Sustainability / Environment

Hungry Planet Among 65 Global Plant-Based Organizations Nominated for Earthshot Prize

Hungry Planet Foods announces that it has officially been nominated for Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, a global initiative that seeks to discover, celebrate, and scale innovative solutions that address the planet’s biggest environmental challenges by 2030. 

“The world doesn’t have an innovation problem – we have a scaling problem”

The company creates plant-based meat alternatives, such as beef, chicken, pork, and crab, using ingredients like textured wheat protein, soy protein, and other plant ingredients. Hungry Planet states that its products are now served at thousands of food service venues across the US, including fine dining, fast casual, universities, and hospitals, along with various retail outlets and online via PlantX. Through its philanthropic arm, the company has also helped provide over 1 million meals to school children K-12.

The Earthshot Prize, established in 2020 by Prince William and The Royal Foundation, encourages innovation to address some of the most pressing environmental challenges. Centered around five key goals — Protect and Restore Nature, Clean our Air, Revive our Oceans, Build a Waste-free World, and Fix our Climate — the initiative aims to inspire actionable solutions to ensure a healthier planet for future generations. Winners in each category receive £1 million to further their environmental and conservation efforts.

GenV Earthshot
© GenV

Promoting plant-based solutions

Last year, a group of high-profile media figures, including Emma Thompson, Alicia Silverstone, and Sharon Osbourne, wrote an open letter to Prince William urging the organizers to include a category to recognize plant-based food, to be titled “Advance a Plant-Based Food System.” International NGO Generation Vegan (GenV) even offered up the £1 million prize for this category. 

While the category hasn’t been added to this year’s awards, the Earthshot Prize has pledged to do more to promote plant-based solutions to the climate crisis. They invited GenV to select two sustainable food system experts to join the judging panel for the ‘Protect and Restore Nature’ category of the 2024 awards. Additionally, GenV has been invited to be Official Nominators for the ‘Protect and Restore Nature’ category, becoming the first vegan organization to hold this role. 

As a result, GenV reveals that 65 plant-based organizations will join Hungry Planet in the running to win £1 million from the Earthshot Prize, including Bettaf!sh, Eat Just, Oggs, and Rebellyous. Nominations are now officially closed, with a record-breaking 2,429 nominations received from 432 official nominators, with nominees based in 139 countries. The 15 finalists of the awards will be announced in September 2024, and the five winners will be announced in November 2024. 

Earthshot Prize
© Earthshot Prize

Bending the curve on personal and planetary health

Todd Boyman, CEO of Hungry Planet, announced the company’s nomination on social media, stating, “From day one, our mission at Hungry Planet has been to bend the curve on personal and planetary health through the development of the world’s most complete and versatile range of meat made 100% from plants.

“Our team has been diligently working on this for almost 20 years. During that time, we built the platform that is now delivering on the promise of what great plant-based meats should be: authentically delicious, demonstrably healthy, amazingly versatile, and capable of being used as a 1:1 substitution for conventional meat in any cuisine, in any recipe, for any venue.”

Chris Large, Director of Portfolio and Prize at Earthshot Prize, concluded, “The response to this year’s nomination period proves that the world doesn’t have an innovation problem – we have a scaling problem. The ideas are out there, generated by talented people from diverse corners of the planet. The challenge is rapidly developing, testing, funding, and adopting those solutions, with a role for government, business and the public alike.”

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