How will we feed the next billion? | Tony's interview from XPRIZE: Future Positive

For over 25 years, XPRIZE has convened the brightest minds from around the globe to tackle the world's greatest challenges. One of the most pressing problems facing humanity today is food insecurity, and the need for nutritious, affordable, and sustainably-sourced food has reached critical status.

In this exciting interview with XPRIZE Founder and Executive Chairman, Peter H. Diamandis, Tony talks about the inspiration behind the latest competition, the $15M XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion. This episode is from XPRIZE's own Future Positive podcast and released with their permission here.

By 2050, Earth's population will have reached 9.7 billion. The demand for high protein products is increasing while the impact from current meat production practices is devastating our planet. The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened food insecurity, food safety, and access for many communities around the world. Furthermore, cities projected to face rapid population growth and wealth increase are experiencing surges in demand for poultry and fish as opposed to red meat.

While there is increasing activity in utilizing plant-based and cultivated approaches to create meat alternatives, more work is needed to make it widespread. XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion is a $15M competition incentivizing teams to produce chicken and fish alternatives that replicate or outperform conventional protein in structure, versatility, sensory properties, and nutritional profile, while having a lower comparable environmental footprint.

Tony has made it one of his life's missions to help feed as many people as possible. His family struggled to put food on the table growing up, and it was one stranger's kindness that inspired Tony to give back as an adult. As a philanthropist, through his partnership with Feeding America, Tony has provided over 500 million meals in the last 5 years to those in need. He's on track to provide 1 billion meals over the next 5 years.

Peter H. Diamandis is the founder and executive chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, which leads the world in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions. He is also the executive founder of Singularity University, a graduate-level Silicon Valley institution that counsels the world's leaders on exponentially growing technologies.

As an entrepreneur, Diamandis has started over 20 companies in the areas of longevity, space, venture capital and education. He is cofounder of BOLD Capital Partners, a venture fund with $250M investing in exponential technologies, and co-founder and Vice Chairman of Celularity, Inc., a cellular therapeutics company. He earned degrees in molecular genetics and aerospace engineering from MIT and holds an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

Diamandis is a New York Times best-selling author, and his newest book in this series of exponential technologies – The Future is Faster Than You Think – was released on January 28, 2020. His favorite saying is "the best way to predict the future is to create it yourself."