We invite passionate teams of impact innovators from around the world to join our annual Global Food System Challenge.
Funded by The Seeding the Future Foundation and hosted by the Institute of Food Technologists, the Challenge awards up to $1 million in grants and prizes annually for highly impactful innovations that help transform our food system to be more sustainable, make healthier diets more accessible, and empower consumers to make choices benefiting both personal and planetary health.
Since 2021, we have received over 2,400 submissions from academic and research institutions, non-profits, and for-profits, representing over 100 countries for innovations across the food system.
See the Global Food System Challenge
We encourage innovative solutions to improve the lives of people and health of the planet at the white space intersection of three key domains:
Safe and nutritious food for a healthy diet
Sustainably produced
Appealing, affordable, and trusted to empower conscious consumer choices
The domains reside within a food policy framework where innovations can either be implemented within an existing policy framework, or change or create policy.
It all begins with an idea.
Meet Our Past Winners
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2023 Grand Prize
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on behalf of its HarvestPlus program for the development of nutrient-dense porridges for use in school feeding programs in Zambia. These porridges utilize biofortified traditional food crops that are farmed and produced by women as additional contributions to the household income. IFPRI and HarvestPlus aim to uplift and equip vulnerable youth to grow into healthy, productive adults.
Naandi Foundation for its implementation of ReGen, a synergistic regenerative agriculture model to support farmers transitioning away from conventional, chemical-based farming approaches in India. Prioritizing biodiversity over monocultures, regeneration over extraction, and biological agri-inputs over chemical, Naandi Foundation provides a variety of free materials and knowledge tools to help eliminate dependence on high-cost chemical fertilizers and pesticides and improve the health of soil ecosystems and the foods produced.
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2023 Growth Grant
Association 3535 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, Association 3535 – a 2021 Seed Grant winner – provides smallholder farmers and small-scale fishermen with the ability to keep produce fresh, reducing post-harvest losses and increasing food security and potential income.
Kopernik for its Pangan Initiative, addressing food insecurity in West Timor, Indonesia. By adopting an innovative approach that prioritizes the return to and use of indigenous farming practices, food preservation technologies, and a 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 and community.
Nurture Posterity International for its development of NutriPosh, nutritious and affordable composite flours for use in school feeding programs in Uganda. In addition to providing enhanced nutrition through the inclusion of pumpkin seeds in a stable composite Maize flour, NutriPosh sources ingredients produced through regenerative agricultural practices, utilizes solar powered dehydration technologies in their flour production, and uses biodegradable packaging. The NutriPosh approach ensures environmental sustainability across the entire supply chain. Nurture Posterity International is a 2022 Seed Grant winner.
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Accesso
2022 Grand Prize
For its work to eliminate Aflatoxin from smallholder supply chains, starting with peanuts in Haiti.
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Food Systems for the Future Institute
2022 Grand Prize and 2021 Growth Grant
For its work in commercializing black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) as chicken feed to enhance protein nutrition by lowering the cost of eggs in Rwanda.
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International Rice Research Institute
2021 Grand Prize
Awarded for its arsenic safe rice project which will deploy newly developed arsenic-excluding rice varieties that are much safer for human consumption in target arsenic-polluted regions to create socioeconomic and human health benefits.
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Solar Freeze
2021 Grand Prize
A project for portable, solar-powered cold storage units for perishable produce to serve rural smallholder farmers. The purpose is to reduce post-harvest food loss that currently accounts for over 45 percent of fresh produce going to waste among rural farmers in developing countries.
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Worldfish
2021 Grand Prize
A homestead aquaculture project to bring sustainable, nutrient-rich small fish production to small-scale actors for a healthy and affordable option for consumers.
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INMED Partnerships for Children
2022 Growth Grant
For their Aquaponics® Social Enterprise program, which combines soilless crop production and fish farming in a closed symbiotic system.
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Smart Villages Research Group
2022 Growth Grant
For its Smart Agri-Centres, a community-led solar powered cold storage program that uses energy as a catalyst for rural development.
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World Wildlife Fund
2022 Growth Grant
For its Farmers Post Program, which leverages the US Postal Service (USPS) as a significant yet underutilized asset to help bring fresh produce from farms to front doors across the United States.
