A new project is setting out to address one of today’s most pressing global challenges: creating a more sustainable, fair, and healthy food system. The SPOON project (Food Systems in Transition – Participatory, Open Citizen Research for Sustainable Nutrition) aims to rethink how we grow, distribute, and consume food, by placing people’s local realities and day-to-day living practices at the heart of this transformation.
Food systems currently contribute up to 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with the potential to rise significantly if urgent changes are not made. At the same time, millions of people face food insecurity, unable to access nutritious food despite the abundance in some regions.
“SPOON seeks to address these challenges by drawing on citizen science to empower communities to generate knowledge and foster collaboration for a more inclusive and sustainable food system” so AIT Senior Scientist Gudrun Haindlmaier from Center for Innovation Systems & Policy. Europeans will actively participate in the research process, collecting, analysing, and interpreting food-related data. To reach these goals, the project will implement Citizen Science Labs (CSLs) and Behaviour Change Interventions (BCIs) across six European regions—Germany, Greece, Italy, Belgium, Spain, and Slovenia—and develop innovative and GDPR compliant digital solutions, including a multimedia questionnaire generator and a personal data wallet.
By bringing together citizens and food decision makers (policymakers, industry, CSOs, academia and other practitioners), SPOON will explore critical issues such as food waste reduction, food environments and their influence on our food choices, improving food security for vulnerable communities and increasing transparency in food supply chains.
The SPOON project represents a key milestone in advancing the objectives of the European Green Deal and the Farm-to-Fork strategy, which emphasizes the importance of a collective approach in transitioning towards sustainable food systems.
Over the next four years, the 16 European partners will collaborate to implement the project activities, deliver the proposed solutions, and additionally develop guidelines, training programmes and policy recommendations to inspire and replicate successful approaches across Europe.