A new reality brought about by COVID-19

Since then the world has changed tremendously and Christian Bugge Henriksen, who is the coordinator of the FoodSHIFT2030 project says: “We have all found ourselves in a new reality where we need to address both the direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 on the European food system. Regional producers and food chains are facing existential losses, putting regional economies and employment under severe pressure. Furthermore, the dependencies of most European regions and cities on global food chains and migrant workers, requires a reassessment of current business models. While still struggling to cope with and understand the scale and direction of these impacts on our food system, everyone involved in producing, distributing and preparing food in the private and public sector is seeking immediate support at the practical and strategic level.” 

‘We have all found ourselves in a new reality where we need to address both the direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 on the European food system.’

– Christian Bugge Henriksen, Project Coordinator

He continues: “As a response to COVID-19 we have established a dedicated COVID-19 Task Force, focused on supporting the FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs in implementing solutions and initiating actions to address the short-, medium and long-term impacts of COVID-19. In the short-term we need to adapt and respond to the COVID-19 crisis by reducing the spread of COVID-19 and supporting the food sector and their workers. In the medium-term we need to mitigate and recover by ensuring continuous access to sustainable, healthy, and affordable food, especially for vulnerable citizens. Finally, in order to become better prepared for multiple waves of COVID-19 as well as other similar or even more severe crisis in the future, we need to start now transforming and rebuilding our food system by increasing its sustainability, diversity, and resilience. All of this is very much aligned with the overall goals of the FoodSHIFT2030 project”. 

Pop-Machina aims to develop a makerspace with circular economy principles at the forefront.

FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs during COVID-19

Dirk Wascher, who is the Innovation Manager of the FoodSHIFT 2030 project and leading the COVID-19 Task Force has been in close contact with the FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs throughout the COVID-19 crisis and has compiled an overview of their initial responses to COVID-19. He says: “Some of our city-regions are severely affected by COVID-19, but it is amazing to see their strong initiative and high level of engagement in contributing to concrete solutions. In Barcelona they are 3D printing masks for food sector workers, students in Valldaura are capable of producing almost all they consume and non-profits are delivering healthy meals to health, transportation, and sanitation workers as well as to the homeless. In Athens they are distributing food for free to vulnerable groups and in Avignon the central kitchen is providing food for the elderly and homeless in collaboration with a food bank. In Brasov new brands promoting local food products have appeared, local action groups are supporting businesses in the food sector, online cooking workshops are appearing, and people are starting to pay more attention to the food waste they produce. Copenhagen is experiencing a surge in alternative logistical solutions to local food supply with urban restaurants, bars, and cafés providing delivery services. Furthermore, a large cooperative supermarket chain has opened its existing crowdfunding website to direct sales between consumers and small-scale local producers”.  

Where to Next?

Christian Bugge Henriksen adds “I am really impressed with this level of activity! In the FoodSHIFT 2030 project we are only slightly delayed according to our original plans and everybody is committed to working on their tasks and addressing COVID-19 while most of us are still working from home under lock-down. We will continue our work in the coming months by addressing also the medium- and long-term impacts of COVID-19. The FoodSHIFT2030 project is more relevant than ever, and we are still united in our efforts to transform the European food system to better meet the needs of the people and the planet!” 

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The key to solving food and nutrition security challenges in Europe and achieving the climate targets by 2030 is the substantial shift to more plant-based diets including reduced consumption of sugar and red meat, and increased consumption of nuts, fruits, vegetables, and legumes. As recently highlighted in the report from the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems, this transition to healthy diets is necessary to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.  

FoodSHIFT 2030 is working towards fostering the food system transition to become primarily plant-based, accelerating food system solutions to beyond state of the art and evaluating innovation potential of the FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs to contribute towards the achievement of the SDGs. The FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs will collectively target 11 out of the 17 SDGs through their innovation focus and actions and more often than not a FAL will contribute to multiple SDGs simultaneously – see some examples below. 

