We were applying up until the very last minute for the Hult Prize. Literally 10 minutes before the application was due we were finessing language about our globally distributed team. Three days prior Jesse Flores had seen the prompt for the 2021 Hult Prize, and immediately thought of the work Kenny Morifi-Winslow had done a semester prior in our Master’s program.
She had spent the semester exploring the unique challenges faced by smallholder farmers in South Africa, her home country. The outcome of that work did not necessitate new food solutions, but I knew her expertise in food production by marginalized members of the global south would be indispensable in a project of this variety.
We recruited Rad Jumean first, a family man, and classmate based in Jordan. His demeanor brings a calmness we still appreciate today, and he is a whiz around a spreadsheet. Our fourth team mate would be Tarjni, a brilliant designer, and master of aesthetics. Her time would be short with us as the challenges of the final semester, and personal matters drew her away.
We were lucky enough to connect with Diana Cordova who dropped onto the team without missing a beat. She learned the brand aesthetics and business model of MotherBud in just over a week prior to competing in the regional competition. We’ve been even better as a team ever since.
Along the way to regionals we spent countless hours trying to understand how we might feed 10 million people by 2050. We explored supply chains, food storage techniques and technology, innovative snack options, superfoods, protein alternatives, and many other potential routes. Ultimately, it was the humble mushroom that captured our attention.
While forecasting the future of Sub-Saharan in tandem with projected climate change outcomes we recognized a dire need for low-water food solutions. A lb of mushrooms requires a fraction of its equivalent in wheat and exponentially less in beef or chicken despite having nearly the same protein by volume. We then explored market trends of mushrooms, and it appears they’re currently on an upswing making them a potentially valuable crop for farmers in sub-saharan Africa when there is surplus. I invite you to read this article or watch this documentary to see just how wonderfully unappreciated mushrooms are today, and how valuable (non-capitalist use of the term) they are for the world of tomorrow.
Ultimately, we pitched the idea for a decentralized mushroom farming network of women farmers across sub-saharan Africa at regionals. We would train, supply, and assist smallholder women farmers in starting their own mushroom farms. Then we would buy back surplus mushrooms, dehydrate them, and sell them to grocery chains globally. We won the competition against 30 other teams. This meant entrance to the Hult incubator over the summer, and the ability to continue to compete for the million dollar seed funding at the United Nations in the fall.
Part Two Coming Soon.
