Jeff Bezos has a new philanthropic venture: producing protein that is sustainable and climate friendly.
What’s happening:
- Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos' philanthropic venture arm Bezos Earth Fund has made a new commitment to funding sustainable protein production
- The new charitable pledge will see $60M USD go towards accelerating technology breakthroughs in areas of food technology such as cultivated meat and reducing carbon emissions in agriculture
Why it matters:
- Cultivated meat startups have been on the rise recently amidst lab grown meat becoming legal in the United States, Singapore and Israel
- Both factory farming and traditional methods of agriculture are enormous sources of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon emissions that need innovation to get closer to net zero climate aspirations
By the numbers:
- The Bezos Earth Fund has committed to providing a total of $10B USD to climate tech ventures and environmental projects to reduce emissions globally
Going deeper:
- As part of the new funding for sustainable protein production methods the Bezos Earth Fund has committed to launching new university led research centres that aim to find alternatives to pork, chicken and dairy farming
- One of the most important areas of focus for the Bezos Earth Fund is finding ways to leverage technology breakthroughs to cut down the costs of producing sustainable proteins at commercial scale
