Today’s Youth, Building Tomorrow’s Food System
The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Dubai from November 30 to December 12, with over 100,000 participants, including government representatives, NGO delegates, corporate representatives, and others.
On December 11, the Food4Climate Pavilion, with the theme “Today’s Youth Building Tomorrow’s Food System,” hosted a session where ProVeg invited five youth representatives from China, South Korea, Sweden, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand to share their innovative, climate-friendly plant-based food solutions.
This year’s Asia-Pacific Food Innovation Challenge received a total of 384 proposals from 1,093 students across 260 schools, representing 23 countries and regions from Asia, Europe, North America, and beyond. After professional evaluation, 25 teams and their proposals successfully advanced to the finals. The finals of the 2023 Asia-Pacific Food Innovation Challenge are scheduled for December 28, 2023, and the final winners will be announced in early January 2024.
The five youth representatives shared innovative ideas on plant-based seafood, plant-based jerky snacks, and how to optimize flavors and clean labels using plant-based ingredients at the Food4Climate event.
Food4Climate is a pavilion organized by ProVeg as an observer organization at COP28. This pavilion serves as a space for events, providing a platform for expert discussions and fostering engagement with COP stakeholders on topics such as agricultural climate mitigation and adaptation solutions. This year, at COP28, ProVeg is actively building on the success of COP27, further emphasizing the necessity of transitioning to plant-based diets. The pavilion also advocates for the adoption of sustainable and resilient agricultural practices, as well as urging the reduction of food loss and waste.
About the ProVeg Food Innovation Challenge
Our food choices have a major impact on our health, society, and the environment. Plant-based diets are an effective solution that can simultaneously address several key global issues, including climate change, food security, animal welfare, health, and pandemics.
2023 marked the fourth year of the Food Innovation Challenge. A total of 11 companies participated in setting the challenges, all of which are well-known leading alternative protein companies from China and abroad.
