Food as the Connective Tissue: Breaking Down Silos Across Sectors | Milan Longevity Summit 2026

*What if food is not simply one system among many, but the connective tissue between human health, planetary health, business, agriculture, and society?* Few things connect as many parts of our lives as food. What we grow and eat influences human health, soil and biodiversity, climate, water, rural economies, supply chains, culture, consumer behaviour, and ultimately the resilience of the communities in which we live. Yet these challenges are still too often addressed separately. In this panel from the *Vitality Stage at the Milan Longevity Summit 2026*, *Anja Leissner, Amy Godfry, and Dan Kittredge* join moderator *Beatriz Jacoste* to explore how food can become a powerful entry point for breaking down silos and designing solutions across interconnected systems. Bringing together perspectives from *systems transformation, investment, agriculture, nutrition, and food innovation*, the conversation asks what becomes possible when we stop treating health, climate, agriculture, and markets as separate agendas. Can healthier soils produce more nutritious food while creating more resilient agricultural systems? Can investment models recognise value across human and planetary outcomes? How can businesses develop solutions that work simultaneously for consumers, producers, and ecosystems? And what new opportunities emerge when innovators begin designing across sectors rather than within them? The panel also explores why this matters for innovation. Many of today's most promising solutions sit between traditional categories. Their potential may lie precisely in their ability to create multiple forms of value at once, but existing markets, investment models, institutions, and metrics are often still organised in silos. *Participants:* • Anja Leissner – Chief Executive Officer, Spring • Amy Godfry – Investor, The First Thirty • Dan Kittredge – Founder & Executive Director, Bionutrient Institute • Moderated by Beatriz Jacoste – Chief Executive Officer, KMZero Food Innovation Hub Ultimately, food offers a tangible way to understand *One Health* in practice. *The health of people cannot be separated from the health of the soil, ecosystems, economies, and communities that produce what we eat.* Breaking down those silos is not only a systems challenge. It is an innovation opportunity, creating space for new products, businesses, investment models, and collaborations capable of delivering value across multiple parts of the system at once. *Powered by Edible Planet Ventures* _The *Vitality Stage* at the Milan Longevity Summit explores how innovation moves from ideas and scientific breakthroughs into the markets, technologies, products, services, and business models shaping healthier lives and a healthier planet._ *Learn more about the Milan Longevity Summit:* https://www.milanlongevitysummit.org #MilanLongevitySummit #FoodSystems #OneHealth #FoodInnovation #RegenerativeAgriculture #Nutrition #SystemsThinking #PlanetaryHealth #Vitality #FutureOfFood