The Good Food Institute: Deep Dive

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Summary

• What is the Good Food Institute? The Good Food Institute (GFI) is a nonprofit that seeks to make alternative proteins (alt proteins) competitive with conventional proteins in terms of taste and price. Launched in 2016, GFI is headquartered in the US and has independent affiliate offices in the Asia Pacific region (based in Singapore), Brazil, Europe, India, Israel, and Japan. 

• How could GFI help address climate change? Livestock emissions include direct emissions from livestock, such as methane release from cows, and indirect emissions, such as those caused by land use change. Reducing livestock production is an important lever for driving down emissions and freeing up some land that could be used for carbon sequestration activities. We think that GFI’s work to make alternative proteins equal to or better than conventional meat could make alternative proteins the default choice for more consumers, resulting in fewer food system emissions.

• What does GFI do? GFI has three focus areas: science, policy, and industry. Its science-focused activities include identifying research gaps, publishing open-source technical analyses, regranting to and advocating for open-access research, building the talent pipeline, and convening scientists. Its policy workstream includes advocating for increased government funding for alternative protein research and development, campaigning for fair-label laws, challenging cultivated meat bans, and establishing a clear path to market for cultivated meat. Its industry work includes supporting smaller alternative protein startups and building relationships with large agri-food companies to encourage them to invest in alternative protein products.

• What has GFI accomplished historically? We think GFI’s advocacy has helped increase public funding for alt protein R&D, such as the $523 million governments committed to alt proteins in 2023. It has also worked with governments to develop alt protein strategies and regulatory frameworks. Furthermore, it achieved victories in several labeling law initiatives and established a talent and training network for the alt protein industry under its Alt Protein Project.

• What’s new at GFI in 2024? GFI added significant wins to its track record in 2024. Highlights include its partnership with the Bezos Earth Fund, which unlocked $100 million of funding for three global alternative protein research centers; engagement with Singapore’s Islamic council on the ruling that cultivated meat can be halal; and opening a new office in Japan. Its ongoing work includes continued wins unlocking millions of dollars of public funding for alternative protein innovation, securing support for alternative proteins as national priorities, and challenging several cultivated meat bans in Europe and the US.

• What is GFI’s cost-effectiveness? In 2022, we developed a cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) as a rough plausibility check estimating the cost-effectiveness of GFI’s historical work on increasing funding for alt protein research and development. We use this outcome as a proxy for the cost-effectiveness of a 2024 donation to GFI. Overall, we estimate that GFI is highly cost-effective. We have low confidence in this CEA, but generally view it as a positive input to our overall assessment of GFI. We lightly updated this CEA in 2024.

• Is there room for more funding? GFI is currently fundraising for its three-year goal of $125 million, running from 2023-2025, with a 2024 budget of $40.7 million. As of November 2024, GFI had approximately $52 million to raise for this goal. GFI would use this funding to maintain core operations across its seven global organizations and expand internationally, including its recent launch of GFI Japan and plans for building GFI Korea. If GFI were to meet its funding goals, it would prioritize growing activities in Korea, Japan, and other research-strong countries in Europe.

• Are there major co-benefits or potential risks? We think GFI’s co-benefits and potential risks are tied to those of alt proteins. Co-benefits include improved farm animal welfare; improved food security; reduced antimicrobial resistance and risk of zoonotic disease; lower land, water, and fertilizer demand; reduced risk of chronic disease from meat consumption; and reduced biodiversity loss. At the same time, there is uncertainty about the job transition that would happen if there were a major shift away from traditional livestock production.

• Key uncertainties and open questions: Key uncertainties include how rapidly alt proteins can improve in taste and price, how social and cultural dynamics will influence the consumer acceptance of cultivated meat, and the scalability of cultivated meat. These factors all affect the extent to which alt proteins can displace meat and reduce livestock emissions. 

• Bottom line / next steps: We classify GFI as one of our Top Nonprofits to address climate change. We believe donations to GFI could additionally increase its organizational growth trajectory. We plan to continue to assess our key uncertainties and believe that we will be able to substantially improve our understanding of the severity and importance of these uncertainties as GFI executes its strategies in 2025.