Meet the 2021 Food Planet Prize Finalists

2021-10-28 2 minutes read

The Curt Bergfors Foundation is proud to present the 2021 Food Planet Prize Finalists.

This year's Finalists span a wide spectrum of actions needed to rapidly shift to a nature-positive, people-centered, climate-resilient food planet. They address land degradation, food loss, malnutrition, and plastic pollution, to name a few. Most also take a 360° approach and make farmers' livelihoods as well as other social issues an integral part of their work. We are incredibly impressed by the ingenuity of their technologies, methods, and operations.

Sometimes blurring the lines between land, sea, and atmosphere, these top candidates disrupt critical areas of the food arena, from rethinking food production to enabling waste reduction. As true trailblazers, they either reimagine these crucial aspects or offer creative applications to established concepts. We believe all have a solid potential to scale quickly and impact broadly.

Nearly 400 nominations were submitted this year; six of which are still in the running. Without further ado, let us introduce the 2021 Food Planet Prize Finalists:

Agrisea for "taking rice farming offshore"

Agrisea uses a gene-editing technique to amplify the untapped salt-tolerant genes found in rice to grow the grain on floating sea farms. The rice requires no soil, fertilizers, nor freshwater and could help combat hunger while saving land and freshwater resources. Learn more

Air Protein for "making food out of excess CO2"

Air Protein is developing a protein ingredient from edible microbes. The protein is cultivated with a mixture of excess atmospheric carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas and will initially be used to produce alternative meat products. The technique could contribute to curbing global warming. Learn more

B4Plastics for "giving a whole new meaning to the notion of ghost gear"

B4Plastics is designing biobased and biodegradable fishing equipment. They program an "expiration date" into plastic's most praised AND decried feature: durability. Their gear, which will also feature accelerated biodegradation past that date, could help reduce plastic waste in oceans. Learn more

ColdHubs for offering "a cool way to tackle food loss"

ColdHubs operates "plug and play" cold rooms located at major farm clusters and outdoor markets. Their pay-as-you-store system allows small-scale farmers to keep their produce fresh, extending shelf life from two to 21 days and reducing post-harvest loss by 80 percent. Learn more

GreenWave for "taking ocean farming to new depths

GreenWave has developed a vertical ocean polyculture that produces high yields of seaweed and shellfish with a low environmental footprint. Their farming system adds zero fertilizer, feed, nor pesticide to the ocean and supports the restoration of marine ecosystems. Learn more

The Savory Institute for "re-greening grasslands through grazing"

The Savory Institute offers Holistic Management training to farmers, ranchers, and pastoralists worldwide. Their land and livestock management methods and grazing systems fight desertification and boost soil regeneration, ecosystems restoration, and carbon capture. Learn more

The 2021 Food Planet Finalists were selected by our Jury of world-leading food system specialists, chaired by Professor Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and Magnus Nilsson, Director of MAD Academy. Congratulations and best of luck to all six top candidates for the Prize!

We will announce the 2021 Food Planet Prize recipients on 18 November 2021.