Food system transformation in Europe will be lead from Denmark

A newly launched EU project will facilitate a society-wide mobilisation of European citizens, policies and projects. The €8.1 million project, CLEVERFOOD, aims at transforming the European food system to benefit climate, sustainability, biodiversity and public health. 

Lead by a team at the Climate and Food Security Group at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, over the next four years, the project, CLEVERFOOD, has three main focuses: The need for synergies and collaboration between existing and future projects; the need for legislation and advocacy; and creating public awareness to enhance consumer demands.  

Important existing and future EU projects focusing on food system transformation are plenty but tend to operate individually rather than in coordination. A main task in the CLEVERFOOD project, thus, is to foster cooperation and create synergies and collaboration between European projects with similar and relevant agendas.  

Food system transformation itself is dependent on changing both legislation as wells consumers awareness of – and corresponding behaviour and demands towards – healthy and sustainable foods. Another main targets of CLEVERFOOD, therefore, are to lay the ground for EU policies that address and support healthy and sustainable food systems.  

Public awareness is a third focus of the project. By identifying increased consumer demands as crucial and key to sustainable food transformation, the project aims at educating and mobilizing citizens to change their diets and contribute to change by increasing the demand for healthy, sustainable foods, particularly plant-based foods.  

Source: UCPH, Faculty of Science 

The agriculture and food sector in Denmark has knowlegde and competences within sustainable transformation. Find more information in the digital white paper on sustainability here.