After considering many different interventions, we have determined that the Good Food Institute (GFI) is the organization which most effectively reduces global biodiversity loss (in terms of the number of evolutionarily distinct species saved from extinction per dollar).
GFI is dedicated to improving the global food system for the planet, people and animals. They strategically tackle neglected gaps for alternative proteins by cultivating scientific developments, increasing adoption of alternative proteins, and encouraging private sector growth. The part of their work that we're most excited about is precision fermentation: a process which allows specific proteins to be produced at-scale.
If we could replace just 20% of ruminant meat protein with precision-fermented protein by 2050, we could halve annual deforestation; pound-for-pound, precision fermentation requires 79-86% less land area than beef. We penciled an estimate that every $6,800,000 given to the Good Food Institute will result in one more species being saved from extinction in the next 200 years.
Precision fermentation is a good target because it is currently underfunded, highly scalable, at a stage with high leverage, and has the potential for massive global impact.
It has the potential to permanently reduce deforestation and biodiversity loss within 5-10 years, and stands out above other methods to reduce future biodiversity loss.
On our mission finding the world's most effective biodiversity interventions, we have collected a longlist of 65 biodiversity interventions, narrowed them down to have a closer look at a shortlist of ~15 of the most promising ones, identified the top 3 and then roughly quantified their impact. From there, we searched for organizations actively working on our top intervention, compared their cost-effectiveness and capacity to absorb donations, and singled out the Good Food Institute.
Read more about our process here.
If our work has informed your decision to donate to GFI, please do so via the buttons on this page and send us an email so that we can track our impact.
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