Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BEATLES (Co-creating Behavioural Change Towards Climate-Smart Food Systems)
Reporting period: 2022-07-01 to 2023-12-31
The global food system is currently facing a number of interlinked challenges associated with environmental, social and economic sustainability. The European Commission has established a set of policy initiatives under the European Green Deal, namely the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies, as well as the Common Agricultural Policy for achieving a just transition towards sustainable food systems. While climate-smart agriculture is embraced globally as the integrated approach securing the triple win of increased productivity, enhanced resilience, and reduced emissions, adoption of climate-smart practices remains slow and low. Hence, behavioural shifts are needed to foster the adoption of climate smart farming and smart farming technologies.
BEATLES aspires to change the way agri-food systems currently operate and accelerate the systemic and systematic transition to climate-smart agriculture and smart farming technologies. Through targeted selection of agri-food value chains across the European Union and by engaging multiple stakeholders in the co-creation of systemic innovations, in the context of appropriate behavioural and experimental settings, the project will provide an integrative inventory of behavioural insights about the full range of “lock-ins” and levers that hinder or motivate behavioural change, including individual, systemic and policy factors. Five different food systems representing the major crop and livestock farming systems in Europe (cereals, dairy, stone fruits, livestock, vegetables) in various EU regions (Western, Eastern, Southern and Northern Europe), will be studied to account for the diversity in agri-food systems and conditions in the EU. The behavioural insights are used to develop transformative pathways, via business strategies and policy recommendations, to encourage transition to fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food systems.
The BEATLES project has commenced in July 2022 and has set four key objectives (KO):
KO#1: Deepen understanding of the full range of decision-making factors that facilitate or hinder transition of entire food systems towards sustainable, productive and climate-smart practices and behaviours and build capacity for behavioural and experimental research and systems thinking.
KO#2: Develop transformation pathways for sustainable, productive, climate-smart agri-food systems via improved farm advice and business strategies.
KO#3: Formulate and widely disseminate policy recommendations and innovative policy options to foster large-scale and long-term behavioural shifts.
KO#4: Mainstream and scale up solutions via dedicated dissemination activities and by building an ecosystem of related projects, networks and initiatives.
The work is planned in 7 Work Packages and is expected to lead to the following key results which serve as the pathway to the project’s expected impact.
• (WP1): An integrated inventory of decision-making factors influencing entire food systems’ transition will be provided including a mapping of existing climate-smart agriculture practices and technologies. This WP sets the scene to understand the full range of individual, systemic and policy factors that affect the transition of agri-food value chain actors towards climate-smart agriculture. Moreover, the multi-actor approach of the project is set with the involvement of various value chain stakeholders in the co-creation of the project's results.
• (WP2): A set of lab and field experiments will be conducted in the 5 UCs, targeting various value chain actors, to identify effective behavioural interventions that could foster the transition to climate-smart agriculture.
• (WP3): Sustainability assessment of climate-smart agriculture practices with respect to their environmental, social and economic impact will be done to assess the effectiveness of the various climate-smart practices.
• (WP4): A portfolio of fair value propositions and business models will be identified and validated to foster the fair transition to climate-smart agriculture.
• (WP5): Key actionable policy recommendations and tools will be produced along with an advisor's guide.
• (WP6): Communication and dissemination activities to reach a wide audience will be designed, synergies with other projects and initiatives will be established and EU agri-food stakeholders will be involved in the climate-smart agriculture network of interest.
BEATLES aspires to change the way agri-food systems currently operate and accelerate the systemic and systematic transition to climate-smart agriculture and smart farming technologies. Through targeted selection of agri-food value chains across the European Union and by engaging multiple stakeholders in the co-creation of systemic innovations, in the context of appropriate behavioural and experimental settings, the project will provide an integrative inventory of behavioural insights about the full range of “lock-ins” and levers that hinder or motivate behavioural change, including individual, systemic and policy factors. Five different food systems representing the major crop and livestock farming systems in Europe (cereals, dairy, stone fruits, livestock, vegetables) in various EU regions (Western, Eastern, Southern and Northern Europe), will be studied to account for the diversity in agri-food systems and conditions in the EU. The behavioural insights are used to develop transformative pathways, via business strategies and policy recommendations, to encourage transition to fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food systems.
