Market Updates

IFT Unveils Seeding the Future Global Food System Challenge Winners

The $1 million annual grants are awarded to innovations which improve equitability, safety, nutrition, and sustainability in the food system.

The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) has announced the grant winners of the Seeding the Future Global Food System Challenge.
 
This year’s winners include nutrient-dense porridges for schools in Zambia, solar cooling hubs for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, an approach addressing food insecurity in Indonesia, novel nutritious and affordable composite flours in school feeding programs in Uganda, and a regenerative agriculture helping farmers in India transition away from chemical-based farming approaches.
 
Since its inception three years ago, the program has attracted over 2,400 teams of scientists, engineers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and teams from NGOs, nonprofits, social enterprises, universities, research institutions, and emerging for-profit enterprises.
 
“When we created the annual Seeding The Future Global Food System Challenge, our purpose was, and still is, to create a powerful, steadily growing pipeline of high impact innovations that address the most pressing challenges food systems are facing globally. We encourage impactful innovations that help food systems to be more sustainable, resilient and equitable, and lead to safe and nutritious food that is affordable, appealing and trusted by the end user,” said Seeding The Future Foundation founder Bernhard van Lengerich, PhD. “It has been truly inspiring to see how many dedicated teams of food scientists and innovators around the world have embraced the Challenge and are working tirelessly creating those transformative innovations. Congratulations to the winners and a special thank you to all teams who submitted their ideas. We again saw a tremendous number of applications in each award category.”
 
“IFT is proud to support and help advance the work of its members, the science of food community, and programs such as the Seeding the Future Global Food System Challenge to ensure food security for a growing global population,” said Christie Tarantino-Dean, CEO of IFT.
 
Of the over 900 submissions from 78 countries this year, three growth grant winners each will receive $100,000, while two Seeding the Future grand prize winners will each receive $250,000.
 
Growth grants are awarded to organizations that have created food system innovations that are doable, have projected economic feasibility at scale, and have high-impact potential to improve the lives and health of people and the environment.
 
Similarly, Seeding the Future grand prizes are awarded to organizations that have demonstrated that their innovations are scalable, economically feasible at scale, are trusted and compelling to the end user, and have major impact potential to improve the lives and health of people and the environment.
 
Seeding the Future Grand Prize Winners
 
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) received a Seeding the Future Grand Prize for its development of nutrient-dense porridges for sue in school feeding programs in Zambia, through its HarvestPlus Program. These porridges use biofortified traditional food crops that are farmed and produced by women as additional contributions to household income.
 
Naandi Foundation received a grand prize for implementing ReGen, a regenerative agriculture model which can support farmers transitioning away from conventional, chemical-based farming approaches in India. It prioritizes biodiversity over monocultures, regeneration over extraction, and biological agriculture inputs over chemicals, and provides farmesr with free materials and knowledge tools to help eliminate dependence on high-cost chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In turn, this improves the health of soil ecosystems and foods produced.
 
Growth Grant Winners
 
Association 3535 was given a growth grant for establishing four solar cooling hubs and offering cold storage as a service to smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. By installing large cold storage refrigerated containers and standalone cooling systems that are attachable to existing storehouses, smallholder farmers and small-scale fishermen can keep produce fresh, reduce post-harvest losses, and increase food security and potential income.
 
Kopernik received a growth grant for its Pangan Initiative, which addresses food insecurity in West Timor, Indonesia. By adopting an approach that prioritizes a return to and use of indigenous farming practices, food preservation technologies, and circular economy approach utilizing black soldier flies to convert organic and food waste into animal feed and compost for farming, the Pangan Initiative will create a more climate-resilient and self-sustaining food system.
 
Nurture Posterity International received a growth grant for NutriPosh, a nutritious and affordable line of composite flours for use in school feeding programs in Uganda. The flour includes pumpkin seeds in a stable composite maize flour, which is produced through regenerative agricultural practices. The powder is produced through solar-powered dehydration technologies, and uses biodegradable packaging.

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