The Center for Food Systems Innovation at UC Berkeley Haas is a hub for the leaders, entrepreneurs, and systems thinkers working to transform what we eat and how it gets to our tables. We bring together students, alumni, faculty, and industry partners who share a conviction that food is at the heart of our most pressing challenges — from climate change to public health to social equity — and that business has a critical role to play in solving them. Through rigorous academics, real-world partnerships, and a growing community of changemakers, we equip food systems changemakers to take action.
Academic, Community, Industry Innovation
The Center builds upon existing foundations of academic excellence, community leadership, and industry partnership
Food systems thinking is woven into the curriculum at Haas. Our signature courses give students the frameworks, tools, and hands-on experience to understand food systems deeply and lead within them.
Current courses include:
- Edible Education
- Food Systems Innovation Studio
- Systems Change for a Small Planet
- Innovations in Supply Chains and Procurement
- Introduction to Plant Centric Food Systems (UC Wide)
- Plant Futures Challenge Lab
These courses focus on real-world entrepreneurial efforts. Luminaries including Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, José Andrés, and Dolores Huerta have brought their work directly into the classroom. Venture labs have helped launch organizations like Revolution Foods, Krave Jerky, and Plant Futures, and have supported innovation inside larger companies including General Mills and Patagonia Provisions.
Food systems study extends across UC Berkeley through the Berkeley Food Institute, which offers interdisciplinary programs for undergraduates (Food Systems Minor) and graduate students (Transforming Food Systems Certificate).
Students come to Haas because they want to work in food, because they are excited by the opportunities to align their work with their values, and they leave with the perspective, skills, and network to do it well.
Food systems change is not a solo endeavor. The Center brings together alumni, practitioners, and emerging leaders who are doing this work across every corner of the industry.
Our Food Systems Innovation Summit convenes distinguished alumni, students, and industry partners for a day of conversation, problem-solving, and connection. It’s designed not as a conference but as a gathering: a place to find your next collaborator, revisit the ideas energizing the field, and reconnect with why this work matters.
Alumni and community members can mentor students, speak in classes, advise on projects, or join our Alumni and Community Council. Students consistently cite how much these experiences shape their views. People already working in food systems often say they leave feeling re-energized.
If you’ve built something in food systems, navigated its complexity, or are actively shaping its future, this community is yours to join and to help shape. Follow us on LinkedIn and sign up here to get involved.
The Center connects organizations working in food systems innovation with students who chose Haas specifically for this work. Partnership opportunities include:
- Projects engage students in your organization’s real challenges. Students value the hands-on experience; organizations often get fresh perspectives and concrete outcomes.
- Speaking engagements and events such as our Food Systems Innovation Summit offer organizations the opportunity to share their work and attract world-class talent.
- Recruit future leaders that are well-equipped to navigate quickly changing environments. Build relationships through events, internships, student projects, and more.
- Corporate Roundtable conversations offer the opportunity for food systems leaders to convene with peers to tackle shared challenges, shape the Center’s research agenda, and collaborate on questions no single organization can answer alone
- Our Executive Education programs are designed for food and agriculture leaders to sharpen management skills, develop grounding in systems innovation, and engage directly with food systems innovations across the San Francisco Bay Area
About the Center for Food Systems Innovation
The Center for Food Systems Innovation formalizes and deepens a legacy that has been building at Haas for more than two decades.
It begins with the land. As a land-grant university, UC Berkeley carries a deep institutional commitment to agricultural knowledge and public good.. That foundation, combined with the Bay Area’s unique position as a hub for systems thinking, entrepreneurship, and culinary innovation, has made this region a natural gathering place for the people reshaping food.
Haas has been at the center of that gathering. William Rosenzweig — co-founder of the Republic of Tea and one of the first professors to teach social entrepreneurship at a major business school — introduced food systems thinking to Haas more than 25 years ago. What followed was a sustained accumulation of courses, programs, faculty, and alumni who kept pulling the thread. The Sustainable Food Initiative grew out of that energy and gave it programmatic shape. The Center builds upon that foundation.
Today the Center is led by Faculty Steward Will Rosenzweig, Interim Director Elaine Hsu (FTMBA ’19), and Faculty Director Don Moore.
Where the Center for Responsible Business develops leaders to redefine business for a sustainable future, and the Berkeley Food Institute advances cross-disciplinary research and learning on farm and food systems, the Center for Food Systems Innovation focuses on equipping business leaders to catalyze entrepreneurial food system change.
Haas alumni are already driving change across every part of the food and agriculture landscape. The Center is how we grow that network and deepen that impact.
William Rosenzweig
Faculty Steward
Co-founder of the Republic of Tea, Rosenzweig introduced Haas’s first course on social entrepreneurship more than 25 years ago, laying the groundwork for the school’s long-standing commitment to responsible leadership.
Elaine Hsu
Interim Director
After completing her MBA and Graduate Certificate in Food Systems at UC Berkeley, Elaine launched Moonshot Climate-Friendly Crackers (now Patagonia Provision) and Planet FWD’s greenhouse gas accounting and climate action planning platform.
Don Moore
Faculty Director
Don Moore studies decision making and leaders’ roles in building systems that make it it easy for people to choose wisely. A beloved professor, he has also served as acting Dean and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Haas.