Huong Ly

Huong Ly (26) grew up in Hungary and has a background in Hospitality Management, which she studied in The Hague. Her interest in the food system stems from various factors. "I've loved cooking and baking since I was young. I'm also a pastry chef. During my hotelschool years, we focused a lot of project around sustainable development goals. For example, how to develop a future proof hospitality concept, what it means to be a responsible business. I feel like now, compared to 6 years ago, sustainability is more in the mainstream."

Charting a sustainable path 
Ly knew she wanted to transition into some of the areas of the sustainability field. "After Covid, I started to evaluate my career. What would make sense? Food would. Food is very close to my heart since a young age. At the time, I also worked at the Impact Hub in Budapest. This is an organization that supports entrepreneurs who want to do good things, like addressing environmental and social challenges locally. Here I participated in a circular food challenge, but I felt like we weren't knowledgeable enough on this topic for a project. That's why I decided to gain more knowledge and experience. Pursuing a master's degree made sense. I want to learn more about solutions that are systemic. We see a lot of crises in the world, and they are all interconnected. My hope is that our food system becomes more decentralized in the future." 

She found the master's program in Food Systems Innovation online and decided to attend an online open day. "Having conversations with other students was really useful for me. Instead of grades, the master's program uses a different assessment system, which uses feedback to help students keep track on their progress. This, along with the system thinking perspective, is really interesting." 

Getting people moving in the transition  
According to Ly, the systems thinking element is the most interesting part of the master's program. "This is an approach to finding interventions for problems. During the program, we delve into wicked problems. For example, how is it possible that tomato cans are very cheap? They might come from Italy, but they also contribute to modern slavery in other parts of the world through their production. Different problems are involved: human rights, political power. The program teaches us to zoom out and zoom into these problems. I think it is a very useful skill to not stay paralyzed but to move people: what can you do about it? What would make sense? I am glad to practice how to move from a wicked problem into practical solutions. It helps breaking down these big problems and help me realise how many things we can do about the cause. We also learn about transition theory. How do big, complex changes happen? It is a very insightful analytical tool to understand big sustainability transitions and developing complex analysis. I like this way of learning. Which is to take some theory and applying it into different context. " 

Internship project about social innovation 
Part of the experiential phase of the master's program is an internship. "I am currently doing my internship at SIGN (Stichting Innovatie Glastuinbouw Nederland), a foundation for innovating the greenhouse horticulture sector. Half funded by the government and half by the greenhouse companies. I didn't plan to go into this sector specifically, but what really interests me here is the decision-making process among people. For the internship I created my own project. I'm exploring the question: "What are the value propositions that make circular horticulture waste stream business models feasible?". It will be about the exploration of business cases connected to the greenhouse horticulture sector using waste streams. I am particularly interested on the social fabric making the circular transition happen.” 

Close to the source  
When asked what she will do after completing the master's program, Ly doesn't have a clear answer yet. "I want to work in a project-based field, preferably on social innovations of food system challenges. I would like to have the mental space to zoom out to see the wicked problem and the support to zoom in to tackle the problem in a practical way. I would like to get to know the people connected to the context and work with them on the transition. I can see myself staying in The Netherlands after the program. The place and the people got very close to me. I feel welcome here."