The Institute of Food Technologists and Seeding the Future Foundation have announced Seed Grant winners as well as finalists for Growth Grants and Grand Prizes for the third annual Seeding the Future Global Food System Challenge.
 
Seed Grants are awarded to organizations that create ideas to transform food systems and have developed a prototype or initial proof of concept demonstrating that their idea is feasible and highly impactful when scaled.
 
The million-dollar challenge received 900 submissions from 78 countires this year. The eight seed grant winners who each received $25,000 are:
 

• Aquagenius, a small-scale fish farming strategy enhanced by a circular economy in the Republic of Benin. It includes an aquaculture feed system system based on insect product that requires few resources and generates a small ecological impact. The system is part of an integrated circular economy that values agriculture by-products and livestock residues for protein biomass.
• Feeding Albania Foundation’s a sustainable egg production method for NGOs and the impoverished in Albania. The project focuses on building and distributing portable chicken coop packages for NGOs with land who feed the underserved and to provide sustainability and food security throughout Albania.
• Global Seed Savers’s ECOSEEDS project, a seed sovereignty project designed to create sustainable, equitable, ecologically-friendly, and diverse food systems in the U.S. The project promotes seed-saving communities, seed production centers, seed entrepreneurship, and farmer-consumer hubs to increase access to diverse locally adapted seed varieties and foster a reliable source of nutritionally rich crops.
• Ndalo Heritage Trust’s project to scale up sorghum production for at-risk populations in Kenya. This research project investigates the mineral bio-accessibility of whole grain sorghum porridges fortified with acid-rich and beta carotene-rich plant foodstuffs to improve micronutrient status among at-risk consumers in Siaya county Kenya.
• Safe Environment Hub’s black soldier fly farming project which employs a circular economy approach to convert organic waste into biofertilizer (frass) and high-protein feedstuff while significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• Tiny Seed Project’s PISCES Permaculture Institute, a project to promote cover crops for sustainable agriculture in Northern Togo, West Africa. The PISCES Permaculture Institute is planning to test and expand seed production for four potential cover crops in the Savanes Region of northern Togo to improve the fertility of the soil organically, with few imported inputs
• Urban Being Inc.’s JRDN-URBN, a project to build urban food system autonomy. The project has designed a model of turnkey vertical tower farm plots that innovate upon existing commercial hydroponic technology to reconfigure and redesign usage for community and individual use and can be used year-round regardless of climate and weather considerations.
• UV4Good’s project which uses novel UVC LED-based mobile water disinfectant systems that are compact and easily installed in water dispensing devices as plug-and-play water treatment systems for most point-of-use applications for emergency situations.

 
“We are thrilled about the quality, innovative nature, and potential impact of this year’s Seed Grant winners. They demonstrate and embody the core intent of the challenge: impactful innovations that address the biggest challenges facing food systems across the globe. While we celebrate these eight deserving winners today, every team that submitted its project for consideration deserves our recognition and gratitude, as do the scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs out there doing their part to improve our global food system,” said Bernhard van Lengerich, PhD, founder of Seeding The Future Foundation.
 
“The Global Food System Challenge is truly one of the most inspirational and impactful food challenges being conducted, and its continued rise in popularity among top global innovators is incredibly gratifying as their vision and commitment mirrors IFT’s mission of connecting global food system communities to promote and advance the science of food,” said Christie Tarantino-Dean, CEO of IFT.
 
Three Growth Grant winners will each be awarded $100,000, while two grand prize winners will be awarded $250,000 each. Winners will be announced in January 2024.
 
Seeding the Future Grand Prize Finalists include:
 

• Green America: a novel combination of soil carbon initiative and nutrient density alliance
• INMED South Africa, a program to scale aquaponics and social enterprise for marginalized communities
• International Food Policy Research Institute’s Harvest Plus Program, which adds products from biofortified crops to school feeding programs in Kenya
• Naandi Foundation, for its transformation of food systems through a novel program called ReGen
• Savory Institute, for its project ot regenerate Maasai conservancies in Kenya’s Mara region

 
The Growth Grant Finalists include:
 

• Association 3535 for its Cool Lion Project, to create solar-powered refrigeration containers
• International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology for its plant extract-based biopesticides
• Ignitia, for its climate intelligence solutions for farmers in tropical regions
• Kopemik, for the PANGAN Initiative, which aims to preserve ancestral knowledge and revitalize food security for climate resilience and sustainability in Indonesia
• Nuture Posetrity International, for Nutriposh, a nutrition composite flour integrated into school feeding programs in Uganda.