Impossible Foods received the 2019 United Nations Global Climate Action Award in the “Planetary Health” category, which recognizes novel solutions that balance the need for human health and a healthy planet.
The award is part of the UN’s wider effort to mobilize action and ambition as national governments work toward implementing the goals of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Impossible Foods’ CEO and Founder Dr. Patrick O. Brown accepted the award with other winners at the 2019 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25) in Madrid, Spain.
COP25’s environmental conference features more than 25,000 participants from nearly 200 countries and about 50 heads of state. The conference focuses in part on how to reduce the impact of our meat-centric food system, including the depletion of freshwater, emissions of toxic greenhouse gases and biodiversity collapse.
At the conference, the UN also hosted an event with Impossible Foods and youth activists focused on environmental accountability, titled, “What do we owe future generations?”
“Unless we act quickly to reduce or eliminate the use of animals in the food system, we are racing toward ecological disaster,” said Impossible Foods’ CEO and Founder Dr. Patrick O. Brown. “But I’m hopeful because younger generations are quickly discovering that ‘meat is heat,’ and they are uniquely poised to turn us away from the brink of catastrophe.”
Based in Redwood City, Calif., Impossible Foods uses modern science and technology to create delicious food, restore natural ecosystems and feed a growing population sustainably. The company makes meat from plants — with a much smaller environmental footprint than meat from animals.
The flagship product, Impossible Burger, is available in more than 17,000 restaurants in the U.S., Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau.