Bridging Monitoring and Action in the Food System Transition

On various occasions opportunities are identified for bridging monitoring and action in the food system transition. Thom Achterbosch represented FutureFoodS at the roundtable on “Measuring and Communicating Progress on EU and Urban Food Systems”, hosted by Eurocities at the Global Forum of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact last October. There he also gave a training on how to monitor innovation action at the Thematic partnership on Food of the Urban Agenda of the EU (UAEU) and contributed to a panel session hosted by RUAF around a set of actions and indicators to help cities integrate climate mitigation and adaptation into urban food policies. He also co-hosted a working session on food systems monitoring at the Food 2030 Networks conference on 2-4 December in Copenhagen.

One of FutureFoodS’ goals is to establish a European Food System Observatory - identifying key leverage points for transition and assessing how drivers, activities, and outcomes interconnect. Strong synergies are emerging between system monitoring through an Observatory and stakeholder engagement in LivingLabs to accelerate change towards sustainable food systems.

In a collective effort, experts from FutureFoodS and CLEVERFOOD will engage in piloting a monitoring perspective on living labs as drivers of transformative governance in the EU food system. The pilot will leverage the collective intelligence in the Food 2030 Connected Lab Network, hosted by CLEVERFOOD, and the network of living labs hosted by FutureFoodS. Other initiatives involved include the Thematic Partnership on Food under the UAEU, the European Food Systems Science Network (FoSSNet), and FoodCLIC.

For more information, contact Thom Achterbosch (thom.achterbosch@wur.nl).