FoodShot challenge offers $575,000 to fund water research in ag

While water plays a critical role in food systems, it is increasingly becoming scarce for land-based agriculture, and over-fishing and climate change threaten the ability of the world’s oceans to produce food. The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and FoodShot Global — an investment platform that working toward a healthier, more sustainable and equitable food system — are offering a new prize focusing on water, according to a news release.

FoodShot's fourth challenge, Water: The Essential Input, is investing in innovations that protects and conserves water as an essential limited resource, the release said. FFAR is contributing up to $200,000, which is being matched for a total of up to $575,000 to support pioneering water research through FoodShot’s GroundBreaker Prize, according to the release.

“Water and sustainable agriculture are inexorably linked,” LaKisha Odom, FFAR soil health scientific program director, said in the release. “FFAR is honored to partner with FoodShot Global to invest in research to protect our water cycle, which is threatened by climate change and pollution that is causing water for land-based agriculture to be scarce and our oceans less productive.”

This year’s GroundBreaker Prize will invest in entrepreneurs, researchers or advocates whose research improves and protects water use for aquatic and land-based food and agriculture. It also provides the recipients guidance, mentorship and resources to maximize the impact and scale of their research, according to the release.

FoodShot’s challenge seeks to fund research that has the potential for scale and impact and considers how water cycles interact with the three previous FoodShot challenges, related to soil health, precision protein and bioactive foods. According to the release, the challenge seeks solutions to address:

• Mitigating and adapting to the multiple threats of climate change on the water cycle as related to food production.
• Overuse and contamination of water that impacts food production, ecosystems, biodiversity and human health.
• Disruptions to water cycles connecting land- and water-based systems.
• Unsustainable aquatic food production (overfishing or damaging water-based farming).
• Equitable access to aquatic foods and wealth creation for indigenous and low-income coastal communities that are especially affected by climate change.
   

“We see common ailments facing both land-based and water-based food systems — extractive practices that deplete natural resources, loss of biodiversity and pollution — and climate change looms as a threat multiplier,” Sara Eckhouse, Foodshot Global’s executive director, said in the release. “We’re looking for those bold ideas, innovative companies and groundbreaking individuals that can shift the paradigm.”

Applications are due Dec. 1, 2023. See more information and apply at foodshot.org.