SDG1 – End poverty in all its forms & SDG 2 – Zero hunger  

The FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs in Brasov and Wroclaw contribute towards the achievement of SDG1 and SDG2. Wroclaw will aim to improve the accessibility of food gardens to different social and aging groups. Brasov will aim at integrating traditional, predominantly small-scale, local producers into an innovative and ambitious regional food. The municipalities involved in this will be able to learn from the FALs and scale the lessons learned to larger neighborhoods and diversity of people in the food chain whilst being supported by the FALs with necessary tools and entrepreneurial support. 

SDG11 – Make cities and human settlements & SDG15 – Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably 

The shift towards a sustainable, human-orientated food system will transform the layout, appearance, and infrastructure of our cities and the surrounding lands. This is associated with SDG11 and SDG15. Further, several FALs will actively redesign parts of the city. The Berlin FAL will construct an Urban Food Hub prototype (Ernährungshof) whilst the Belgium FAL will develop a new agricultural park in the vicinity of Oostende. The Bari FAL and Athens FAL will also promote sustainable land use and food chain strategies. This contributes towards a change in how cities should look like, where food can be produced, processed, distributed, and purchased.  

SDG3 – Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing & SDG12 – Ensure sustainable consumption 

The Bari FAL and Athens FAL will address SDG3 & SDG12. Not only will they work towards sustainable land use and food chain strategies but also involve young entrepreneurs, alongside students, in rural communities. The FALs in Avignon and Copenhagen will also promote SDG3 and SDG12 through accessible, healthy food in public canteens, schools, hospitals, and catering services. This educational model will promote sustainable employment opportunities post-project lifetime and educate a large percentage of FAL audiences on sustainable consumption, healthy lives, and wellbeing.

SDG4 – Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning 

The Bari FAL and Athens FAL will also address knowledge and capacity building in educational programs with a clear mission of including all actors in the food chain, not solely the producer. All FALs are included in achieving SDG4 due to the knock-on effects of innovative social media tools allowing access to information, people, profiles, and business networks. This also has the potential to be highly replicable in many other cities and regions in Europe.  

SDG8 – Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all 

Barcelona, Berlin, Bari, and Copenhagen FALs support SDG8 through capacity-building programs that establish the space for sustainable job professions. This is done through the empowerment of diversified food networks, designated spaces for new professions, entrepreneurial skills, and employment in all stages of the food sector.  

SDG9 – Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization & SDG13 – Take urgent action to combat 

All FALs are dedicated to SDG9 and SDG13, ensuring that industrial waste streams become available to the circular economy business plans. Participating SMEs which specialize in ITC and social media tool development will focus on promoting the transition to less meat and more plant-based diets to become a reality, within all participating FAL city-regions and beyond. 

SDG17 – Partnerships for the goals  

All FALs will strengthen partnership for sustainable development from the multi-actor consortium right through to diverse stakeholder and citizen engagement on specific innovation actions. 

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To create a citizen-driven transition of the food system by 2030, the FoodSHIFT 2030 project is working on 10 major themes in line with 11 SDGs. These 10 themes were created using a bottom–up approach based on the innovation strengths of the participating frontrunner city-regions. Each of the FALs defined an ‘innovation focus’ and several ‘innovation actions’ according to their strengths. Together, these innovation actions are covered by the ten major themes across the FALs. 

 Each of the FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs will simultaneously address multiple themes. All FALs will work on both social and technological innovation to provide food and nutrition security and contribute to job creation, while empowering citizens and supporting the achievement of the SDGs. Furthermore, the progress and outputs of the FALs within these 10 themes will be shared between all FALs, and in doing so will foster the maturing and upscaling of food system innovations across Europe. 

