Addressing health risks to people and the planet – Editors’ Picks of recent nominations for the new Food Planet Prize

“Speed-breeding” new crops (from Australia), microbes that convert carbon dioxide in the air to edibles (from Finland), plant-based “pork” to combat disease (from Hong Kong/China), and AI-assisted waste management for restaurants (from the UK) are four examples of recent entries to the Food Planet Prize.

Starting March 25th, the Food Planet Prize will regularly publish “Editors’ Picks”: selections of nominated initiatives addressing various problems in the current food system. The highlighted nominations have not yet entered the jury assessment, but they give a taste of the diversity of nominations submitted so far. 

The Food Planet Prize, which was recently established by the Curt Bergfors Foundation in Sweden, aims to recognize and reward the smartest and most innovative solutions to the challenges, shortcomings, and threats in today’s global food system. Being the largest prize in the food-sustainability arena, it will annually award two US $1-million prizes to initiatives that can help to transform the food system, reasonably fast, and on a sufficiently large scale.

“Already at this early stage, the submitted nominations cover a broad scope of approaches and solution areas, which is necessary if we are to meet the complex food planet challenge. Time is running out, not only for climate stability but also for the ocean habitats and biodiversity in general, says Lars Peder Hedberg, Executive Board Director of the Curt Bergfors Foundation.

Visit the https://foodplanetprize.org/reshape-the-food-planet/ to read more about the twelve projects of the first round of Editors’ Picks. The nomination process is available for submissions until April 30th on foodplanetprize.org.

Background information on the food planet challenge:

• The world’s population is 7.8 billion. In 2030 it is expected to reach 8.5 billion and by 2050 close to 10 billion. With today’s food system, the world will not be able to feed a population of this size without further compromising Earth’s climate, people´s health and the living environment.
• Eradicating hunger by 2030 is one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Over 800 million suffer from hunger and malnutrition. In recent years food security has deteriorated after decades of progress.
• The world uses almost half of the available land on Earth for food production, and about 70% of our use of freshwater is directed to agriculture.
• The food system contributes to about a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. It is the main driver of biodiversity loss and the mass extinction of life on Earth

For further information:
secretariat@foodplanetprize.org
lars.p.hedberg@foodplanetprize.org
+46 709 7559910