In May 2026, members of the Rutgers food systems research team met with the Federated States of Micronesia’s Secretary Elina Akinaga and Assistant Secretary Menoleen Jacob Oswalt (third and fourth from left) from the National Department of Resources and Development to discuss the developing National Agriculture and Food Security Policy.
Green Climate Fund-Supported Policy Review Meetings in Yap, Chuuk, and Kosrae Bring Evidence-Based Food Security Frameworks to Communities Most Impacted by Climate Change
A Rutgers University food systems research team has completed a series of in-person stakeholder review meetings in Yap, Chuuk, and Kosrae states of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) during April and May 2026, marking the completion of the first full cycle of community-led food security policy co-development across all four FSM states.
This milestone work, funded through the Green Climate Fund’s SAP020 project “Climate-Resilient Food Security for Farming Households Across the Federated States of Micronesia,” delivered evidence-based, state-specific Food Security Policy Action Items to local stakeholders, not as top-down mandates, but as co-authored frameworks built from the voices and data of the communities they serve.
Building on Years of Collaborative Partnership
The April–May 2026 policy review meetings are the culmination of multi-year participatory action research that began in 2022 when the Rutgers team, led by James Simon, Distinguished Professor of Plant Biology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS), was contracted to conduct the baseline assessment for the Green Climate Fund food security project. Since then, the food systems science team—an interdisciplinary research group based at SEBS, representing disciplines spanning agriculture, marine science, agribusiness, ethnobotany, nutrition, climate modeling, anthropology, environmental engineering and science communication—has partnered with local NGOs and community organizations to survey more than 1,500 farming families and stakeholders across the FSM’s four states: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae.
Members of the Rutgers food systems research team met with Kosrae State’s food system stakeholders to review and revise Kosrae State’s Food Security Policy Action items in May 2026.
The team has partnered with the Federated States of Micronesia since 2021 and has worked on six 20 on food security related major projects, including the Green Climate Fund GCF SAP020 baseline assessment; FSM’s Third National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; the US Economic Development Administration Food Systems Solutions project; and Pohnpei State’s Food Security Policy and Food Production Master Plan.
The FSM, a Pacific island nation of 607 islands, faces an urgent food security crisis driven by climate change and a decades-long dependency on imported foods that replaced its once self-sustaining traditional food systems. The Rutgers team’s approach has centered community voice, cultural relevance, and indigenous knowledge at every stage of data collection and policy development. The 2025 Pohnpei State Food Security Policy, developed by the Rutgers science team in close partnership with the Pohnpei State’s Department of Resources and Development, served as a model for the state-specific frameworks now prepared for Yap, Chuuk, and Kosrae. All four state policies are structured around nine strategic goals encompassing local food production, food processing and supply chains, food safety and water security, technical training, neighboring island food security, nutrition and cultural awareness, food production policy management, import and investment policies, and community management.
Significance of the Work
Dena Seidel, cultural anthropologist and food systems researcher, and doctoral candidate Tori Rosen met with Yap State farmers Carmen and Augustine Muguy in April 2026.
The completion of state food security policy reviews across all four FSM states represents one of the most comprehensive, participatory, and evidence-based food policy development efforts yet undertaken for the Pacific island context. The convergence of more than 1,500 community surveys, multi-state GCF baseline data on climate-impacted farming families, Food Systems Solutions stakeholder frameworks developed with 947 additional mixed methods surveys in 2024 and repeated in-person community convenings has produced an unprecedented body of original empirical evidence returned to the communities who generated it.
“This work exemplifies what it means to do research with communities in support of their environmentally and culturally based food production goals” said Simon, lead scientist for the Rutgers food systems research team in the FSM. “Every data point in these policies came from FSM farmers, fishers, community leaders, and local organizations who generously shared their knowledge, aspirations, and lived experience. Our role is to ensure those voices shape the policies that will determine their food future.”
Rutgers doctoral candidate Tori Rosen met with Yap State farmer Sabina Ileshibeyang in April 2026.
