Food Planet Prize

The Indonesian initiative Astungkara Way aims to show us the future of rice, both as an innovative vision and a physical reality. ⁠ ⁠ Rice is a staple food for over 3.5 billion people, but the way it is typically farmed today is unsustainable. With the gradual erosion of nutritional value due to poor soil, what was once a miracle crop has become one of the most urgent challenges to global food security. ⁠ ⁠ Read the full article about Astungkara Way, one of our 2025 longlist initiatives, through the link in the comments.

Exciting to see Emily Norford—and our work—featured by Food Tank!

A perennial crop could reshape the food system across Africa. The Ethiopian orphan crop Enset—also known as “the tree against hunger”—is being cultivated as a climate-smart, zero-waste food source, according to Alabaster International’s Enset Food Security Initiative. Read the full article about Enset Food Secutiry Initative, one of our 2025 longlist initiatives, through the link in the comments.

What if the answer to sustainable food is inside us?    Our food systems are at the heart of climate change. We need to produce and consume food more sustainably—and we need to do it fairly and for a growing population.    So what is the way to the heart? For the UK-based company CELLULAR AGRICULTURE LTD the answer is obvious—our veins. Read the full article about Cellular Agriculture, one of our 2025 longlist initiatives, through the link in the comments.

Fish can be like energy—easier to get than to store and make full use of.    This is especially true in Zambia. Here, over a million people are employed in fishing, processing, and fish trading. At the same time, the fishing industry is plagued by post-harvest losses that can reach up to 70%.     These numbers are devastating for small-scale fisheries. Especially in areas with widespread malnutrition and food insecurity. Aquatic Foods, an initiative by the international research organization WorldFish, aims to change this. Read the full article about Aquatic Foods, one of our 2025 longlist initiatives, through the link in the comments.

Bill Gates said, regarding climate change: “If you want to make a dent in this, you'd better think in wholesale magnitudes.”    NitroCapt AB is doing exactly that. They have a bold vision to totally change how we produce nitrogen fertilizers.     Human-made fertilizers have helped us feed our growing planet more efficiently. But this has caused great environmental damage. Agriculture is the second-largest cause of climate change.  Nitrogen fertilizers in particular represent a catch-22 problem: they account for 50% of the world’s food production support but emit as much carbon dioxide (CO2) as the aviation industry—a whopping total of roughly 1.1 gigatons of CO2 equivalent annually. Valued worldwide at around €80 billion, these fertilizers run on a fossil-dependent process that is badly in need of a shock to the system.    The Uppsala-based climate-tech company NitroCapt has invented a unique plasma process for producing nitrogen fertilizer effectively without using fossil fuels—a process they say can lead to a disruptive electrification of the global nitrogen fertilizer industry. The process simultaneously maximizes the production rate and minimizes the energy consumed for nitrogen fixation. This nitrate route is in theory 11 times more energy-efficient than using ammonia—and NitroCapt claims to be able to compete in energy efficiency with the most efficient fossil-based production process. In the end, they say this method is both more cost-efficient and greener than fertilizers based on fossil fuels or green ammonia.  According to the initiative, plasma-produced nitrate matches the needs of global large-acre crops. It also has the best agronomic properties and resilient production that is immune to disruptions to international trade.    NitroCapt has established a pilot program that is currently being implemented in Sweden and plans to implement in France. The company reports that they have letters of intent from customers for 31 full-scale plants, each one with a capacity to provide fertilizer for 50,000–80,000 hectares of farmland. When implemented, NitroCapt believes this will reduce greenhouse gases by close to 1 million tons per year.  The production units are set up in containers that are easy to mount and ship, which means scalability will not be an issue. NitroCapt states that their goal is to install 1400 units within 10 years, resulting in annual emission reductions of nearly 100 million tons of CO2 equivalents in 2034.   That represents more than double Sweden’s total emissions as a country (45 million tons of CO2 equivalents in 2023).  In addition, NitroCapt claims that their technology has the potential to become a solution to increase food production in developing countries.     Now, that’s wholesale magnitude. 

The NGO Gastromotiva combines tradition with cutting-edge technology in a holistic culinary initiative.    Their goal is to harness the power of gastronomy for social change. That means combating hunger, restoring soil health, enhancing food security, as well as generating income through education.    The chef and social innovator David Hertz founded the organization in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2006. It started as a humble school meal initiative but grew into a project- and teaching methodology. Read the full article about Gastromotiva, one of our 2025 longlist initiatives, through the link in the comments.

