A Career of Change Making: A Conversation with Isabel Nepstad of BellaTerra Consulting

Barbarians at the Gate

Isabel Nepstad’s passion for nature, food, and agriculture can be traced back to her childhood growing up in Belém, a city on the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil. Her connection to China dates to Isabel’s experience studying Chinese at the Beijing Foreign Studies University and economic development and environmental science at Yunnan University while still an undergraduate. For over 11 years, Isabel has worked in the food and agriculture industry in the United States, Brazil, the Netherlands, and China. From 2011 to 2012, she worked as an Analyst for a Brazilian NGO, Alliança da Terra, in Cuiaba, Brazil, and as a Program Manager for Solidaridad Network based in Beijing. In 2021, she founded BellaTerra Consulting to provide sustainability consulting in the food and agriculture supply chains, bridging China and the world.

Isabel takes time out of her busy schedule to drop by the Barbarians at the Gate studio to share her career journey, give advice to those looking to pursue their professional lives in China, and discuss the challenges and opportunities in the environmental and agricultural sectors in China and around the world.