Knowledge Creation & Transfer
The world has made great strides in boosting farm yields, reducing waste, and combating starvation. We now face urgent new challenges in our food system to preserve both the health of the human population and the earth itself.
Simply put, our current food system is optimized for yield and calories. That worked in the 20th century, when the world struggled with hunger and sometimes starvation, but it has resulted in unintended consequences over time.
Today, nearly 2 billion people suffer from some form of malnutrition, and diet quality is now the top contributing factor to premature death, disease, and disability worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. At the same time, the food system is a key driver of global warming and environmental degradation, accounting for nearly a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions – more than the entire transportation sector.
The Rockefeller Foundation has taken bold risks for over a century through interventions in food security and agricultural development. Those programs have delivered lasting results for millions of people around the world. We invested in international agricultural research and supported breakthrough thinkers in plant science, including Nobel Prize Laureate Dr. Norman Borlaug, to create innovations that ushered in a Green Revolution and saved more than a billion people from starvation.
We are now moving in new directions to boost the production and consumption of protective foods in both Africa and the U.S., to promote the science of nutrition, and to reduce food waste.