I did not set out to build a job platform.
My background is in food systems, nutrition, chemistry, sustainability, and informatics. Over the past 10+ years, I’ve worked across research, nonprofits, startups, government data systems, and as a career coach. I’ve helped structure nutrition data at MyFitnessPal, develop & evaluate agriculture sustainability metrics at HowGood, support food informatics projects on topics including food waste, flavor, and milk at IC-FOODS, and coach interdisciplinary, systems-thinking professionals (in many fields, not just sustainable food) trying to figure out where they fit through Golden Acorn.
I kept noticing the same problem from different angles: the sustainable food field is full of opportunity, but it is surprisingly hard to navigate.
People who want to work on food systems change often do not know what roles exist, what skills they need, which organizations are hiring, or how their background translates. I saw this again and again, especially when early-career professionals reached out for informational interviews with me. Employers and educators are also trying to understand a fast-changing talent landscape across food, climate, health, environmental sustainability & climate, agriculture, social impact, and technology.
The Job Feed started as a simple newsletter to make sustainable food jobs easier to find. But the more I built it, the more I realized the deeper need was not just a job board. It was better workforce infrastructure for the sustainable food economy.
That means helping people see the field more clearly: the organizations, roles, skills, pathways, and emerging opportunities that make up this ecosystem. It also means building better data behind the scenes so that sustainable food careers are not treated as scattered, one-off opportunities, but as part of a real and growing labor market.
I’m still learning as I build. But I’ve definitely learned, through 30+ customer discovery calls for a university pitch competition, that people need curated jobs sure, but moreso they need context and to understand where they fit. They need examples, language, confidence, and pathways. I’ve also learned that organizations need better ways to reach aligned candidates, especially in niche and emerging areas where traditional recruiting channels often fall short.
My vision for The Job Feed is to become a trusted career and workforce intelligence platform for the sustainable food sector.
That includes curated jobs, career resources, employer visibility, talent ecosystem mapping, and eventually stronger data tools that help educators, funders, organizations, and job seekers understand where the field is headed.
At its core, this work is personal. I know what it feels like to have an interdisciplinary background and wonder how it all connects. I also know how powerful it can be when someone finally sees a pathway that makes sense for their skills, values, and goals.
The sustainable food transition will require scientists, analysts, communicators, advocates, operators, educators, farmers, sustainability professionals, entrepreneurs, policy experts, technologists, and many others.
My hope is that The Job Feed can help more people find their place in that work, and help the organizations building the future of food find the people they need to do it well.
Thanks for being here :)
~ Emily @ The Job Feed