Work

Philanthropic Funding for Agroecology in Europe – Opening the (black) box of sustainable food system actors

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The global food system has severe environmental and health repercussions. Thus, calls for transforming food systems are becoming increasingly louder. However, this requires a significant financial overhaul. Financing an agroecological transition is critical and has received little academic attention so far. Specifically, philanthropic and non-philanthropic foundations as essential actors in private funding for food system transformation are hardly investigated due to their organizational nature. This study is the first to aim to understand the landscape of foundations supporting an agroecological transition in Europe and opening the “black box” through desk research (n = 100), an online questionnaire (n = 23) and semi-structured interviews (n = 15). We analyzed the context, the organizational characteristics and their strategies by adapting an international integrative framework of foundation types to find (i) a Western European prominence of places of origin and resources, (ii) a few vital financial players responsible for a significant amount of the annual funding and (iii) a rising interest to support agroecology and the transformation to a more sustainable food system. In discussing these results, the article touches upon questions of legitimacy and democratic aspirations, which are recommended for further research.

Source: Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems

DOI: 10.1080/21683565.2025.2489416