Who, what and when?
The project was conducted between November 2017 and May 2020. Participants were FFU Berlin, the University of Freiburg and NAHhaft e.V.
Background and goals
The lack of sustainability of the current agricultural and food system is evident in many aspects at once, such as the continuing loss of (agro-) biodiversity, progressive soil degradation and water pollution, and climate change. While in other sectors it has been possible to reduce negative environmental impacts, those of the food system are constant or in some cases even increasing. The consumption patterns of western societies also have far-reaching health implications and are being imitated worldwide, especially in the emerging economies of the global South. Technical solutions will continue to be necessary to reduce the negative impacts of the food system, but will not be sufficient on their own.
This makes comprehensive social change all the more important. Social and institutional innovations are essential for the change towards a sustainable food system. The scientific community is also aware of the need for change. Transformation research is devoted to change processes in general and attempts to better understand them in order to develop approaches for a transformation towards sustainability.
The aim of the project is to develop approaches for a transformation towards sustainability against the background of the necessity of a change towards sustainability of the food system and the complexity of transformation processes,
- to use the findings of transformation research to analyze the transformation field of nutrition and thus identify political intervention options,
- to make findings from the analysis and discussion of the concrete transformation field of nutrition usable for general-abstract transformation research or research in other transformation fields
The following five main areas are closely related in terms of content:
- Systemic assessment of the food system, its current and projected state and the resulting problems, also with regard to the model of sustainable development. In addition, the discussion of possible strategies and goals for the transformation of the food system will capture the social and professional consensus and dissent on the future of the food system.
- Preparation of an overview of transformative niches of the food system and the assessment of their respective environmental relief potential.
- Compilation of current findings of exnovation research and identification of resistance to change to explore appropriate exnovation strategies in the food system.
- Derivation of political intervention options to support sustainable actors and niches.
- Development of a toolbox for transformation research, which can be used for the transformation field of nutrition and other research projects.
Exchange and support
Persons or organizations who wish to exchange views on niches of the food system and policy recommendations from a transformation theory perspective or who wish to contribute to the project, are very welcome to contact the project coordination.
Contact
Organization: NAHhaft e.V.
Contact person: Alexander Schrode
Mail: alexander.schrode(at)nahhaft.de
Website: https://www.nahhaft.de/