A Mooooonshot Prize

Cattle methane emissions, coupled with deforestation for their sustenance, constitute a notable contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and have led to the destruction of vast swathes of natural ecosystems.

Intensive cattle grazing is therefore not only a contributor of a potent greenhouse gas, it is also destroying the natural carbon sinks we need to control and reduce global emissions.

Reducing the impact of the global cattle industry could therefore play a significant role in halting climate change, but we need to do it in a way that wins support, rather than antagonising farmers and consumers.

Enter the Mooooonshot Prize; a visionary decade-long competition boasting a staggering $1 billion prize pool, allocated across initiatives with awards between $10 million to $50 million for game-changing solutions that will slash the impact of cattle farming by over 80%.

For example, a potential winner might be:

• Aproject for ‘Cowscrapers’; skyscrapers with floors specifically designed to give cows a great quality of life, capture their methane emissions and other agricultural run-off, and massively reduce the amount of land required to raise a herd, or;

  
  

• Innovations in cattle feed, such as the seaweed additives already developed, to reduce methane emissions, or;

  
  

• A ‘Wild Steak’ initiative, converting beef consumers to venison and other ethically culled wild game sourced from rewilded former cattle grazing areas, reducing methane emissions, restoring biodiversity, and providing a new financial model for conservation.

  
  

By incentivizing transformative ideas, the Mooooonshot Prize endeavours to catalyse a paradigm shift in agriculture, steering it toward a more sustainable and resilient existence with our planet's ecosystems.

The required $100 million per year prize money could be garnered from a 20p tax on all passengers taking off from, or landing in, the UK; with just under 250 million passngers per year, such an insigificant charge could deliver transformational change through the Mooooonshot prize.