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About SUSFANS:
Based on the main findings from the research project SUSFANS (Metrics, models and foresight for sustainable food and nutrition security in the EU), this policy brief presents recommendations for policy reform and innovations that contribute towards solutions. This brief has benefited from discussions with stakeholders on March 7, 2019, Brussels. SUSFANS (Metrics, models and foresight for sustainable food and nutrition security in the EU) has assessed the sustainability performance of the EU food system, and created foresight on future food production, diets and sustainability impact. SUSFANS worked in and with four EU case study countries: Czech Republic, Denmark, France and Italy.
SUSFANS major findings:
1. An integrated assessment of the sustainability performance of the EU food system should include nutrition & health, and social, economic and environmental sustainability domains. Sustainability of the EU food system requires: balanced and sufficient diets, reduced environmental impact, equitable outcomes and conditions and viable agri-food business. See figure 1.
2. The sustainability performance of EU food system is qualified as “insufficiently future-proof"" (Figure 1). Diets in the EU have to become more environmentally and economically sustainable, as well as more healthy and nutritious. The environmental imprint of EU food production systems is too large –although EU ranks high in a global comparison of technical efficiency.
3. EU food consumption and production reveals nutrition and environment trade-offs. If Europeans would consume 200 kCal less energy from food, it will reduce diet-related disease burdens and possibly 9-10% of global land use and greenhouse gas emissions from the diet. Impacts in the EU are much smaller due to international trade in agriculture and food products.
4. Economic sustainability and social justice are under pressure in the EU food system. For many dimensions of equity and social justice, policy information is on the performance of food systems in the EU is missing.
5. Transformation: Agenda 2030 provides opportunities for moving the EU food system from quantity-driven to quality-driven. In an ageing and wealthier future Europe, new windows appear for sustainable food supply and diets. This provides opportunities for a systems transformation involving food consumption, distribution, trade and production in the EU.
SUSFANS main policy recommendations:
• Develop an EU policy protocol to monitor the health and sustainability impact of food consumption and intake.
• Better enable market decisions that support a transformation to sustainable and healthier food supply and consumption
• Employ intervention strategies which involve experimentation, market intervention and social innovations. Instruments with impact on consumption and production should be combined and maintained long term.
• Reconnect different policies, under an aligned multi-level and multi-dimensional food policy framework in the EU and Member States for a sustainable Europe.
The SUSFANS framework can enable evidence-based decision-making on such integrated food visions and policies, and support the direction of R&I and international collaboration needed to implement such policies.
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