The 2026 Food Planet Prize Shortlist is announced!
Organic school lunches, a greener Midwest, a million Indian farmers off chemicals, and a drop-in palm oil alternative: meet the 2026 Food Planet Prize finalists
The Curt Bergfors Foundation has announced the four finalists for the 2026 Food Planet Prize, the world’s largest environmental award. This year, each finalist will receive $150,000, and the winner will be presented with the $1.5m prize. Here’s who made the cut to the shortlist.
Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming (APCNF), India —Agroecology at a fascinating scale
More than a million farming families in southern India have joined what is now one of the world’s largest transitions to chemical-free agriculture—and the numbers keep growing. Launched by the government of Andhra Pradesh, APCNF works through women’s collectives and a network of more than 10,000 farmer trainers to help smallholders abandon synthetic inputs in favor of natural farming practices rooted in soil science and traditional knowledge. Year-round cover cropping and pre-monsoon dry sowing are among the methods being adopted across 8,000-plus villages. The results challenge the entrenched assumption that industrial farming is the surest way to feed the world.
Conscious Kitchen, United States — School food reinvented
America’s schools serve over 30 million meals a day—most of them ultra-processed, prepackaged, and nutritionally poor. The California-based Conscious Kitchen is demonstrating that it does not have to be that way. By connecting public schools directly to local organic farmers, Conscious Kitchen has helped food professionals serving over 1,000,000 students make the switch to scratch-cooked, 100% organic meals. Beyond the classroom, the initiative is helping small and mid-sized organic farms grow and thrive—giving them reliable, large-scale customers in the school’s food system, and a real pathway to financial stability.
NoPalm Ingredients, Netherlands — A deforestation-free fat for a palm-oil-addicted world
Palm oil is everywhere—in nearly 50% of packaged supermarket products—and its production has driven tropical deforestation, biodiversity loss, and carbon emissions. NoPalm Ingredients has developed a fermentation-based alternative: oleaginous yeast grown in tanks, made from food-industry waste streams such as potato peels and dairy by-products. The resulting fats are drop-in replacements that require no reformulation of existing recipes. And production can be co-located with existing food processors to minimize logistics emissions. It is the kind of elegant, systems-aware solution that could quietly decarbonize supply chains and reduce pressure on ecosystems vulnerable to climate extremes.
The Savanna Institute, United States — Trees return to the breadbasket
The American Midwest is one of the most productive—and most environmentally impoverished—agricultural regions on Earth. The Savanna Institute is striving to change that by making agroforestry viable and attractive for Midwestern farmers and beyond. Working with a national alliance of more than 220 organizations, it has helped over 400 farmers establish agroforestry on more than 2100 hectares in the past three years, with a further 1460 hectares on its waitlist. Integrating trees into cropland sequesters carbon, buffers extreme weather, and restores biodiversity—while keeping farms productive.
The winner will be announced in Båstad, Sweden, on June 2, following the finalists’ in-person presentations and the deliberations of the Food Planet Prize jury.
For more information, reach out to Anya Gerzhan, Communications Manager
+46 073 360 71 93