The nine-goal framework structuring each state’s Food Security Policy Action Items provides both comparability across states and sufficient flexibility to accommodate each community’s distinct agricultural resources, cultural priorities, geographic constraints, and community aspirations. As the final action items are refined through stakeholder review and formally adopted by each state government, they will mark a pivotal step toward climate-resilient, culturally grounded food sovereignty in the FSM and lay the foundation for the next phase of the partnership.
Building upon the four state food security policies, the Rutgers food systems science team is now developing the FSM National Agriculture and Food Security Policy and Food Production Master Plan 2026–2031, in close collaboration with the FSM National Department of Resources and Development and all four state governments. This national framework synthesizes the state-specific policies into a unified, nation-wide strategy for sustainable food system development, organized around the same nine shared goals that all four FSM state communities independently developed through participatory research. The national plan introduces the coordinating architecture that state-level action alone cannot provide as it includes interstate food trade protocols, a nationally standardized three-tiered Food Innovation Center network spanning village communal kitchens and processing facilities, and four state food innovation centers to support a circular economy framework that includes converting staple crop processing waste into locally produced animal feed. The plan targets a 50% increase in locally produced food within five years with the goal of creating hundreds of new food system jobs across the FSM redirecting millions of dollars spent on imported foods toward local food production.
About the FSM National Agriculture and Food Security Policy and Food Production Master Plan 2026–2031
Currently under development, the FSM National Agriculture and Food Security Policy and Food Production Master Plan 2026–2031 builds directly upon and harmonizes the four state-level Food Security Policies following their formal state approval, translating their shared vision into a coordinated national program of action aligned with the FSM Sustainable Development Plan 2024–2043. The plan’s operational centerpiece is the FSM Food Innovation Infrastructure Network: a nationally standardized, three-tiered system of Food Innovation Centers providing every FSM community with a structured entry point into the local food economy. Grounded in the same participatory action research approach and 1,500-plus community surveys that shaped the state policies, the national master plan addresses interstate food trade, national food safety certification, coordinated digital market infrastructure and the policy levers needed to attract the investment this transformation requires. The plan sets ambitious but community-validated five-year targets: a 50% increase in locally produced food available to FSM households, a 50% reduction in food import categories that can be produced within FSM, and hundreds of new food system jobs across all four states.
Members of the Rutgers Food Systems Science team met with the Micronesia Conservation Trust in May 2026 to discuss the impact of the Green Climate Fund SAP020 Baseline Assessment to inform the Federated States of Micronesia’s developing food security policies and food production master plans.
The community-led food system development model at the heart of this work reflects the same approach that has guided Simon’s basil breeding program for decades: engaging directly with growers to understand their priorities and challenges. Together, these efforts demonstrate how stakeholder-informed research can generate practical solutions that strengthen food systems, support livelihoods, and build resilience in the face of environmental and economic change.
The interdisciplinary Rutgers food systems research team working in the FSM includes Dena Seidel, Ramu Govindasamy, Oscar Schofield, Yariv Ben-Naim, AJ Both, Tori Rosen, Lara Brindisi and Michael Balick (New York Botanical Gardens) and Iris Arbogast (University of Chicago). Additional Rutgers faculty supporting the development of FSM food security policies include James Shope, Dave Bushek, Nolan Lewin and Kevon Rhiney, and Environmental Policy, Institutions, and Behavior undergraduate students Lauren Koo, Ankora Sant D’Angelo, Eamon Black and Olivia Finer.
About the Green Climate Fund SAP020 Project
The Green Climate Fund’s SAP020 project, “Climate-Resilient Food Security for Farming Households Across the Federated States of Micronesia,” is the first comprehensive FSM national effort focused on increasing the resilience of the nation’s subsistence farming families, in the face of climate change. The project is administered by the Micronesia Conservation Trust. Rutgers University was contracted to conduct the project’s baseline assessment and has remained a key technical partner throughout.
