Doubling down the 2020 Food Planet Prize

By Lars Peder Hedberg, Former Director-General, Food Planet Prize 2020-12-14 1 minute read


FOUR $1-MILLION PRIZES INSTEAD OF TWO


The Curt Bergfors Food Planet Prize was established to find, recognize, and support initiatives and projects that can help shift to resilient food systems and achieve food security already within this decade. In this inaugural year, we received 650+ nominations, illustrating a diverse global community devoted to re-imagining food in all its complexity.

The rescue mission

Reshaping the food system requires an abundance of ingenious ideas and a broad range of approaches and solutions, some of them disruptive enough to radically cut through value chains and confront current perceptions of what food can be and how it can be sourced. The challenge is global, this is why the solutions must have the potential to scale, preferably globally. To make it happen requires political will, ample funding, and consumers taking responsibility. It requires insight, it will take courage.

Responding to the ever-louder emergency calls from both People and Planet, the Curt Bergfors Foundation is doubling its stake in the rescue mission. This year, we're awarding four – instead of two – US $1 Million prizes.

At the recommendation of the Food Planet Prize Jury, one of the Prizes will be shared as the two recipients already collaborate on a key area: alternative sourcing of food and feed. The 5 prizewinners represent some of the many areas we need to explore to save the Food Planet.

The 2020 Prizewinners

Blue Ventures, UK. A conservation organization dedicated to preserving marine biodiversity and improving food security in tropical coastal communities. Read more

FutureFeed, Australia. A joint research initiative striving to reduce methane emissions from livestock with seaweed-based feed additives. Read more

icipe*, Kenya. A research organization pioneering the transition to insect-based proteins for food and animal feed. Read more

The Land Institute, USA. A world-leading institute spearheading the development of new perennial grains and crops. Read more

Sanergy*, Kenya and USA. A social enterprise converting the growing organic waste in urban slums into an agricultural resource. Read more

“Our food system is broken, and the planet is ailing. We're all part of the problem, and we must all try to be part of the solution. I wish to contribute through the foundation and these awards”

CURT BERGFORS, FOUNDER

Nominate yourself or someone else, it takes three minutes and could change the world!