Foreword, World Economic Forum White Paper: Creating a Vibrant Food Innovation Ecosystem: How Israel Is Advancing Alternative Proteins Across Sectors, May 2024
The launch of this white paper comes at a critical moment for the climate agenda. With less than six years to go until 2030 to meet the commitments of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, leaders are at a crossroads, with finite choices before them that will determine the fate of future generations and life on this planet.
Among those choices is how best to transform food systems worldwide in a hot-and-getting-hotter world that looks set to be home to nearly 10 billion people by 2050. Increasingly, for some countries, the focus is on ensuring sustainable protein diversification pathways. The science is clear: it will be impossible for governments and others, including farmers, the private sector and consumers, to meet their obligations under the Paris Agreement and decarbonize the global economy without investing in sustainable protein diversification pathways and the overall food system. With global meat consumption projected to increase by at least 50% from 2012 levels by 2050, alternative proteins – including plant-based and cultivated meat – offer an additional globally scalable solution. These technologies serve as value-added agriculture compared to conventional production, have the potential to reduce emissions dramatically, feed more people with fewer resources, reduce public health risks and free up lands and waters worldwide for restoration and recovery.
To underscore the critical role of country-led approaches in accelerating more efficient, secure and sustainable ways of producing protein, this paper, Creating a Vibrant Food Innovation Ecosystem: How Israel Is Advancing Alternative Proteins across Sectors, has been developed by C4IR Israel (an independent member of the World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution network), the Israel Innovation Authority and the Good Food Institute Israel.
The paper highlights Israel as a case study for country-led approaches in which government leadership is creating the conditions for a robust, highly collaborative food-tech innovation environment focused on shared value – a space that can produce scientific breakthroughs, launch and support public–private sector partnerships and create a thriving bioeconomy.
Country-led approaches have long been catalysts for transformative new technologies and innovation ecosystems that address our biggest challenges, improve our quality of life and benefit future generations. Here again, by exploring and investing in alternative proteins, governments can play a leading role in ushering in a far brighter food future for all.
With: Dror Bin, Chief Executive Officer, Israel Innovation Authority; Bruce Friedrich, President and Founder, The Good Food Institute
Image: Getty Images for Unsplash
