CharitiesALLFED
ALLFED
Charity

Alliance to Feed The Earth in Disasters (ALLFED)

Food System Resilience to Global Catastrophes

Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED) aims to build resilience to global catastrophic food shocks through research, development, and policy recommendations.

Reducing global catastrophic risks
ALLFED currently (Spring 2025) faces a major funding gap, reporting: "Without new funding, we will need to cut at least half of our budget in 2025. This will mean significantly scaling down our programs, including our research output, and the ability to support governments in preparing for global food system shocks."
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What problem is ALLFED working on?

There are many serious threats to our food systems. A nuclear war or large volcanic eruption could drastically reduce crop yields. Nuclear electromagnetic pulses or a severe pandemic could disrupt industries and food supplies on a massive scale. ALLFED believes the risk of such catastrophes in the coming decades is uncomfortably high (for example, an up to 80% chance of Multiple Breadbasket Failure this century due to simultaneous extreme weather events) and food shortages caused by these catastrophes could be deadly.

ALLFED reports that if a catastrophe occurs that is large enough to deplete 5% or more of global calorie output, or access to those calories, then the loss of food would likely kill far more people than the catastrophe itself.

What does ALLFED do?

  • ALLFED’s mission is to help build resilience to global catastrophic food system failure.
  • ALLFED seeks to provide practical, affordable, and resilient food solutions so that, in the event of a global catastrophe, governments, industry, and communities can respond quickly and distribute food equitably, saving lives and promoting the continuation of global cooperation.
  • ALLFED researches resilient foods that can be scaled up quickly in a catastrophe, and ALLFED’s solutions involve global alliance building and preparedness planning for resilient food systems. Because this work is so neglected and there is significant risk, ALLFED believes it is likely that this research will cost-effectively save lives and improve the long-term future. ALLFED is also studying the best ways to communicate with governments and the public during a catastrophe.
  • ALLFED has received funding from an EA Lottery, the Centre for Effective Altruism, the Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative and multiple times from the Survival and Flourishing Fund.

What information does Giving What We Can have about the cost-effectiveness of ALLFED?1.

We don't currently have further information about the cost-effectiveness of ALLFED beyond it doing work in a high-impact cause area and taking a reasonably promising approach.

Please note that GWWC does not evaluate individual charities. Our recommendations are based on the research of third-party, impact-focused charity evaluators our research team has found to be particularly well-suited to help donors do the most good per dollar, according to their recent evaluator investigations. Our other supported programs are those that align with our charitable purpose — they are working on a high-impact problem and take a reasonably promising approach (based on publicly-available information).

At Giving What We Can, we focus on the effectiveness of an organisation's work -- what the organisation is actually doing and whether their programs are making a big difference. Some others in the charity recommendation space focus instead on the ratio of admin costs to program spending, part of what we’ve termed the “overhead myth.” See why overhead isn’t the full story and learn more about our approach to charity evaluation.