Hayu Dyah Patria is an accomplished food resilience and biodiversity leader in East Java who believes that diversity on our plates will bring back diversity in nature. Although her educational background is in food technology and nutrition, Hayu began discovering the connections between food, environmental issues, and women’s issues, leading her to explore these topics through the lens of ecofeminism. Hayu found how rich the traditional knowledge of local and indigenous communities in Indonesia are in utilizing the surrounding plants despite how simultaneously, Indonesia is still one of the countries with the highest malnutrition rates in the world. In 2009, she founded Mantasa to address this discrepancy. Starting with mangrove research, Hayu and her Mantasa team slowly identified various types of wild food plants along with the traditional knowledge behind them. To this day, they have documented at least 400 wild food plants. Hayu also carried out various activities to promote the reuse of wild food plants to achieve food sovereignty and nutrition, especially at the local level.

Hayu believes that a local solution is the best solution in dealing with the problem of hunger in Indonesia. As the chairman of Mantasa, she found that women were important but unrecognized actors in realizing food sovereignty and nutrition, so she worked more with women to draw knowledge and skills from them. Eventually, Hayu hopes to conduct a nutritional analysis of all wild edible plants that local and indigenous communities have consumed for hundreds of years, combined with the rich traditional knowledge of women about these plants. She also strives to continue changing people’s mindsets and reduce malnutrition among children and women by conducting creative fundraising and developing strategies for disseminating knowledge that can be accessed by the wider community.

Membangun kedaulatan pangan dan nutrisi dengan memperkuat kearifan Pribumi tentang tumbuhan liar yang dapat dimakan
Hayu memiliki latar belakang pendidikan teknologi pangan dan gizi, namun seiring waktu ia menemukan banyak sekali keterkaitan antara isu pangan, lingkungan dan perempuan sehingga ia kemudian mendalami ketiga isu tersebut seiring waktu dan mempercayai konsep ekofeminisme. Pada tahun 2009 ia mendirikan Mantasa karena mendapati betapa kayanya pengetahuan tradisional masyarakat lokal dan adat di Indonesia dalam memanfaatkan tumbuhan di sekitarnya dan di saat yang sama Indonesia masih menjadi salah satu negara dengan angka malnutrisi tertinggi di dunia. Bermula dari penelitian mangrove untuk pangan, Hayu bersama tim Mantasa kemudian perlahan mengidentifikasi berbagai jenis tumbuhan pangan liar beserta pengetahuan tradisional di baliknya, dan saat ini setidaknya telah mendokumentasikan 400 jenis tumbuhan pangan liar. Ia kemudian melakukan berbagai kegiatan untuk mempromosikan kembali pemanfaatan tumbuhan pangan liar untuk mencapai kedaulatan pangan dan gizi, terutama di tingkat lokal.

Hayu percaya bahwa solusi lokal adalah solusi yang terbaik dalam menangani masalah kelaparan di Indonesia. Dan ia mendapati bahwa perempuan adalah aktor penting namun tidak diakui perannya dalam mewujudkan kedaulatan pangan dan gizi, sehingga dalam kegiatannya ia lebih banyak bekerja dengan perempuan dan menikmati menimba ilmu, pengetahuan dan ketrampilan dari mereka.