable of reconnecting food, culture, and health.

For Paulo, agroecology is not merely a technique, but a proposal for the systemic reorganization of food systems. On the role of philanthropy, he was emphatic: it cannot replace the State. Its strategic role lies in strengthening territorial experiences, articulating networks, and contributing to the reconstruction of a democratic governance that rebalances market, State, and society.