FoodShot #4: Water – The Essential Input

In this FoodShot, they consider the Water Cycle as a whole and seek innovations that protect water as an essential limited resource for both water and land-based food and agriculture. This FoodShot will also consider how water cycles interact with the previous FoodShots related to soil health, precision protein, and bioactive foods.

Why water?

• Through water, the future of both the land and aquatic foods are inexorably linked. In a world that recognizes water’s essential role in all forms of food production, it is critical to develop solutions that link water to improved outcomes on nutrient cycles, soil health, ecosystem sustainability, and human health.
• Not only are they faced with the challenge of water scarcity for land-based agriculture due to climate change, but agricultural practices have permanently polluted the rivers and lakes, and in turn are creating massive ocean dead zones. Chemical and microplastic pollutants in the water have made their way through the entire food system. Climate change is disrupting the global water cycle patterns, simultaneously deepening droughts and intensifying floods.

Water Solutions

This FoodShot will seek out solutions to address:

• Mitigating and adapting to the multiple threats of climate change on the water cycle as related to food production
• Overuse and contamination of water that impacts food production, ecosystems, biodiversity, and human health
• Disruptions to water cycles connecting land- and water-based systems
• Unsustainable aquatic food production (overfishing or damaging water-based farming)
• Equitable access to aquatic foods and wealth creation for indigenous and low-income coastal communities that are especially affected by climate change

Solutions

• Breakthrough Advances in Efficient Agricultural Water Use On Land
  • Breeding crops to increase tolerance to extreme precipitation events, including drought resiliency, flood adaptation, and exposure to salt water.
  • Water-smart intelligent agriculture that leverages remote sensing, machine learning, big data, and artificial intelligence to reduce water use and increase irrigation efficacy.
  • Waste to value technologies that repurpose wastewater and extract waste products for agricultural uses that can reduce the need for chemical and greenhouse-gas intensive inputs.
  • Improved management of freshwater flows and connections to other ecosystems.
• Breakthrough Advances in Wild-Caught and Farmed Aquatic Foods
  • Diversification of consumption patterns through shifts in consumer behavior and demand towards sustainable aquatic foods, and in particular, aquatic species that can grow without additional inputs such as oysters, clams and seaweed.
  • Low-impact fish harvesting, including improvements in hardware to reduce damage and bycatch during harvesting of wild-caught fish, and novel technologies that can easily detect contaminants and support traceability in blue foods.
  • Circular economies and regenerative aquaculture that incorporate fish into existing systems and reduce waste of aquatic foods
  • Better data collection of aquatic food systems and gathering data beyond production – including processing, distribution and retail – to better understand and gain insights into consumer needs and demand for aquatic foods. Indigenous and community-based fisheries and aquaculture.

Criteria

• They invite entrepreneurs, researchers, and advocates to submit their business, research, or policy proposals for funding consideration.
• Submissions will be reviewed by food and agricultural systems experts who will provide issue-specific insights and vet applications for boldness, viability, and global impact.
• Best-in-class candidates will be selected to receive equity and debt financing for their businesses.
• A cash prize will be awarded to GroundBreakers — rising stars working in research, early stage entrepreneurship, or advocacy.