In a collective effort to build a fair and inclusive data economy for sustainable food systems, Data4Food2030 partners across Europe recently concluded a series of impactful workshops, paving the way for a brighter future in the food sector. Keep reading to get a glimpse!
Earlier this summer, In June 2024, our project partners in the Netherlands, Belgium, Latvia, Poland, Slovenia, and Spain (Mallorca) successfully organised backcasting workshops to explore pathways toward a fair, inclusive, and innovative data economy for sustainable food systems. This marked the culmination of a series of three stakeholder workshops under Data4Food Work Package 4, aimed at fostering an inclusive data economy.
The journey began in May 2023 with the first workshop held in the Netherlands, Belgium, Latvia, and Poland. This initial workshop focused on mapping stakeholders and gathering their perceptions and experiences related to the data economy in the food sector. Key findings highlighted that while food system actors recognise the importance of data in their professional lives, they often feel they have limited control and influence over data economy processes.
In March 2024, the second workshop took place with a future-focused agenda. Stakeholders came together to co-create scenarios for the data economy in the EU food system for 2050. Using a list of trends prepared by Data4Food Work Package 5, participants discussed and prioritized these trends, leading to the development of scenarios for six European countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, Latvia, Poland, Slovenia, and Spain. The result was four plausible EU-level scenarios (see image gallery below), each themed around personalized healthy diets, local and transparent value chains, strictly regulated high-tech innovation, and environmental benefits driven by data.
Taking place in June 2024, the final workshop brought stakeholders back to reflect on these scenarios. They identified both desirable and undesirable impacts and then created pathways to achieve the desirable impacts by 2050. Over the next few months, researchers from Work Package 4 will analyze and share the workshop results, presenting the final versions of the future scenarios and the pathways to achieve their goals.
These workshops have been instrumental in charting a course toward a fairer, more inclusive, and innovative data economy in food systems. They highlight the importance of collaboration and proactive planning in shaping the future of the data economy for sustainable food systems.
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