The 10 major themes

The FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs, together with their 10 overarching themes, individual innovation focus and actions, form part of a unique framework. This creates an efficient mechanism for maturing, combining, upscaling, and multiplying successful innovative food system solutions to support a citizen-driven food system transition in the European city-regions. This will utilize and support the transformative power of citizens who are already engaged in alternative food networks, NGOs, and SMEs through the operationalization of the 9 FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs and their defined innovation focus. This will not only foster and promote citizen-empowerment, but also bridge urban-rural cohesion and create a lasting positive impact on food system sustainability that will continue beyond the project lifetime. The major themes address the following eleven SGDs – SDG1, SDG2, SDG3, SDG4, SDG8, SDG9, SDG11, SDG12, SDG13, SDG15, and SDG17.  

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At the Roundtable 1 kick-off meeting in Copenhagen in February 2020, the Project Coordinator Christian Bugge Henriksen gave a presentation on how the FoodSHIFT 2030 project will transform the food system by addressing the triple challenge of climate change, malnutrition, and urbanization –

“Our house is on fire, our food is killing us, and we have disconnected ourselves from the land that feeds us. With current projections – in a business as usual scenario where we are not doing anything to limit GHG emissions the global average temperature will be more than 4 degrees higher in 2100. Currently 70% of all deaths in Europe can be ascribed to non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, strokes, and certain types of cancer that are all significantly affected by what we eat and how much we eat. Whereas GDP per capita in urban regions is 24% higher than the EU average, GDP per capita in rural regions is 30% lower than the EU average. With all these challenges we cannot delay action. And our youth has called upon us to act. We urgently need a green transition of our society, and we urgently need a transformation of our food system”.

A healthy diet is a primarily plant-based diet 

Recent research, including the report from the EAT-Lancet Commission that was published last year clearly demonstrates that a healthy diet is primarily a plant-based diet and that a plant-based diet has lower GHG emissions. A transition to less meat and more plant-based diets has significant health and climate change co-benefits that may be exploited to avoid up to 10%, 20% and 42% of the deaths caused by cancer, coronary diseases and Type-2 diabetes, respectively[1], and at the same time reduce food related GHG emissions by up to 70%[2].  More plant-based diets are the key to solve the food and nutrition security challenges in Europe and will be able to contribute significantly to achieving the EU targets for reducing GHG emissions to at least 50% and towards 55% by 2030 as proposed in the European Green Deal. 

A revitalization of urban-rural linkages is essential 

Despite sustained growth in rural areas, there is a widening urban-rural gap that threatens territorial and social cohesion in Europe[4]. Structural changes in agriculture are causing population and employment to become increasingly concentrated in urban areas resulting in a shrinking of the population in rural areas[5]. Increasing urbanization also poses an additional challenge for both food and nutrition security and sustainable development due to the high pressure that is placed on available land and natural resources to feed an increasing urban population[14]. A balanced and socially inclusive development of urban and rural areas, including both a development of urban and rural food systems and a revitalization of urban-rural linkages and partnerships will be essential for promoting territorial and social cohesion and securing the achievement of the SDGs.  

A sustainable food system for reducing global GHG emissions and reconnecting us with the land 

It is the ambitious goal of the FoodSHIFT 2030 project to provide safe, healthy, nutritious, and affordable food for all. This food should be produced, distributed, consumed and recycled in a sustainable food system, while at the same time contributing to reducing global GHG emissions and reconnecting us with the land. Both urban and rural residents should be able to live healthy and fulfilling lives, and all citizens should be empowered to make informed decisions about their food consumption and influence the way their food is produced and distributed within the city-regions. This may sound like a dream. But the time is ripe. The FoodSHIFT 2030 project comes at the right time at the right place 

We are kick-starting a citizen-driven food system transformation 

In October 2019, 14 mayors from the C40 Cities Network signed the Good Food Policies Declaration committing to i) align food procurement policies to the Planetary Health Diet, ii) support an overall increase of healthy plant-based food consumption, and iii) reduce food loss and waste by 50%. In December 2020, the European Commission launched the roadmap for the European Green Deal,  including the Farm to Fork strategy focusing on: i) more efficient and sustainable food systems, ii) healthy food consumption and iii) better-informed citizens. Furthermore, food consumption patterns are changing: Retailers are reporting decreasing sales of meat and increasing sales of plant-based alternatives, with 50% of European consumers consciously cutting-out meat and increasingly identifying themselves as flexitarians. Building on these recent developments the FoodSHIFT 2030 project is kick-starting a citizen-driven transformation of the food system and we are inviting everyone to join! 

