Grants Archive - Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research

New pathogens can lead to severe crop losses that threaten food security. University of California, Berkeley researchers are addressing devastating disease epidemics by using gene editing technology to combine resistance genes in wheat crops. that specifically recognize the pathogen’s proteins.

Genome Editing Wheat for Durable and Sustainable Disease Resistance

FFAR award amount $900,000

Year Awarded 2020

Total award amount $3,272,723

Location Berkeley, CA

Matching Funders 2Blades Foundation, Innovative Genomics Institute

Program Seeding Solutions

There are millions of Americans who do not know where their next meal comes from. To combat food insecurity, Feeding America is evaluating the effect of the Regional Produce Cooperative, a model that provides a greater variety of produce to food banks at a lower cost, on the charitable food system.

Integrating Community and Modeling Efforts to Evaluate Impacts and Tradeoffs of Food System Interventions

FFAR award amount $100,000

Year Awarded 2020

Total award amount $2,000,718

Location Fort Collins, CO

Program Tipping Points

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is highlighting food system deficiencies. Producers are struggling to reach consumers due to concerns with processing, distribution and demand. We provided supplemental funding to the Colorado State University research team to evaluate how food is provided through emergency feeding programs, who uses these services, the costs of these services, the food provided and its dietary quality

Finding the Proper Levers: Identifying Leverage Points for Tranformation in Urban Food Systems Through Participatory Modeling

FFAR award amount $99,230

Year Awarded 2020

Total award amount $99,230

Location Flint, MI

Program Tipping Points

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is highlighting food system deficiencies. Producers are struggling to reach consumers due to concerns with processing, distribution and demand. We provided supplemental funding to the Michigan State University research team investigating how emergency food programs, including food banks, schools and Meals on Wheels, intersect with the retail sector.

Modeling the Future of Food in Your Neighborhood

FFAR award amount $100,000

Year Awarded 2020

Total award amount $100,000

Location Cleveland, OH

Program Tipping Points

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is highlighting food system deficiencies. Producers are struggling to reach consumers due to concerns with processing, distribution and demand. We provided supplemental funding to the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine research team to model the effects of COVID-19 in neighborhoods with high, medium and low food security before March 2020. Their findings will be used to tailor food system solutions to diverse neighborhood contexts.

Environmental and Nutritional Benefits of Food Recovery and Redistribution: A Pilot Assessment in New York’s Capital Region

FFAR award amount $99,987

Year Awarded 2020

Total award amount $99,987

Location Albany, NY

Program Tipping Points

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is highlighting food system deficiencies. Producers are struggling to reach consumers due to concerns with processing, distribution and demand. We provided supplemental funding to the University at Albany research team to study how COVID-19 is impacting food access in New York’s Capital Region. This research is focusing on how the fresh produce recovery and redistribution arm of the Capital Region food system is responding to changes resulting from COVID-19.

Evaluating Food Access Strategies in Austin To Improve Healthy Food Consumption and Food Security

FFAR award amount $83,356

Year Awarded 2020

Total award amount $83,356

Location Austin, TX

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is highlighting food system deficiencies. Producers are struggling to reach consumers due to concerns with processing, distribution and demand. We provided supplemental funding to FRESH Austin to examine the impact of the pandemic on access to fresh, nutritious food in the Austin area.

Conservation of an Endophytic Insect-pathogenic Fungus for Plant Protection in Organic Cropping Systems.

FFAR award amount $19,468

Year Awarded 2020

Total award amount $19,468

Location State College, PA

Matching Funders Organic Farming Research Foundation

Weeds, pests and diseases often devastate soil health, impact environmental health and threaten global food security. In partnership with the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF), we awarded a grant to Pennsylvania State University researchers examine how to promote and conserve the beneficial soil fungus, Metarhizium robertsii. This fungus can increase plant growth and tolerance to environmental stresses, which are expected to increase with climate change.

Cover Crops for Soil Health: Demonstration of On-Farm Trial

FFAR award amount $19,620

Year Awarded 2020

Total award amount $19,620

Location Rio Grande, TX

Matching Funders Organic Farming Research Foundation

Weeds, pests and diseases often devastate soil health, impact environmental health and threaten global food security. In partnership with the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF), we awarded a grant to the University of Texas at Rio Grande to evaluate whether cover crops can restore soil health, suppress weeds and reduce pest populations. This research provides farmers with information on cover crop selection and management that improves the long-term sustainability of organic agriculture systems.

Biosolarization: Harnessing the Sun and Organic Matterfor Weed Control

FFAR award amount $17,337

Year Awarded 2020

Total award amount $17,337

Location Sacramento Valley, CA

Matching Funders Organic Farming Research Foundation

Weeds, pests and diseases devastate soil health, impact environmental health and threaten global food security. In partnership with the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF), we awarded a grant to The National Center for Appropriate Technology to measuring the efficacy of biosolarization—an innovative weed control that combines soil solarization (trapping solar radiation under a plastic tarp) with biofumigation (using biologically-active plant substances to suppress soil-borne pests and pathogens) – to prove that biosolarization provides weed control in a better and more timely manner.

Awarded GrantsBelow is a listing of our awarded grants that tackle big food and agriculture challenges.

Challenge Area

Consortia

Program

Location

Year

156 Grants found

Precision Bred Adaptation of Elite Taurine Breeds of Beef and Dairy Cattle

Genome Editing Wheat for Durable and Sustainable Disease Resistance

Integrating Community and Modeling Efforts to Evaluate Impacts and Tradeoffs of Food System Interventions

Finding the Proper Levers: Identifying Leverage Points for Tranformation in Urban Food Systems Through Participatory Modeling

Modeling the Future of Food in Your Neighborhood

Environmental and Nutritional Benefits of Food Recovery and Redistribution: A Pilot Assessment in New York’s Capital Region

Evaluating Food Access Strategies in Austin To Improve Healthy Food Consumption and Food Security

Conservation of an Endophytic Insect-pathogenic Fungus for Plant Protection in Organic Cropping Systems.

