2025 Year in Review
Special edition: Celebrating 10 years of impact powered by donors
Ten years ago, we were a small team who reckoned with soaring global demand for meat by asking a bold question: What if we reimagined how meat is made? As we mark our 10th anniversary, we’re reflecting on a decade of donor-powered global impact and the far better food future in our grasp.
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10 years of progress
Only by looking back can we see how far we’ve come.
10 years ago
- Fringe climate solution
- Few scientists conducting isolated research
- No dedicated research funding
- Negligible political support
- Fragmented research paths
- No clear path to market
- No academic pathways
Today
- Gaining ground at global climate summits
- Global movement powered by shared knowledge
- 129 GFI-funded projects across 25 countries
- $2.1 billion in public funding and counting
- 10 alternative protein centers at elite institutions worldwide
- Cultivated meat approved in 3 countries, regulatory greenlights earned by 7 companies
- 70+ student chapters across 6 continents
Explore the report
In our report, find out how we are working to ensure:
- Food contributes to a thriving world, fed sustainably.
- Scientific progress benefits all.
- Coalitions bring everyone to the table.
Alternative proteins are one of the most powerful tools available to address our planet’s most urgent challenges:
Climate: Animal agriculture contributes approximately a fifth of global climate-warming emissions and is a top source of nitrous oxide and methane. At just 11% market share, alternative proteins would deliver climate benefits equivalent to grounding nearly every plane on the planet.
Nature and biodiversity: Animal agriculture is a leading cause of global deforestation, accelerating both biodiversity loss and climate change. Shifting toward plant-based and cultivated meat could free up three billion hectares of land for reforestation, restoration, regenerative agriculture, and more.
Health and pandemics: Intensive animal farming creates two urgent public health threats. Crowded conditions allow viruses to mutate, raising pandemic risk. And routine antibiotic use fuels superbugs that already kill over a million people annually. Alternative proteins address both: they eliminate the need for antibiotics in meat production and help prevent future pandemics.
Animal welfare: Almost 100 billion land animals are slaughtered annually for food. Including aquatic animals, the number climbs into the trillions. With global meat demand projected to rise, a 10% market share for alternative proteins translates to approximately 10-14 billion terrestrial animals spared from industrial agriculture every year.
Download the 2025 Year in Review
After ten years, you can see how we turned early research grants into government funding years later. How we were able to turn a regulatory framework in one country into a template for three others. How we built student chapters into career pipelines. How our focus on open-access science allowed us to accelerate an entire sector. This 10-year anniversary edition lets you see just how far we’ve come. With our many partners, we have created an alt proteins ecosystem.
Join us in making a thriving world, fed sustainably.
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Year in Review
Discover how we’re creating a global food system that’s good for all people, the planet, and animals. Dig into our latest and past annual reports.
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Sources
Claim 1a: “Animal agriculture contributes approximately a fifth of global climate-warming emissions…”
- Sutton, William R., Alexander Lotsch, and Ashesh Prassan. 2024. Recipe for a Livable Planet: Achieving Net Zero Emissions in the Agrifood System. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/406c71a3-c13f-49cd-8f3f-a071715858fb
- Crippa, M., E. Solazzo, D. Guizzardi, F. Monforti-Ferrario, F. N. Tubiello, and A. Leip. 2021. “Food Systems Are Responsible for a Third of Global Anthropogenic GHG Emissions.” Nature Food 2 (3): 198–209. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00225-9
- Xu, Xiaoming, Prateek Sharma, Shijie Shu, et al. 2021. “Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Animal-Based Foods Are Twice Those of Plant-Based Foods.” Nature Food. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00358-x
- Food and Agriculture Organization. 2022. “Livestock Emission Data at a Glance.” https://foodandagricultureorganization.shinyapps.io/GLEAMV3_Public/
Claim 1b: “…and is a top source of nitrous oxide and methane.”
- FAO. 2023. Pathways Towards Lower Emissions — A global assessment of the greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation options from livestock agrifood systems. Rome: FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cc9029en
Claim 2: “Even if we stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow, we wouldn’t hit climate goals without a decrease in conventional meat production.”
