Thin Lei Win

For most people, food is something to enjoy. For Thin Lei Win, it became a way to understand the world.

Born and raised in Myanmar, Thin started her career telling stories. Yet the deeper she reported, the more she found the same questions appearing again and again. Why do people go hungry when there is enough food? Who decides what we grow and eat? And who pays the price when food systems fail?

Those questions took her across Asia, Africa and Europe. Along the way, she reported on conflict, climate change, poverty and agriculture. More importantly, she revealed how many of these issues are connected.

Today, Thin Lei Win is one of the world’s leading journalists covering food systems. As lead reporter for the food systems newsroom at Lighthouse Reports, she investigates the forces shaping what ends up on our plates. Her work explores everything from the economics of hunger and the power of agribusiness to the environmental costs of modern farming and the politics behind food crises.

Previously, she spent nearly 13 years with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, reporting on humanitarian issues and climate change. Her journalism has always been driven by a simple belief. Hunger is rarely inevitable. More often, it is the result of political choices, inequality and broken systems.

But numbers and policies tell only part of the story.

Thin has long been drawn to the voices that are too easily overlooked. In 2015, she founded Myanmar Now, the award-winning bilingual news agency launched during Myanmar’s democratic opening. Later, she co-founded The Kite Tales, a project devoted to preserving the memories and histories of ordinary people across Myanmar. Since the military coup in 2021, the initiative has continued to support local storytellers and safeguard voices that might otherwise disappear.

Meanwhile, her own curiosity about food found another outlet. Through her newsletter, Thin Ink, she writes about food and climate with warmth, honesty and hope. She believes that fixing food systems is not simply about producing more. It is about creating a fairer and healthier future for both people and the planet.

Whether she is investigating famine, moderating global conversations or speaking about climate and agriculture, Thin brings a perspective shaped by journalism, empathy and a lifelong love of cooking. She reminds audiences that food is never just food. It is history, politics, culture and identity. And ultimately, it tells us what kind of world we are building.