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EU food-system transition requires innovative policy analysis methods

Nature Food volume 3, pages 296–298 (2022)Cite this article

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Governing food-system transitions requires innovation in the study of impacts and futures. Current approaches to impact assessment require greater complexity in systems modelling and complementation with alternative mechanisms to overcome limitations in scoping, conceptual assumptions and methodologies.

Global food systems are under pressure for reform owing to their detrimental impacts on climate change, environmental degradation, public health and social exploitation. The European Commission’s Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies, embedded within its overarching Green Deal agenda, can be considered some of the world’s most ambitious efforts to catalyse a food-system transition1. The strategies set out an agenda for — both binding and non-binding — legislation that aims to realize a neutral or positive environmental impact, climate change mitigation and adaptation, reversal of biodiversity loss, food and nutrition security, and fairer market and trade mechanisms. As such, the Green Deal could contribute to aligning the European Union (EU) food system with the Paris Agreement, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Sustainable Development Goals.

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Acknowledgements

I thank A. Matthews for helpful comments on a previous draft of this commentary and the Brussels Institute for Advanced Studies for hosting me while working on this commentary.

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  1. Public Administration and Policy group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands

    Jeroen Candel

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  1. Jeroen Candel
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Correspondence to Jeroen Candel.

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Competing interests

J.C. is a member of Dutch Council on Animal Affairs and member of the supervisory board of the Transitiecoalitie Voedsel foundation.

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Nature Food thanks Christian Henning and Jayson Beckman for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Candel, J. EU food-system transition requires innovative policy analysis methods. Nat Food 3, 296–298 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00518-7

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