How can we fix rice? The UK-based initiative SRI-2030 is working hard to answer that question.    So, what’s wrong with this nutritional backbone? For starters, it is difficult to grow, it is thirsty, and negatively contributes to climate change. Here are some tough numbers:   Rice is the main crop for millions of farmers. It contributes to over 21% of global caloric intake. At the same time, it accounts for 11% of global methane emissions and consumes approximately 40% of the world's irrigation water. And, its yields are consistently low—putting small-scale farmers at economic risk.     These two critical challenges—insufficient yields and climate impact—are individually addressed by various organizations. But SRI-2030 advocates the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), a method which addresses both at the same time.  SRI-2030 is dedicated to accelerating the adoption of the SRI approach, which has been researched for the last thirty years. They are mostly focusing on Africa, where the population is growing quickly and rice is becoming more popular. But the yields in Africa are low because of sub-optimal cultivation practices, which leads to expensive imports. This is a missed crucial chance for local production, jobs, and economic growth. SRI follows four key principles: 1) the early establishment of healthy plants, 2) low plant density, i.e. wider spacing of plants, 3) soil enrichment, and 4) limited application of water.  Here are some better numbers:  According to SRI-2030, SRI has been shown to typically increase yields and reduce emissions by 50%. In comparison to conventional practices, the initiative claims that SRI uses about 30% less irrigation water. Read the full article about SRI-2030, one of our 2025 longlist initiatives, through the link in the comments. 

Great ideas often seem obvious in retrospect.    ProVeg’s School Plates program (UK) is such an idea. They are helping our planet, one plant-rich school lunch at a time. They aim to change the practices of today and the behaviors of the future, all with a single stroke of clever information and education.    UK schools serve around 1.2 billion meals every year, most of which contain animal-based products. Food production is responsible for 78% of the emissions of an average UK school catering service, with more than half attributed to meat.  Farming animals is responsible for 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than the transport sector. It is also a leading cause of deforestation, water use, biodiversity loss, and species extinction.     There is an urgent need to shift towards more sustainable and plant-based alternatives in school canteens.      ProVeg’s School Plates program is dedicated to increasing the quantity, quality, and uptake of plant-based food in schools. The initiative offers a range of free services to local authorities and contract catering companies. They deliver chef-training workshops (both in-person and online) to school catering staff, provide advice on nudging children into making healthier choices, and help caterers introduce new plant-based recipes and meat-free days. School Plates has been making a positive impact. According to the initiative, they have successfully transitioned 47.4 million school meals since the launch of the program in 2018. This has reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by approximately 29,000 tons, which could run over 6,200 petrol cars for one year. Their plant-based school meals create, on average, 73% less CO2 than an equivalent meat-based meal.    Read the full article about ProVeg’s School Plates program, one of our 2025 longlist initiatives, through the link in the comments. ProVeg UK

What if soil could water itself? ⁠ ⁠ This is the premise of the initiative Afrotym, based in Uganda. They claim their product Waterbank retains water so that plants can thrive without the need for farmers to irrigate frequently, even in the hottest parts of the world. ⁠ ⁠ Agriculture uses an astounding 69% of global water supplies and 90% in low-income countries, according to the FAO. Dry conditions not only require a lot of water for irrigation, but often lead to soil erosion and the loss of nutrients and microorganisms. ⁠ ⁠ Waterbank is a natural water retention polymer. Afrotym states that it can hold up to 100 times its weight in water. The product works by absorbing moisture during irrigation or rainfall and gradually releasing it to plant roots over an extended period. It enables soil to retain water for longer and plants to thrive. ⁠ ⁠ Fully biodegradable, it breaks down naturally after its three months of water retention. Farmers can mix it into the soil during planting or transplanting, with no need for specialized equipment or technical expertise. This is a key advantage for more than 220 million smallholder farmers in Africa who can’t access costly irrigation systems. ⁠ ⁠ Afrotym claims Waterbank helps reduce irrigation costs by almost 50%. It also has a potential social impact on local communities. Women and young people can spend less time hand-irrigating and focus more on other businesses, or education. ⁠ ⁠ Read the full article about Afrotym, one of our 2025 longlist initiatives, through the link in the comments.