Meridian Institute

A group of large U.S. foundations (including Gates, Rockefeller, Packard, Ford, and McKnight) with an interest in U.S. farm policy from a variety of perspectives, the Foundation Working Group on Food and Agriculture Policy (FWGFAP) agreed in June 2010 to launch an eight-year initiative, the Initiative on Food and Agriculture Policy, targeted at the U.S. food and agriculture system as a whole, to be managed by the Meridian Institute. Hewlett has been active in shaping the group’s thinking over two years of deliberations and is ready to pass on what it has learned about U.S. farm policy to other funders. The Foundation’s contribution will support the initial research phase that will help set the terms of the overall initiative. This grant will allow the Foundation to exit responsibly from this area of work while at the same time enabling other foundations to pick up where Hewlett left off.