FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Selection and Scope
Foodsystems.tech was created to address the urgent need for food system transformation to operate safely within our planetary boundaries, recognizing the essential role of technology in driving that change. It functions as an open-access knowledge portal showcasing some promising, bold bet innovations in food systems across the domains of future plant nutrition, sustainable livestock, and next-generation crops. It is a product of Bold Bets for the Future of Food, a joint project by Clim-Eat and the Bezos Earth Fund that investigates and highlights the most ground-breaking agricultural technological innovations at the core of the transition to a more sustainable and equitable food system.
By making the information about these innovations publicly available and in accessible language, we aim to raise awareness and spark interest among the general public, while also supporting the development of enabling policy environments. Additionally, the FST dashboard may be a useful resource for private investors, public research institutions and philanthropic organizations to home in on game-changing innovations that fit with their funding programmes and/or research agendas.
The initial selection of 30 innovations across the three selected domains acted as a sample of the range of technologies identified in our initial horizon scan, and was later expanded with 18 new bold bets. Each ‘innovation’ may refer to a specific technology, or group of technologies comparable in functioning or outcome. The three domains were chosen with a focus on emission reduction in agriculture, particularly from livestock and fertilizer emissions, with future updates to foodsystems.tech possibly seeing additions of further domains.
No innovation is too futuristic for the purposes of our research; but for most, we focus on innovations that can have large scale impact in the next 20-30 years. While our selection focuses on the bolder bets in the pipeline, some may already be well on their way.
Our scope is rather global and idealistic in regards to accessibility, and different innovations may be applicable to different farming systems. Although we explore possible barriers to uptake for every individual innovation, this was no factor for exclusion.
With so many areas of food system innovation to explore, we’ve had to be selective to ensure depth and focus. We’ve prioritized three innovation domains for the initial launch—plant nutrition, sustainable livestock, and next-generation crops—because they offer high potential for transformative impact and are currently seeing a surge of promising innovation.We recognize the vast potential of both alternative proteins and digital tools in shaping future food systems, and we may expand our future selections of bold bets to include innovations from these domains.
We use a mixed-methods approach to identify bold, high-potential innovations, including continuous horizon scanning and having discussions with experts. The current set of 48 innovations emerged from close media monitoring and desk research by our team, followed by multiple rounds of interviews with researchers, industry leaders, and colleagues. Innovations were assessed in terms of their alignment with our priority domains, their potential for significant impact, and their likelihood of reaching large-scale uptake within the next 20–30 years.
While we fully acknowledge that low-tech and non-technological solutions are absolutely essential to food system transformation—and are often more immediately accessible—they are not the emphasis of this platform. However, our aim is to provide actionable insights for funders, researchers, innovators, and policy makers, who are looking to understand, invest in, or advance high-impact technologies with the potential to scale over the next 20–30 years. By focusing on future-oriented technological solutions, the platform aims to surface bold bets that can complement other essential approaches to food system transformation.
Innovation Descriptions
The characterization format used to analyze innovations is a hybrid of the Innovative Food Systems Solutions (IFSS) portal and the Wild Futures project, funded by the Gates Foundation and led by Cornell University in collaboration with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), the IFSS Portal, and GlocoLearning.
Accelerator scores indicate how much additional action is needed across eight key accelerators of change (from Herrero et al., 2020) that support an innovation’s ability to scale—such as trust, public acceptance, finance, and policy change. A higher score means a larger gap remains in that area, signaling the need for acceleration to enable uptake at scale. Different innovations face different challenges: for example, those involving gene editing may encounter greater gaps in areas like trust, public mindset, and social license. In general, most innovations will require strong safeguarding against unintended consequences and thoughtful planning around transition pathways to achieve wide-scale adoption.
Accelerators of change by Herrero et al. (2020)
- Building trust among actors in the food system. ‘Vision & values’
- Transforming mindsets. ‘Acceptance’
- Enabling social license and stakeholder dialogue. ‘Responsibility’
- Ensuring stable finance. ‘Explore and pilot’
- Designing market incentives. ‘Spread cost and risk’
- Changing policies and regulations. ‘Expectations of support’
- Safeguarding against undesirable effects. ‘Monitor and correct’
- Developing transition pathways. ‘How and when’
The readiness level reflects the general maturity of the innovation, from concept to widespread use.
- Level 1 represents an idea, where the innovation is still in the concept phase with no prototype or testing.
- Level 2 is a prototype to demonstrate potential, where an initial version has been developed and is being tested.
- Level 3 refers to an innovation that is gaining traction, showing growing interest and early adoption.
- Level 4 indicates the innovation is moving to scale, with efforts underway to expand its use.
- Level 5 means the innovation has been mainstreamed and is widely adopted as part of standard practice.
Priorities for scaling’ describes the type of action currently needed for an innovation to achieve impact at scale. Our categories span the full innovation journey—from early-stage conceptualization to large-scale implementation. To broadly classify these priorities, we use four categories: ‘catalysing research,’ ‘catalysing development,’ ‘high-risk piloting,’ and ‘moving the innovation from private to public hands.’ Priorities for scaling Moving the innovation from private to public hands Catalysing research Catalysing development High-risk piloting Other
This category of our analysis identifies where in the food system an innovation is expected to have its main impact. The food system includes everything from how food is produced to how it’s consumed and managed after use. Innovations may target different actors or stages, such as farmers (primary production), supply chains (transport, storage), retailers, consumers, or even areas like regulation, finance, or education. Understanding the target actor/area helps to clarify who is affected and where change is expected to happen.
The ‘problem area’ refers to the main sustainability challenge that an innovation is aiming to address. These challenges can be environmental, social, or economic in nature—such as reducing environmental footprint or improving productivity in the system. One innovation can improve multiple problem areas at the same time.
Other
Yes—ensuring reliability and accuracy is a core priority. Most of the content on Foodsystems.tech has undergone expert review by scientists and industry professionals in the relevant fields. We also welcome ongoing feedback to continuously improve and refine the information.
While we’re continuously working to spot the boldest bets on the horizon, we might have missed something. We’d love to hear from you, so do let us know at foodsystemstech@clim-eat.org.