Planting seeds for a better, cleaner, and fairer food future
In a world where food systems are rapidly changing, and often failing the people and territories they should nourish, young entrepreneurs are stepping in with courage, creativity, and purpose. Within the SFYN, Food Pioneers has emerged as one of the most meaningful spaces for peer learning, collaborative experimentation, and the incubation of ideas that dare to transform how we grow, transform, cook, and understand food.
Originally born in the Netherlands, SFYN Food Pioneers was designed as a supportive environment for early-stage entrepreneurs building innovative, regenerative, and socially just food ventures. In 2025, the program reached a new milestone: its arrival in Mexico City.
From the lowlands to the highlands: Adapting food pioneers to the Valley of Mexico
Bringing the program to CDMX, thanks to a collaboration with Gastromotiva México and Distrito Tlalpan at Tecnológico de Monterrey, meant engaging with a territory unlike any other. The Valley of Mexico is a basin shaped by a millennia-old agro-culinary history, extraordinary biocultural diversity, and the daily realities of feeding one of the largest urban populations in the world.
To respond to this complexity, the original Food Pioneers framework was adapted. The result was a hybrid model of formation, incubation, and community building grounded in systems thinking and territorial understanding. Each entrepreneurial journey was not only about strengthening a business idea; it was also about recognizing its role in the structural transformation of the local food system.
Eight projects: One shared purpose
For its first edition in Mexico, the program worked with eight emerging or consolidating ventures tackling different points of the regional food chain:
- Cegeni – science in the service of nature.
- Duxit – democratizing technology and labeling tools for micro and small food enterprises.
- Diáspora Chocolatería – reclaiming chocolate as food and cultural nourishment.
- Huerta Culhua – an agroecological garden growing at the edges of the “concrete monster”
- Mercado Alternativo – a fair and sustainable marketplace for small-scale producers.
- Poz y Más – traceable, flavor-rich vinegars and preserves.
- Sembradero – a platform connecting consumers with agroecological producers.
- Vale Verde – a cooperative strengthening chinampa-based agriculture in Tláhuac.
Though diverse in their models, all eight shared a commitment to regeneration, justice, and cultural relevance in the region’s food landscape.
Six months of collective work and cross-sector collaboration
From June to November 2025, the cohort participated in a comprehensive incubation process covering systems thinking, strategic planning, operations, communication, financial sustainability, and impact assessment.
Throughout these months, Food Pioneers CDMX activated a powerful ecosystem: more than 40 organizations, universities, researchers, businesses, restaurants, incubators, and specialists contributed knowledge, mentoring, and collaborative opportunities.
This network became one of the program’s most distinctive features. Participants not only strengthened their ventures; they also strengthened the relationships and alliances that make change possible.
The ‘Vinculatorio Agroalimentario’: A gathering designed differently
As the closing event, the program hosted a Vinculatorio Agroalimentario, conceived as an alternative to traditional networking spaces. Instead of business cards and rushed introductions, the gathering invited participants into a participatory journey of identifying shared causes, expressing needs and offerings, and forming initial agreements that could seed long-term collaboration in the region.
Before the conversations began, each venture delivered its final pitch, showcasing the evolution of their project during the program, an emotional and powerful moment of collective pride.
The Vinculatorio proved to be more than an event: it was a milestone in building a living, breathing community committed to better, cleaner, and fairer food.
A landmark experience for SFYN Mexico… and just the beginning.
For Slow Food Youth Network Mexico, this first edition of Food Pioneers was one of the most enriching experiences to date. It demonstrated the strength of youth leadership, the value of collaborative territories, and the potential of regenerative food entrepreneurship when nurtured with care and intention.
The seeds have been planted. The community is growing.
See you in 2026.
