SysOrg - Organic agro-food systems as models for sustainable food systems in Europe and Northern Africa
Our aims
We have set ourselves a goal to identify how pathways to increase sustainable food production and consumption can be successfully designed. This requires a better understanding of food systems, including the multitude of actors involved and the identification of critical points within systems. To do so, our approach is to map and analyse five case territories in Europe and Northern Africa: Copenhagen, Cilento, North Hessia, Warsaw, Kenitra. Our analysis incorporates four perspectives: system transition (transition perspective), shifting towards sustainable and healthy diets (diet perspective), enhancing organic food & farming (organic perspective) and reducing waste (waste perspective).
Five SysOrg Case Territories
Four SysOrg perspectives
Our approach
We assume that although food systems are regionally very different, similar entry points for transition exist. These need to be identified in order to derive recommendations for a more sustainable design. Therefore, the following questions are addressed:
- What is the understanding of sustainability to drive the transformation towards sustainable food systems?
- How can pathways to increase sustainable food production and consumption across the system be successfully designed?
- What are the reasons, motivations, drivers or barriers for actors to opt for more sustainable solutions?
- What are the promising entry points for developing, consolidating and disseminating organic food and farming, reducing waste and shifting to sustainable diets? What are critical points to bring these perspectives together in a systems approach?
Our interdisciplinary team consists of seven institutions from five countries.
Cooperation partners
- Germany (University of Kassel & Münster University of Applied Sciences)
- Denmark (University of Copenhagen)
- Poland (Warsaw University of Life Sciences)
- Italy (Council for agricultural research and economics – CREA & International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies – Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari)
- Morocco (Ibn Tofail University)
Project period: Januar 2021 – June 2024
Project coordination: Dr. Lilliana Stefanovic (University of Kassel, Section of Organic Food Quality) (till 30 September 2022 - Dr. Sebastian Kretschmer)
Project funding: transnational bodies associated with H2020 ERA-NETs SUSFOOD2 and the CORE Organic Co-Fund, under the Joint SUSFOOD2/CORE Organic Call 2019.
Official webpage of the project: https://susfood-db-era.net/main/SysOrg
