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

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53 Grants found

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Direct Linkage of Dietary Components with Metabolizers in the Microbiota

Year Awarded  2018

FFAR award amount   $299,535

Total award amount   $599,070

Location   Raleigh, NC

Matching Funders   North Carolina State University

Grantee Institution   NC State University

Diet effects gut microbiota, which can provide beneficial or detrimental effects in human and animal health. North Carolina State University researchers are linking dietary components to the microbes in intestinal tracts of humans and animals to design diets that foster health-promoting microbes and deprive disease-causing microbes of their food source.

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

Year Awarded  2018

FFAR award amount   $433,152

Total award amount   $870,998

Location   Albany, NY

Matching Funders   Bellwether Collaboratory, Capital Roots, The Food Pantries for the Capital District, John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Radix Ecological Sustainability Center, University at Albany Foundation, the University at Albany School of Public Health—State University of New York

Grantee Institution   Research Foundation of SUNY

Food recovery programs have the potential to reroute food that would otherwise go to waste to underserved people in the community. University of Albany researchers are creating a computational model to evaluate the components of fresh produce recovery and redistribution.

A Coupled Natural-Human System Approach to Solving Locust Plagues

Year Awarded  2018

FFAR award amount   $298,835

Total award amount   $607,729

Location   Tempe, AZ

Matching Funders   ASU-Global Institute of Sustainability

Grantee Institution   Arizona State University

Locusts devastate agriculture globally, especially in subsistence farming communities. Locust outbreaks are unpredictable; however, sustainable land use can keep locusts at bay. Arizona State University researchers are exploring connections between land-use practices and locust outbreaks, while identifying and addressing barriers to sustainable locust management.

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

While city-level policies are reducing food insecurity in Denver, Colorado, the state is lagging behind. Colorado State University researchers are building a computational model of the current food system to evaluate the potential for city-based food system policies and initiatives to support similar efforts throughout the state.

Defining Stressors to Manage Plasticity & Quality in Leafy Greens

Year Awarded  2017

FFAR award amount   $994,035

Total award amount   $1,989,030

Location   Newark, NJ

Matching Funders   AeroFarms

Grantee Institution   Aerofarms

While current plant breeding research focuses on adapting plants to their environments, AeroFarms, Rutgers University and Cornell University, are investigating how to harness environmental conditions indoors to improve characteristics in plants. The project is improving the quality, taste and nutrition of leafy greens crops.

Fostering Innovative, Sustainable Urban Farming Methods to Meet Food Needs

Year Awarded  2017

FFAR award amount   $294,988

Total award amount   $590,189

Location   Berkeley, CA

Matching Funders   The Regents of the University of California

Grantee Institution   University of California Berkely

Ensuring urban agriculture can sustainably feed urban populations in the future requires understanding current urban agriculture challenges from a policy and systems perspective. University of California, Berkeley researchers are improving the sustainability and resilience of urban farms by building soil health, conserving water and promoting beneficial insects. The project will also evaluate the effectiveness of existing food access and food distribution methods for meeting food needs of urban food insecure communities and develop policy recommendations in collaboration with community stakeholders.

Diet, the human gastrointestinal microbiome and metabolic health

Year Awarded  2017

FFAR award amount   $299,744

Total award amount   $599,488

Location   Urbana-Champaign, IL

Matching Funders   The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Grantee Institution   University of Illinois

The microbiome in human guts and diet are linked to public health issues including obesity, liver disease and diabetes. While the microbiome is susceptible to changes in diet, there is a dearth of knowledge on how specific foods effect microbiome and how diet and the microbiome are related to disease treatment and prevention. University of Illinois researchers are furthering general understanding of how foods impacts health. The project is providing information that will help consumers to make healthful food choices.

Closing the Gap in Delivery of Fruit and Vegetable Benefits

Year Awarded  2017

FFAR award amount   $999,716

Total award amount   $2,005,846

Location   Raleigh, NC

Matching Funders   Dole Foods Company, Standard Process Inc., NC State University

Grantee Institution   NC State University

An estimated 87 percent of Americans do not eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables per day. North Carolina State University researchers are identifying breeding practices to improve the nutritional density of common fruits and vegetables in consumer products. This research is helping food companies develop products that more effectively deliver the health benefits of fruits and vegetables.

Innovation at the Nexus of Computational, Membrane and Plant Biology

Year Awarded  2017

FFAR award amount   $300,000

Total award amount   $600,000

Location   Urbana-Champaign, IL

Matching Funders   The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Grantee Institution   University of Illinois

Modern agriculture uses large amounts of fertilizer to maximize crop yield. However, up to 70 percent of applied Nitrogen is not absorbed by plants, resulting in extensive air and water pollution. The current understanding of the Nitrogen process in plants is limited by the lack of information at the molecular level. University of Illinois researchers are developing new approaches to understand the plant nitrogen uptake process.

Individually-targeted incentives, diet quality and health outcomes among adults

Year Awarded  2017

FFAR award amount   $300,000

Total award amount   $600,000

Location   Kingston, RI

Matching Funders   University of Rhode Island

Grantee Institution   University of Rhode Island

Despite efforts, diet has proven resilient to change and new approaches are needed to prevent diet-related illness. University of Rhode Island researchers are exploring whether individually targeted incentives can increase the adoption of healthier food patterns to cost-effectively improve health. Researchers are using an individual’s past food choices to inform the targeted food incentives to improve food quality purchases.