FOODTURE, a European project to boost sustainability in the agri-food sector
EU agri-food systems are facing major environmental, social and economic challenges.
Last week took place in the auditorium of the UVic-UCC the launch meeting of FOODTURE, a European initiative coordinated by the BETA Technology Centre of the UVic-UCC with funding from the Horizon Europe programme of the European Commission. FOODTURE has a consortium of 20 partners from different European countries, including Spain, France, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Serbia, Italy and Switzerland, and Peru that will work together to boost the sustainability of the European agri-food sector.
EU agri-food systems face major environmental, social and economic challenges. With more than 447 million people consuming 1.6 billion tonnes of food and drink every year, the food sector has a direct bearing on global health, well-being and sustainability. In 2021 alone, agriculture accounted for 11% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions, while the production of cereals, meat, dairy and fisheries continues to generate a number of environmental, economic and food security challenges to be taken into account.
Against this backdrop, the FOODTURE results should help drive changes to move towards a more sustainable, resilient and circular European agri-food system, through the advanced use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and in close collaboration with the different actors in the sector.
Towards a more sustainable and transparent agri-food system
FOODTURE will work on the development of detailed inventories that will allow a better understanding of the impact of European food systems and improve Environmental Impact Assessment methodologies in different categories, such as biodiversity or human health, overcoming some current limitations.
In addition, it will carry out a global analysis of environmental, economic and social impacts, in order to identify effective strategies for a real transformation of the sector. To ensure effective implementation, the project will also offer practical tools and training for the sector, policy recommendations, open-access digital platforms and training for professionals and decision-makers.
One of FOODTURE’s commitments is to advance the need for improved data collection with Agriculture 4.0 tools. This includes both geographic information data from Copernicus satellites and other data that can be obtained with drones. It will also work to advance the improvement of analysis methodologies, ensuring that sustainability information represents the entire food value chain. Overall, this should enable new standards of excellence to be set in the management of the European food system, through rigorous testing and scalability of innovative solutions.
