Paula Daniels is the co-founder and chair of the board of the Center for Good Food Purchasing, a nationwide program that uses the power of procurement at large public institutions to create a transparent and equitable food system that prioritizes the health and well-being of people, animals, and the environment.

In this conversation, we discuss...

• the origin of the Good Food Purchasing program and the story of how it came to be over an 8 year period

• thinking about problems & systems holistically

• how to design solutions to problems you see

• collaborate with people very diff to get important things done

• how businesspeople should think about approaching government

• always being on edge of own becoming

Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Google, Overcast, or Youtube.

Links & resources mentioned

• Paula: @PaulaADaniels

• Center for Good Food Purchasing - @center4goodfood

• LA Food Policy Council

• Dorothy Green

• Heal the Bay

• LA Unified School District

• US Conference of Mayors

• Dana Gunders - NRDC

• Books

  • Cradle to Cradle

  • The Upcycle

  • Polarity Management

  • Thinking in Systems - Donella Meadows

  • Simon Wardley — strategy mapping drafts & value-chain mapping intro talk

  • Blink

• Ashoka Fellows

• Advice from a Caterpillar, by Amy Gerstler

• Wall-E

• Blade Runner

• "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." (Anna Karenina)

• CA Bay-Delta Authority

• The circular economy

• Mayor Antonio Villaroigosa

• "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."

• "Luck comes to the prepared mind."

• "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

• Jonathan Gold

• Aquaculture