The Food Planet Prize: One Year Later
One year ago, the Curt Bergfors Food Planet Prize—the world’s largest environmental award—selected The Transfarmation Project® as one of its seven finalists. Our team traveled to Sweden to give a presentation and answer questions from a jury. We rubbed elbows with other changemakers in the food-system space and embraced the opportunity to share our vision for a better world.
The nomination was an incredible honor. Transfarmation’s selection as one of seven finalists from over a thousand nominated projects confirmed the growing awareness of factory farming’s impact on our shared home. The Food Planet Prize website states:
[The prize] can only ever go to projects within the food system. Because nothing we do as humans impacts the environment in which we live more negatively than the way we eat today. To save the Food Planet, we must accelerate change and there is no more time to waste.
Unfortunately, we didn’t win the prize, but being named a finalist for such a prestigious award helps legitimize our work. Building solidarity with other movements and shifting societal narratives in order to change culture and create a just and sustainable food system are a major part of our mission. Our experience with the Food Planet Prize brought us one step closer to that goal.
What Is the Food Planet Prize?
The Food Planet Prize is the world’s largest environmental award. It aims to promote a sustainable global food system. Nominees are promising up-and-coming changemakers with the potential to create real and lasting change. The $2 million prize is awarded to those working to “transform our food system into one that can sustainably support us all in harmony with the environment.”
One Year Later: What We’ve Accomplished
Since last May, our team has been hard at work—and gaining recognition for it! Our organization and farmers were featured by over 20 media outlets, including in two New York Times articles and a segment on NBC News. Coverage in the New York Times alone led to more than 50 inquiries from farmers, businesses, and organizations eager to get involved.
In September, our founder, Leah Garcés, published her second book, Transfarmation: The Movement to Free Us from Factory Farming. The book “explains how food and farming policies have failed over decades and offers insights into the wave of change coming from a new crop of farmers and communities who are constructing a humane and sustainable farming system.” Leah’s book tour took her to the Reducetarian Summit in Dallas, Texas; the University of Denver; and the AVA: Latin America summit in São Paulo, Brazil, where she connected with supporters, new and old, to advance our mission.
We maintained our relationship with 14 enrolled current and former factory farmers. Construction began at two farms, and we completed our first-ever demonstration hub—a former factory farm that now grows specialty crops for human consumption. The hub also provides space for research and hosting visitors interested in alternatives to factory farming and showcases the potential of farm transitions to create viable opportunities for former industrial animal farmers. Just last month, we began onboarding a brand-new farm and are thrilled to help them transition from industrial animal agriculture!
What Comes Next?
Looking ahead, we’re focusing on scalability. Transfarmation is eager to expand our reach to even more farmers and enhance our impact on the food system.
Transfarmation’s approach and methods are replicable globally, as corporations have exported industrial animal agriculture all over the world. Shifting to a self-guided incubator model will help ease the burden on our small team, which has been stretched thin providing individualized support to each farmer. It will enable us to work with many more farmers simultaneously while continuing to offer personalized support where needed. We’re also exploring fun, exciting, and educational ways to engage farmers and allies at our demonstration hub in North Carolina!
The Transfarmation Project is poised to help even more farmers transition from industrial animal agriculture, benefiting consumers, animals, and the planet. Looking back, we’re proud of all we’ve accomplished in one short year—and we’re thrilled for this year's finalists!