Cover Crops for Soil Health: Demonstration of On-Farm Trial

Biosolarization: Harnessing the Sun and Organic Matterfor Weed Control

Accelerated Development of Crops of the Future

Biological Control of Cattle Fever Ticks in South Texas

Noninvasive Wellness Monitoring of Broiler Growout Using Continuous Audio Analytics

Development of an Automated Broiler Gait Score and Flock Activity Assessment System

Smart Monitoring of Broiler Welfare using Camera Technology and Machine Learning

Innovative On-Farm Broiler Welfare Assessment Using Imaging Techniques

Flockfocus – Developing Automated Surveillance Tools to Safeguard Chicken Welfare

OpticFlock: Automated Monitoring of Broiler Chicken Behavior That Prioritizes Animal Welfare

Environmental Enrichment Effects on Pig Welfare

National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food & Agriculture Research

Advancing Apple Production Systems to Boost Health-Promoting Phytochemicals in Fruit

Exploring Plant-Microbiome-Environment Interactions Towards Tailoring Plant Disease Management

Vulnerabilities of Snowmelt-Dependent Irrigated Agriculture

A Multi-scalar, Multi-objective Approach to Sustainable Water Management within Agricultural Systems

Metagenomic Probes for the Rapid Identification of the Microbiome Community in A Wheat Rhizospheremodel System

A Systematic Approach to Improve Heifer Selection and the Sustainability of Beef Production.

Improving the Nutritional Quality of Tomatoes

Harnessing Multi-Trophic Chemical Ecology to Obtain Sustainable Pest Control and Improved Soil Health

Kirchner Food Fellowship

FFAR Fellows 2019 Cohort

Tools to Detect and Understand Spread of African Swine Fever Virus

Age Susceptibility and Lateral Transmission of Turkey Arthritis Reovirus

A Microchip-based Chemical Sensor For Early-Stage in Ovo Sex Determination of Layer Chicks

En-ovo Sex Determination By Fiber Optic Volatiles Analysis and Machine Learning

Innovative Techniques for Fast in Ovo Sexing in Poultry By Detection of Gender Specific Volatiles

Multidimensional Spectral Mapping for Sex Determination of Avian Eggs

Orbem.ai: Magnetic Resonance Imaging Meets Artificial Intelligence for Automated and Non-invasive in Ovo Sex Determination

Rapid and Non-invasive Egg Sex Indentification Using Artficially Intelligent Platform

Ecosystem Marketplace Consortium

Spatializing the Environmental Impacts of US Dairy Supply Chains

Development of Prevention, Detection and Response Strategies for the Asian Lognhorned Tick (Haemaphysalis longicornis)

Partnership with Organic Farming Research Foundation

Partnership with Organic Farming Research Foundation

Addressing future global dairy demand: Targeting the gut-liver axis to promote heat stress resilience in dairy cattle .

Crops in Silico 3.0

Blackfeet Innovation Pathways to Food Sovereignty: Sustainability through Indigenous Applied Research Partnerships

Employing Regional Produce Cooperatives to Enhance Household Nutrition and Reduce Food Insecurity

Evaluation of feed additives to mitigate the risk of viral-contaminated feed to pigs

Integration of Small Farmers into Technology-enabled, Rapid-response Fresh Food Supply Chains

National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agriculture Research

Partnership with Organic Farming Research Foundation

OpenTEAM

Stopping A New Threat to The Lettuce Industry in Florida: Fusarium Wilt

Improving Dairy Feed Efficiency, Sustainability and Profitability by Impacting Farmer’s Breeding and Culling Decisions

A Coupled Natural-Human System Approach to Solving Locust Plagues

Advanced Harvest Techniques Facilitate Food Safe Soil Health Practices in Almond Orchards

A Pipeline for Streamlined Development and Testing of Novel Controls for the Honey Bee Parasitic Mite Varroa Destructor

Bioindicators for A Sustainable Future: Dancing Honey Bees Communicate Habitats’ Ability to Feed Pollinators

Automated Computer Vision System for Tracking Individual Pig Activity and Locomotion in Nursery/Finisher Group Housing

Assessing & Expanding Soil Health for Production, Economics, & the Environmental Benefits v2

An Integrated Approach to Improve Whole Herd Pig Survivability

Can Commodity Crop Weed Management Practices Enhance Bee Abundance, Diversity, And Health on Agricultural Land?

Development of Environmental Conditioning Practices to Decrease Impacts of Climate Change on Shellfish Aquaculture

Development of a Farmer-Focused Disease Prevention and Preparedness Tool

Developing Public School Curricula and Training High School Students and Teachers as Ambassadors for Pollinator Protection

Developing CRISPR-Cpf1 Genome Editing Technologies for Crop Improvement

Crops of the Future: Corn Drought Resistance

Crops of the Future Initial Project: Leafy Greens

Evaluation of Best Management Practices for Bumble Bee and Monarch Habitat

Evaluating Food Access Strategies in Austin To Improve Healthy Food Consumption and Food Security

Environmental and Nutritional Benefits of Food Recovery and Redistribution: A Pilot Assessment in New York’s Capital Region

Effects of Multiple Stressors on Pollinator Health in the Southern Plains

Effects of Asymptomatic Listeriosis on Dairy Cattle Fecal Microbiota

Awarded Grants
Below is a listing of our awarded grants that tackle big food and agriculture challenges.