Programs
Climate & Nature
Commodity meat & dairy pose critical risks to climate and nature—and major opportunities for transformation.
Each year, roughly 80 billion land animals and trillions of sea creatures are killed for food. Roughly 75% of this occurs across large-scale industrial feeding, rearing, and slaughter operations. These operations are placing increasing strain on the ecosystems underpinning global food production, presenting a threat to food security worldwide.
Clearing land for cattle grazing and animal feed production is a leading cause of global deforestation and biodiversity loss, and in every region, commodity feed crop production and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are driving soil degradation, desertification, and eutrophication (pollution of estuaries and coastal waters). At the same time, industrial fishing and aquaculture are degrading marine ecosystems through overfishing, bycatch, pollution, and disease, rapidly accelerating the loss of aquatic biodiversity and threatening future seafood supply. Concentrated in middle- and high-income countries and regions, including Brazil, China, US, and the EU, commodity meat, dairy, and seafood production and consumption are the leading sources of zoonotic disease risk, major contributors to chronic disease burden, and the primary drivers of animal suffering.
Experts across climate science, ecology, and public health agree that a business-as-usual trajectory for commodity meat, dairy, and seafood will push our biosphere beyond critical planetary boundaries. Shifting diets away from these products—particularly in high- and over-consuming regions like the US—is a necessary step toward protecting ecosystems and sustainably feeding a growing global population.
Sustainable proteins offer a powerful solution. Replacing even just a portion of animal-derived food products with plant-based, fermented, or cultivated ingredients can reduce emissions, land and water use, and nutrient pollution while maintaining nutritional quality and food accessibility. These innovations also eliminate the risk of zoonotic spillover and avoid many of the systemic harms embedded in industrial animal agriculture.
Mobilizing resources for sustainable protein innovation and scale
FSI’s Climate & Nature program exists to help close the gap between climate ambition and capital deployment.
We work to mobilize and align philanthropic, public, and private capital in support of sustainable protein innovation and scale. Our approach focuses on translating science, policy, and market dynamics into actionable investment insights; strengthening enabling conditions through research, narrative development, and policy engagement; and equipping funders and investors with the tools needed to deploy capital effectively.
We work across the capital spectrum, from philanthropic funders building ecosystem capacity, to private investors backing commercial scale, to development finance institutions catalyzing emerging market opportunities.
Our guiding conviction is simple: when catalytic capital reduces early risk, supports enabling policy, and accelerates proven solutions, it can drive meaningful displacement of commodity meat and dairy products and unlock a more resilient, humane, and climate-aligned food system.
The urgency to scale sustainable proteins has never been greater
The climate case is increasingly stark. The five largest meat and dairy companies alone are responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions annually than ExxonMobil, Shell, or BP. At the same time, major commodity traders are retreating from the 2016 Amazon Soy Moratorium to grow more animal feed just as scientists warn that the Amazon is approaching irreversible ecological tipping points. UN experts now describe a state of global “water bankruptcy,” while meat and dairy supply chains account for roughly 30 percent of global freshwater use.
Despite this urgency, investment in sustainable protein innovation remains far below what is needed. The sector has attracted roughly $20 billion in total investment over the past decade, dwarfed by the $200–400 billion in annual subsidies supporting conventional meat and dairy and the hundreds of billions more in private capital flowing to industrial animal agriculture.
And yet, the opportunity is real. Sustainable proteins are entering a new phase of development marked by meaningful advances in taste, texture, nutrition, and cost; the rise of B2B business models and balanced protein product innovation; and growing alignment across climate, health, and biodiversity agendas. Governments, investors, and civil society are increasingly recognizing protein diversification as a core climate and food-system strategy.
Leadership
This program is led by Kelly McNamara.
Get Involved
Transforming the food system will require bold action from philanthropic funders, impact investors, and leaders in sustainable finance. Contact us if you’re exploring how capital can be mobilized to drive meaningful change at the intersection of climate, nature, and food.
“We’re at an inflection point where the science is a clarion call, the technology is ready, and the market signals are aligning—but the capital isn’t flowing at the scale this crisis demands. I’m in this work because I believe we can change that. Sustainable proteins aren’t just a climate and nature solution; they’re one of the most powerful levers we have to transform our food system.”
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