Our Daily Bread Prize

Our Daily Bread Prize Overview

In supporting efforts to enhance global food security, the Our Daily Bread Prize Program is a comprehensive effort to identify proposed or proven regional food and farming case studies that are transferable to and usable by other regions. As our Co-Evolve logo implies, Vital Systems (which evolved from Sustainable Ventures) gathers collective knowledge and then communicates findings to civil society in forms that can be easily applied so that we can individually and collectively implement sustainable systems. We are currently seeking a lead organization with whom to collaborate to sustain the Our Daily Bread Prize Program.

The current emphasis of the Our Daily Bread Prizes, designed by Jurors with whom we are currently in conversation, will include Calls for Submissions for sustainable food and farming solutions. Candidate submissions must be written as proposed or proven case studies that overcome specific integrated social, environmental, governance/policy, and financial/business challenges. Those interested in being considered for the Our Daily Bread Prize need to submit both a publication-ready paper and a video that communicates key messages to wide and diverse audiences. Jurors will rank candidates who submit papers without a complementary video to be considered for and/or included in a proposed publication. Interdisciplinary teams are encouraged.

If the Our Daily Bread Prize is compatible with your organizational mission and objectives and you are interested in investigating how the Prize directly supports efforts to enhance global food security, please contact Theo Ferguson c/o Rosalee Imler [at] Vitalsystemsca [dot] com. We can provide information on what is entailed to lead the effort in collaboration with Vital Systems -- and direct you to the password protected site for more detailed information.

 

The Purpose of the Daily Bread Prize Program

The Our Daily Bread Prize is fundamentally an opportunity for civil society to develop True Cost Pricing and Accounting perspectives so we can understand the impacts of how every penny, nickel, dime, dollar, lira, quetzal, pound, franc, yen, and renminbi drives our economy. Once we are informed, we can shift our purchasing habits to ultimately create healthy food systems, regenerative economies and a sustainable world.

The design, development, implementation, and regulation of rigorous and comprehensive true cost pricing and accounting:

  • Considers all the impacts on people and place
  • Develops accounting practices that showcases an enterprise's success in incorporating all impacts and community benefits.

Like a compass directed towards true north, intuitive, empathetic and analytic minds must undertake these efforts with great tenacity in developing collective knowledge that will use sustainability principles to transform our world.

Sample Components of the Our Daily Bread Prize Program

The anticipated $10,000 Prize will be awarded as one $5,000 grand prize and two $2,500 semi-finalist prizes. The winners will be notified and formally announced at a venue compatible with the purpose of the Prize and the lead organization.

Steps to Mount the “Our Daily Bread Prize”  to help advise the future host who will inherit and includes the following activities.

1.  Develop a Timeline

  • Produce a timeline for the Prize that will specify all activities involved from the beginning to the end
  • Enroll Jurors (who agree to confidentiality)
  • Invite Jurors to participate in a password protected Juror Forum
  • Jurors design the prize objectives – the conditions under which they will judge  Excellence in candidate submissions
  • Administrators produce “Calls for Abstracts”.  Abstracts will be reviewed by quorums of Jurors
  • Based on Abstract reviews, Jurors will recommend candidates to be invited to submit full papers and videos  for consideration by a specific date
  • Papers are collected and candidate names are converted to numbers (blinded) by the administrators and uploaded onto the Juror Forum
  • Over a period of six weeks, Jurors rank papers and prepare for Juror deliberation conference calls
  • Jurors deliberate
  • Jurors select both the papers for publication and the Prize winner(s)
  • Prize winners are announced
  • Negotiation with book editor  is undertaken if the jurors recommend that sufficient quality publication-ready papers were received
  • At the announcement of the Our Daily Bread Prize, the jurors are thanked, and the winning papers and videos are posted widely
  • If a book is to be published, it will be distributed to libraries and higher educational institutions globally

2. Global Outreach for Candidates

Global outreach could include social media (3BL Media), sustainability media (CSR Wire), international sustainability calendar postings, and community outreach leader development. Community outreach leaders can also send Calls for Submissions to their communities to reach a significant number of potential candidates. In addition, if they publish newsletters or e-newsletters, participate in working groups, consultancies, associations, or have relationships with authors or media associates working to expand food and farming business practices, they can invite associates to expand the reach of their work by becoming Prize candidates.