Soil began its journey as a mixture of organic matter and minerals, creating an evolutionary ecosystem that enabled agriculture to take root — this was Soil 1.0. With the advent of synthetic fertilizers and industrialized farming, soil has become a delivery medium for chemicals to fight weeds and pests and enhance yields — this is Soil 2.0.

While yields have indeed increased, this system is destorying soil organic matter, turning soil into dirt, leaching fertilizers, and creating an over-reliance on irrigation, reduced capacity to withstand drought, and higher input costs for farmers. Ultimately, Soil 2.0 cannot meet the demands of a growing global population and a resource-constrained planet where we have to grow more with less. We need a new soil operating system.

In its inaugural annual FoodShot, we aim to identify breakthrough solutions that create the new soil operating system — Soil 3.0 — in which advances in biology, chemistry, data, genetics, machine learning, and technology will re-establish a symbiotic relationship between agriculture and soil in our modern food system. Soil 3.0 will enable soil, on a global basis, to sustain 10 billion people and sustain the planet.

FoodShot Global winners will build a new soil foundation by providing technological or ecological tools that enable farmers to maximize the long-term health of the land and reverse the trend of Soil 2.0, in which inputs prioritize near-term agricultural yields at the expense of future fertility.