Looking for the potential game-changers

Transforming to sustainable food systems carries existential risks if we fail and major benefits if we succeed. We’re searching for solutions that can be applied widely – preferably globally – at a rapid pace. To  save the Food Planet, we must accelerate change! We have committed to awarding two US 1$ million monetary awards annually. In 2020, reflecting the rising urgency, we doubled our stake in a sustainable food future to four US 1$ million prizes. The latest IPCC climate report, dated 9 August 2021, confirms there is no more time to waste. It's Code Red!

Luckily, visionaries all over the world are working passionately to rethink, re-engineer and reshape our food systems. Their brilliant ideas, bold initiatives, and smart solutions must be recognized and given the opportunity to make an impact.

The 2021 search arena 

To meet the Food Planet challenges, we need a diverse set of approaches. We’re looking for potentially impactful projects all across the food system's value chain, broadly defined. Primary production is key, but innovations downstream are equally important.

From last year’s assessment process, we learned that the best projects are often both innovative and broadly scalable. Many of the most potent initiatives already exist and are more or less ready to scale. We actively look for these existing, proven solutions whose scaling potential and systemic benefits have not yet been fully understood. Considering the urgency, these initiatives are key to overall success.

We must also identify truly groundbreaking innovations. We will not transform the current food system by only fine-tuning existing ways and means; we have to make room for truly radical ideas and disruptive crossovers as well and apply a risk/benefit perspective all through the analysis and assessment process. Some projects are at a conceptual or experimental stage but have the potential to become radical agents of change, perhaps even game-changers.

The hunt is now on for all of them.