The project will help foster a wide mobilisation of EU citizens to transform food systems that benefit climate, health and biodiversity.
Slow Food is joining the CLEVERFOOD project, that will help facilitate a wide mobilization of European citizens to transform European food systems that benefit climate, sustainability, biodiversity & public health across the European continent. The CLEVERFOOD project officially began January 1st, but kicked-off in Portugal 20-22 February 2023, with all 23 partners. The event was hosted and organized by hosted at Ciencia Viva, one of the project partners.
Slow Food will be leading on the organization of European and international roundtables featuring policymakers from all levels of governance, as well as European institutions, international organizations and key stakeholders, to discuss the bottlenecks and enablers for the successful implementation of the EU Farm to Fork Strategy’s objectives and the related EU Sustainable Food Systems legislative framework.
Yael Pantzer, Slow Food’s project manager said: “To succeed in transforming the European food system, we need decision makers at all levels on board. Favoring the exchange across governance levels, CLEVERFOOD will address one of the most pressing challenges of food system transformation, bringing different actors around one table to discuss common challenges from different governance perspectives. At Slow Food, we are uniquely placed to guarantee diverse and inclusive discussion among food system actors and decision makers”.
The comprehensive Horizon consortium, together with leading actors, will foster cooperation, coordination and synergy among existing, emerging and future EU projects focusing on food system transformation , such as Food Trails (of which Slow Food is an active member), and linking with the EU Food 2030 Policy Framework.
In addition to cooperation, one of the project’s priority focuses will be on advocacy, paving the way for EU policies that support healthy and sustainable food systems and ensure that different levels of governance (local, national and EU) communicate and align on common challenges. Food policy dialogues and roundtables across all governance levels in Europe are foreseen.
Furthermore, several national policy dialogues will be organized, involving local, regional, and national governments, as well as key food system stakeholders. Such policy dialogues will provide the basis to develop strategies for advancing food policies and legislation at national and local levels.
In order to actively engage citizens and youth, alongside communication activities including influencers delivering the project’s messages and engaging wide audiences, CLEVERFOOD will develop an interactive exhibition on food system transformation, which will be hosted by science centers and museums and travel across five countries of the EU’s Council Presidency.
Led by the University of Copenhagen and financed through the Research and Innovation budget of the EU, CLEVERFOOD will be running until 2026.
Fore more information on this topic:
- The Food Trail’s Report on food-based urban participatory policies (2021). The report includes and illustrates the results of a qualitative analysis on food-based urban participatory processes at the European level. By carrying out a series of interviews and disseminating an online survey, partners collaborating on this task collected information on instances in which citizens were involved in the design and implementation of urban food policies.
- The Food Trails policy brief on “The role of cities in shaping food environments in the framework of the EU Farm to Fork strategy” (2022), which brings views and approaches of European cities engaged in the transition of sustainable local food systems.