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African Centre for Technology Studies
2021 Growth Grant
For its project to promote enhanced access to solar drying technologies to smallholder farmers; thus, providing optimal dehydration of fresh produce for enhanced product quality and post-harvest management.
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iDE
2021 Growth Grant
A project to establish community-managed vermicompost fertilizer enterprises that incorporate Trichoderma, a beneficial fungus that improves plant growth and yields while speeding up the composting process to transform organic farm and household waste into nutritious food for rural communities.
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Food Systems for the Future Institute and Afya Feed Ltd.
2021 Growth Grant
A black soldier fly larvae project to overcome the poultry and aquaculture industry feed affordability challenge. Through a partnership with Protix, the team will design and scale commercial production to provide an alternative bsl protein as a protein supplement in animal feeds.
Seed Grant Winners
2023 Winners
Aquagenius
Small-scale Fish Farming Enhanced by a Circular Economy and Innovative, Eco-friendly Food Strategy (Republic of Benin).
Feeding Albania Foundation
Sustainable Egg Production for NGOs and the Impoverished in Albania (Albania).
Global Seed Savers
Empowering Communities for Sustainable, Equitable, Ecological, and Diverse Food Systems through Seed Sovereignty (U.S.).
Ndalo Heritage Trust
Sorghum Value-addition: Scaling Up Nutrition, Human and Climate Health for At-risk Populations in Siaya County, Kenya.
Safe Environment Hub
Black Soldier Fly Farming: Changing Trash to Cash (Kenya).
Tiny Seed Project
PISCES: Permaculture Institute, Cultivating Resistance: Promoting Cover Crops for Sustainable Agriculture in Northern Togo, West Africa (U.S.).
Urban Being Inc.
JRDN-URBN: Building Food Autonomy into the City (Canada).
UV4Good
UVC LED-based Systems to Clean Water in the Field and Other Emergency Situations Across the World (Ukraine)
2022 Winners
CAFRESH-Connecting the Food Supply Chain
Upcycling Food Waste Through Fermentation
Mobile Vertical Gardens for Refugees and Internally Displaced People
Preventing Postharvest Fish Losses through Low-cost and Mobile Solar-Drying Technologies in Tanzania
Commercialization of a Novel Microbiome-based Synbiotic Food Ingredient to Support Heart Health in Aging and Minority Populations
Micronutrient Profile and Household Use of Indigenous Crops in Tanzania
Farmer's Livelihood Support
Innovative Contributions for Process Improvement of the National School Feeding Programme in Mozambique
Nurture Posterity International
NutriPosh composite flour for improved school diet in Uganda
2021 Winners
Cool Lion, a project that develops and markets solar-powered cold room containers to smallholder farmers and small-scale fisheries in Africa
Partner with chefs, nutritionists, and leaders to teach culinary skills, nutrition tips, and step-by-step recipes that make cooking easy and enjoyable
Center for Nanoscience and Engineering, Indian Institute of Science
An Artificial Intelligence Powered Miniaturized Spectrometer for Food Quality Analysis is a pocket-sized spectrometer that brings spectroscopy to your fingertips
INMED Partnerships for Children
Aquaponics as a Social Enterprise for Sustainable Food Systems and Livelihoods is a project to build upon the potential of aquaponics to strengthen food security, preserve the threatened landscape, and create sustainable livelihoods for indigenous riverside communities in the Peruvian Amazon
Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute
The Seaweed, Amaranth and Finger Millet-Nutrients Fortification of Bakery Products for Improved Health and Livelihoods in Kenya (SEA-FORT) is a research project is to improve the nutrition and livelihoods of Kenyans
Tanzania Environment Management Catalyst
Managing Incubation Resilience Centres for Promoting Urban-Rural Sustainable Agriculture, Health Food Production Systems and Nutrition Food Safety Consumption Practices and Policy Advocacy Engagement is a project working with two incubation resilience centres in urban and rural areas in Kibaha town municipality and Chalinze rural district, respectively, to promote sustainable agriculture
Catch the Vision is a project to use a novel silver carp and soy product to improve the diets of women and children in Haiti
Farmers Post is a project that will revolutionize the distribution of fresh produce across the country, connecting farmers directly to local consumers