- Clark, Michael A., Nina G. G. Domingo, Kimberly Colgan, Sumil K. Thakrar, David Tilman, John Lynch, Inês L. Azevedo, and Jason D. Hill. 2020. “Global Food System Emissions Could Preclude Achieving the 1.5° and 2°C Climate Change Targets.” Science 370 (6517): 705–708. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba7357
Claim 3: “At just 11 percent market share, alternative proteins would deliver climate benefits equivalent to grounding nearly every plane on the planet.”
- Morach, Benjamin. 2022. “The Untapped Climate Opportunity in Alternative Proteins.” Boston Consulting Group. July 4, 2022. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2022/combating-climate-crisis-with-alternative-protein
Claim 4: “Animal agriculture is a leading cause of global deforestation, accelerating both biodiversity loss and climate change.”
- Ritchie, Hannah, and Max Roser. 2024. “Half of the World’s Habitable Land Is Used for Agriculture.” Our World in Data. February 16, 2024. https://ourworldindata.org/global-land-for-agriculture
- Pendrill, Florence, Toby A. Gardner, Patrick Meyfroidt, U. Martin Persson, et al. 2022. “Disentangling the Numbers Behind Agriculture-Driven Tropical Deforestation.” Science 377 (6611): eabm9267. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abm9267
Claim 5: “It’s also a leading user of fresh water and a major cause of water pollution worldwide.”
- FAO. 2019. “Water Use in Livestock Production Systems and Supply Chains.” FAO Knowledge Repository. https://openknowledge.fao.org/items/683c0258-3ff2-4dda-9143-61bae3bb251f
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2017. “Water for Sustainable Food and Agriculture: A Report Produced for the G20 Presidency of Germany.” Rome: FAO. https://www.developmentaid.org/api/frontend/cms/file/2023/02/i7959e.pdf
- Nikhita, Mansukhani Kogar, et al. 2024. “Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Plant- and Animal-Based Meats.” Washington, D.C.: Good Food Institute. https://gfi.org/resource/plant-based-meat-life-cycle-assessment/
- Mekonnen, Mesfin M., and Arjen Y. Hoekstra. 2012. “A Global Assessment of the Water Footprint of Farm Animal Products.” Ecosystems 15 (3): 401–415. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-011-9517-8
Claim 6: “A global shift to plant-based diets could cut the land needed for food by up to 75 percent, giving forests, grasslands, rivers, and coasts vast areas in which to recover.”
- Poore, Joseph, and Thomas Nemecek. 2018. “Reducing Food’s Environmental Impacts through Producers and Consumers.” Science 360 (6392): 987–92. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaq0216
Claim 7: “Destructive fishing practices drive climate change and habitat loss, creating harmful cascades through ocean ecosystems.”
- Hiddink, Jan G., Simon Jennings, Marija Sciberras, Claire L. Szostek, Kathryn M. Hughes, Nick Ellis, Adriaan D. Rijnsdorp, Robert A. McConnaughey, Tessa Mazor, Ray Hilborn, Jeremy S. Collie, C. Roland Pitcher, Ricardo O. Amoroso, Ana M. Parma, Petri Suuronen, and Michel J. Kaiser. 2017. “Global Analysis of Depletion and Recovery of Seabed Biota after Bottom Trawling Disturbance.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114 (31): 8301–8306. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1618858114
- Pusceddu, Antonio, Silvia Bianchelli, Jacobo Martín, Puig Pere, Miquel Canals, Serge Heussner, and Roberto Danovaro. 2014. “Chronic and Intensive Bottom Trawling Impairs Deep-Sea Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111 (24): 8861–8866. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1405454111
Claim 8: “Human impacts are increasing across two-thirds of the ocean, and 35 percent of fish stocks are now overexploited.”
- Halpern, Benjamin S., Melanie Frazier, John Potapenko, et al. 2015. “Spatial and Temporal Changes in Cumulative Human Impacts on the World’s Ocean.” Nature Communications 6: 7615. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms8615
- FAO. 2024. The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2024 — Blue Transformation in Action. Rome: FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cd0683en
Claim 9: “Plant-based and cultivated seafood can help close the gap between supply and demand with far less environmental harm.”