Establishment and operationalization of FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs 

The transformation of the food system will be initiated and facilitated through the establishment and operationalization of FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs (FALs). The FALs are established as open innovation living labs featuring multidisciplinary collaboration between key food system stakeholders from private companies, local governments, research institutions, and civil society in nine European city-regions. In each of the FALs we are going to explore the existing food system innovations to identify their potential for further development. Based on this we are going to define common priorities and develop tailor-made trajectories for each of the FALs

Accelerating the development of sustainable food system innovations 

Subsequently, we are then going to implement a ground-breaking mechanism for accelerating the development of food system innovations and increasing their technological and societal readiness levels. We are going to do this by maturing, combining, and upscaling them. To support this acceleration of food system innovations the change-makers in each of the FALs will be supported by a team of experts. These experts will be able to provide support on innovations for the entire food value chain, including production, distribution, consumption, and recycling/upcycling. 

Assessing the benefits, governing the transition and multiplying the impact 

An assessment of the environmental, societal and economic benefits of the food system innovations and their effect on food security and food sovereignty will be performed and governance strategies to support sustainable food system innovation and transition will be co-created. Subsequently, the impact of the project will be multiplied through knowledge transfer between the FALs and via the establishment of and knowledge transfer to 27 FoodSHIFT Enabler Labs and further on via a number of city-region networks, including the Fab City Network, the Sustainable Food Cities Network and the C40 Food Systems Network   

Providing continuous support for food system transition beyond the project lifetime  

The FoodSHIFT 2030 project will operationalize four Impact Pathways to ensure that citizen empowerment, job creation, sustainability and food system transition are fully integrated across the entire project. Furthermore, the four FoodSHIFT Blueprints, including a Citizen Empowerment Scheme, a Job Creation Platform, a Sustainability Scoring System and a Food System Transition Toolkit to provide continuous support for a food system transition towards a low carbon circular future even beyond the project lifetime 

Citizen-driven innovation is the cornerstone of the FoodSHIFT 2030 project – would you like to join? 

Citizen-driven innovation is the cornerstone of the FoodSHIFT 2030 project. In the project we are going fuel the transformative power of citizens already engaged in developing innovative and sustainable food system solutions. We are going to empower entrepreneurs in start-ups and NGOs to mature, combine and upscale their food system innovations. We are going to empower civil servants and local authorities to develop sustainable food system policies. We are going to empower citizens to make informed decisions about their food consumption and influence the way their food is produced, distributed and recycled. And we are going to make it easier for everyone to make the shift to less meat and more plant-based diets. Together we are going to transform the European food system! Would you like to join?

[1] Willet, W. et al. (2019. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems 

[2] Tilman, D., Clark, M. (2014). Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health. Nature 515, pp-518-522 

[3] Springmann et al, (2018): Analysis and valuation of the health and climate change cobenefits of dietary change. PNAS 113, pp 4146-4151 

[4] Pagliacci, F. (2017). Regional paths towards Europe 2020 targets: a spatial approach.  

 [5] ESPON. (2017). Shrinking rural regions in Europe Towards smart and innovative approaches to regional development challenges in depopulating rural regions Inspire Policy Making with Territorial Evidence. 

[6] Food and Agricultural Organizations of the United Nations. (2011). Food, Agriculture and Cities. Challenges of food and nutrition security, agriculture and ecosystem management in an urbanizing world.  

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