Through this partnership, the Good Food Institute and Bezos Earth Fund are developing the innovation ecosystem needed to scale alternative proteins globally. By fostering collaboration and building roadmaps, the initiative aims to drive sustainable food systems, reduce emissions, and strengthen food security.
Scaling Solutions for a Sustainable Food Future
Given the growing global demand for meat and the emissions and land use impacts of conventional protein production, scaling innovative alternatives – meat made from plants, cultivated from animal cells, or produced via fermentation – is essential to meaningful global food system transformation. Across agriculture, forestry, and other land use interventions, diversifying the protein supply with alternative proteins represents one of the highest potential strategies to slash emissions, enable biodiversity recovery, strengthen food security, and improve public health around the world.
To realize these benefits, alternative proteins must reach taste, price, and nutrition parity with conventional animal-sourced options and achieve mainstream adoption in high-demand markets around the world. With these goals in mind, the Bezos Earth Fund is building on its partnership with the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit think tank and global network of organizations focused on alternative protein science and innovation, with a two-year grant focused on building the innovation-ecosystem required to fuel this field. Specifically, this grant is developing roadmaps for a range of technology areas, bringing much-needed talent to this work, ensuring clear regulatory paths to market, and securing sufficient investments and incentives (public and private) required for market success on a global scale.
In 2022-2023, GFI served as the Earth Fund’s strategic partner for scoping and selecting global centers of alternative protein science and innovation. In 2024, a $90 million investment from the Earth Fund enabled three of those centers to successfully launch, with $30 million each for the new Bezos Centers of Sustainable Protein at North Carolina State University, Imperial College London, and National University Singapore.
The Earth Fund’s continued partnership with GFI enables GFI scientists and ecosystem-builders to closely collaborate with and convene these centers as they tackle the biggest challenges and opportunities ahead – from biomanufacturing scale up and crop diversification to ingredient innovation, environmental and social analyses, and future-resilient bioeconomies, jobs, and livelihoods.