Sustainable food supply in Europe

We are making Europe’s food supply more sustainable. Through studies and experiments, we find answers to the questions of what makes farmers grow more sustainably, what makes consumers buy more consciously and what incentives policy can provide.

How can the carbon footprint of milk and cheese be reduced? How can Europeans’ meat consumption be reduced? And what can public institutions do to promote organic farming in their country? We are investigating these and many other questions in the VISIONARY science project.

Together with twelve partner organizations from eight European countries, we are shedding light on the entire food supply chain in Europe. We identify the biggest challenges and obstacles that are slowing us down on the path to greater sustainability and develop proposals for solutions for politics, agriculture and trade. We connect all relevant stakeholders along the supply chain to maximize the impact of our findings.

Project area

Goals

Key factors that influence the behavior of farmers with regard to political measures will be identified in order to introduce behavior-oriented approaches for political measures.

Consumer-oriented incentives and advertising measures in supermarkets are being tested and initiatives along the value chains are being investigated to find out which strategies and models are successful in creating a market for sustainably produced food.

Political obstacles and incentives are considered in order to be able to make recommendations on decisive leverage points in the agricultural and food system.

Considerable resources are used to facilitate the development of relationships and strengthen interfaces between politics and science.

Impacts

Understanding sustainable management

Develop a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities in developing sustainable, climate-neutral and biodiversity-friendly farming systems – both at farm and landscape level.

Switch to sustainable agriculture

A better understanding of why farmers are switching to sustainable, climate-neutral and biodiversity-friendly farming systems – or why they are not.

Understanding sustainable consumption

Understand why consumer groups do or do not buy sustainable, climate-neutral and biodiversity-friendly food.

Understanding sustainable value creation#

A better understanding of why actors across the agricultural value chain and food systems are moving towards sustainable, climate-neutral and biodiversity-friendly production and consumption systems – or why they are not.

Improving sustainable agricultural policy

Better design and implementation of relevant policies, in particular the CAP, farm-to-table strategies and biodiversity strategies, which provide effective incentives for large-scale and long-term behavioral changes of farmers towards sustainable, climate-neutral and biodiversity-friendly farming systems.

Promoting sustainable production

farmers to produce in a more sustainable, climate-neutral and biodiversity-friendly way – through better agricultural advice and business strategies based on the common interests of the relevant stakeholders.