- Gephart, Jessica A., Patrik J. G. Henriksson, Robert W. R. Parker, et al. 2021. “Environmental Performance of Blue Foods.” Nature 597: 360–365. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03889-2
- GFI. 2023. “Sustainable Seafood: Plant-Based and Cultivated Seafood.” The Good Food Institute. https://gfi.org/seafood/
Claim 10: “Even chickens—the most efficient livestock—convert only one in nine calories of feed into meat.”
- Searchinger, Tim. 2019. World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future. World Resources Institute. https://research.wri.org/wrr-food
Claim 11a: “One-third of all staple crops are fed to farmed animals…”
- Cassidy, Emily S., Paul C. West, James S. Gerber, and Jonathan A. Foley. 2013. “Redefining Agricultural Yields: From Tonnes to People Nourished per Hectare.” Environmental Research Letters 8 (3): 034015. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034015
- Ritchie, Hannah, Pablo Rosado, and Max Roser. 2024. “Environmental Impacts of Food Production.” Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food
Claim 11b: “…while one in twelve people is undernourished.”
- The 2018 FAO SOFI report says “one in nine”:
- FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, and WHO. 2018. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018. Rome: FAO. https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/f5019ab4-0f6a-47e8-85b9-15473c012d6a/content
- The most recent data:
- SOFI 2024: 733 million people faced hunger in 2023, equivalent to one in eleven globally.
- SOFI 2025: 673 million people faced hunger in 2024, equivalent to approximately one in twelve (8.3%).
- FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, and WHO. 2025. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025. Rome: FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cd6008en
Claim 12: “Crowded conditions allow viruses to mutate, raising pandemic risk.”
- UNEP and ILRI. 2020. Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic Diseases and How to Break the Chain of Transmission. Nairobi: UNEP. https://www.unep.org/resources/report/preventing-future-zoonotic-disease-outbreaks-protecting-environment-animals-and
Claim 13: “Routine antibiotic use fuels superbugs that already kill over a million people annually.”
- Antimicrobial Resistance Collaborators. 2022. “Global Burden of Bacterial Antimicrobial Resistance in 2019: A Systematic Analysis.” The Lancet 399 (10325): 629–655. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02724-0
- A 2024 update from the same group (GRAM Project) confirmed over 1 million attributable deaths annually from 1990–2021 and projected 1.91 million by 2050:
- Antimicrobial Resistance Collaborators. 2024. “Global Burden of Bacterial Antimicrobial Resistance 1990–2021: A Systematic Analysis with Forecasts to 2050.” The Lancet 404 (10459): 1199–1226. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01867-1
Claim 14: “Alternative proteins address both: they eliminate the need for antibiotics in meat production and help prevent future pandemics.”
- UNEP and ILRI. 2020. Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic Diseases and How to Break the Chain of Transmission. Nairobi: UNEP. https://www.unep.org/resources/report/preventing-future-zoonotic-disease-outbreaks-protecting-environment-animals-and
- UNEP. 2023. What’s Cooking? An Assessment of the Potential Impacts of Selected Novel Alternatives to Conventional Animal Products. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme. https://doi.org/10.59117/20.500.11822/44236
Claim 15: “Almost 100 billion land animals are slaughtered annually for food.”
- FAO. 2023. FAOSTAT: Production — Livestock Primary. Rome: FAO. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL
Claim 16: “Including aquatic animals, the number climbs into the trillions.”
- Mood, Alison, Elena Lara, Natasha K. Boyland, and Phil Brooke. 2023. “Estimating Global Numbers of Farmed Fishes Killed for Food Annually from 1990 to 2019.” Animal Welfare 32: e12. https://doi.org/10.1017/awf.2023.4
- fishcount.org.uk. “Fish Count Estimates.” http://fishcount.org.uk/fish-count-estimates-2
Claim 17: “With global meat demand projected to rise, a 10% market share for alternative proteins translates to approximately 10–14 billion terrestrial animals spared from industrial agriculture every year.”
- “GFI analysis based on FAO 2023 livestock slaughter data and projected demand growth.” Underlying sources:
- FAO. 2023. FAOSTAT: Production — Livestock Primary. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL
- FAO. 2018. The Future of Food and Agriculture — Alternative Pathways to 2050. Rome: FAO. https://www.fao.org/global-perspectives-studies/resources/detail/en/c/1157074/
