Louise Mabulo explains how a massive weather event destroying vast amounts of agricultural land caused her to decide she needed to make a difference. Now a Farmer, Chef and Entrepreneur she has planted more than 150,000 trees, restoring 150 hectares of land and picking up a fair few awards (culinary and ecological) along the way.
Louise Mabulo describes how she is “harvesting the power of the forest to rethink our food systems” and with the right innovation we can “adapt so that farmers aren’t just surviving […] but thriving”. Mabulo wants to help farmers adjust for the future, creating livelihoods and preserving the planet. Her work takes three main forms; Agriculture, Education and Regeneration. Using these pillars she is able to activate young people and farmers into sustainably creating positive change.
Mabulo believes these two groups have significant potential. She describes how young people are often stereotyped and discredited because of their youth, but are able to provide incredible innovation. She argues that young people are facing a ‘polycrisis’ and so are being forced to step up and make a change, slowly building optimistic and solution-oriented behaviours. Louise Mabulo also explains how farmers are often stigmatised and associated with poverty – food production and land management are not presented as desirable goals, despite them being incredibly honourable and rewarding areas to work in.
Looking to the future, Mabulo is thinking big. She’s enthusiastic about building an ‘acropolis’, integrating food systems, climate and living and believes that production is possible in cities as well as rural areas: it “could happen right on the ground or right in the building that you live in!”
YOUTHTOPIA is a collective formed of young people from all over the globe, inspiring and empowering themselves and others to become catalysts for positive change. They want to create a world where every young person can be an agent of this change, no matter how old they are or where they are from.
YOUTHTOPIA and London Speaker Bureau have partnered to amplify the fresh, dynamic and innovative perspectives of these young visionaries. This will foster a collaborative environment of innovation that embodies commitment to the community and going beyond, and accelerate the reshaping of industries, development of societal progress and creation of forward-thinking solutions to prominent global issues.
By working with YOUTHTOPIA, London Speaker Bureau hopes to create a synergy that enables individuals to work with companies to drive change and achieve a holistic impact greater than the sum of its separate parts.
Video Timeline
- 00:24 – Who are you and what do you do?
- 00:55 – As the founder of The Cacao Project, what have some highlights been and what do you hope to build going forward?
- 02:59 – How have you used your platform for change?
- 04:44 – What is the power of the youth today?
- 05:49 – What are the main barriers to empowering farmers and advancing climate action? How can they be combatted?
- 08:35 – What does the future of farming look like?
- 11:57 – What has been the most significant challenge you’ve faced in your work?
Interested in booking Louise Mabulo as a keynote speaker or boardroom advisor?