The BEATLES project has commenced in July 2022 and has set four key objectives (KO):
KO#1: Deepen understanding of the full range of decision-making factors that facilitate or hinder transition of entire food systems towards sustainable, productive and climate-smart practices and behaviours and build capacity for behavioural and experimental research and systems thinking.
KO#2: Develop transformation pathways for sustainable, productive, climate-smart agri-food systems via improved farm advice and business strategies.
KO#3: Formulate and widely disseminate policy recommendations and innovative policy options to foster large-scale and long-term behavioural shifts.
KO#4: Mainstream and scale up solutions via dedicated dissemination activities and by building an ecosystem of related projects, networks and initiatives.
The work is planned in 7 Work Packages and is expected to lead to the following key results which serve as the pathway to the project’s expected impact.
• (WP1): An integrated inventory of decision-making factors influencing entire food systems’ transition will be provided including a mapping of existing climate-smart agriculture practices and technologies. This WP sets the scene to understand the full range of individual, systemic and policy factors that affect the transition of agri-food value chain actors towards climate-smart agriculture. Moreover, the multi-actor approach of the project is set with the involvement of various value chain stakeholders in the co-creation of the project's results.
• (WP2): A set of lab and field experiments will be conducted in the 5 UCs, targeting various value chain actors, to identify effective behavioural interventions that could foster the transition to climate-smart agriculture.
• (WP3): Sustainability assessment of climate-smart agriculture practices with respect to their environmental, social and economic impact will be done to assess the effectiveness of the various climate-smart practices.
• (WP4): A portfolio of fair value propositions and business models will be identified and validated to foster the fair transition to climate-smart agriculture.
• (WP5): Key actionable policy recommendations and tools will be produced along with an advisor's guide.
• (WP6): Communication and dissemination activities to reach a wide audience will be designed, synergies with other projects and initiatives will be established and EU agri-food stakeholders will be involved in the climate-smart agriculture network of interest.
• In the first 18 months of the project, 12 deliverables have been submitted on time and 6 milestones achieved.
• Systematic reviews have been done to identify: i) the existing climate-smart practices and technologies, ii) the decision-making factors affecting farmers' adoption of climate-smart practices, iii) business strategies for the transition to climate-smart agriculture, iv) decision-making factors affecting consumers' purchase behaviour of environmentally-friendly products, v) existing policy framework
• 2 surveys (targeting farmers and consumers respectively) to identify factors affecting decisions
• Interviews with industry stakeholders to understand their role in the transition to climate-smart agriculture
• Two segmentation analyses have identified farmer and consumer segments for climate-smart agriculture practices and environmentally-friendly products respectively.
• 5 co-creation activities, one per UC, brought together representatives from various parts of the value chain (e.g. farmers, advisors, industry stakeholders, researchers, policy advisors, consumers) to co-decide the most important lock-ins and levers to be tested in WP2.
• 1 publication led by AUA, and 4 manuscripts currently under review (1st and 2nd rounds of review), led by UCPH, WR, and AUA.
• Systematic reviews have been done to identify: i) the existing climate-smart practices and technologies, ii) the decision-making factors affecting farmers' adoption of climate-smart practices, iii) business strategies for the transition to climate-smart agriculture, iv) decision-making factors affecting consumers' purchase behaviour of environmentally-friendly products, v) existing policy framework
• 2 surveys (targeting farmers and consumers respectively) to identify factors affecting decisions
• Interviews with industry stakeholders to understand their role in the transition to climate-smart agriculture
• Two segmentation analyses have identified farmer and consumer segments for climate-smart agriculture practices and environmentally-friendly products respectively.
• 5 co-creation activities, one per UC, brought together representatives from various parts of the value chain (e.g. farmers, advisors, industry stakeholders, researchers, policy advisors, consumers) to co-decide the most important lock-ins and levers to be tested in WP2.
• 1 publication led by AUA, and 4 manuscripts currently under review (1st and 2nd rounds of review), led by UCPH, WR, and AUA.
Behavioural Research and Innovation: we adopted a food systems approach and examined the full range of decision-making factors affecting transition to climate-smart food systems examining not only individual but also systemic and policy factors. The integrated framework of decision-making factors was co-developed with the participation of various stakeholders from five selected food systems across the EU, in multi-actor workshops. This way, the project goes beyond the state-of-the-art, by considering a holistic overview of “lock-ins” and levers in the entire food systems.