Sustainable Food Consumption and Production in a Resource‐constrained World Summary Findings of the EU SCAR Third Foresight Exercise La production et la consommation alimentaires durables dans un monde aux ressources limitées Résumé des résultats du 3ème exercice de prospective du Comité permanent pour la recherche agricole de l’Union européenne Nachhaltiger Lebensmittelkonsum und nachhaltige Lebensmittelproduktion in einer Welt mit begrenzten Ressourcen Zusammenfassung der Ergebnisse aus dem dritten Vorausschauverfahren des Ständigen Agrarforschungsausschusses (SCAR) der EU

• Published in: EuroChoices
• Main Authors: Freibauer, Annette, Mathijs, Erik, Brunori, Gianluca, Damianova, Zoya, Faroult, Elie, i Gomis, Joan Girona, O′Brien, Lance, Treyer, Sébastien
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2011
• Subjects: SCAR
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-692x.2011.00201.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1746-692X.2011.00201.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1746-692X.2011.00201.x

summary Sustainable Food Consumption and Production in a Resource‐constrained World This article summarises the findings of the Third Foresight Exercise organised by the EU Standing Committee on Agriculture Research (SCAR). The challenges ahead for the European agri‐food system differ in their complexity, scale and speed to those we have faced in the past, pointing to a new level of change. The interconnections between these combined challenges and the limited understanding of the various feedback loops linking them, contribute to uncertainty about future developments. There is growing evidence, however, that these challenges are so large that a ‘business‐as usual’ approach is not an option and that transformative change is needed which will open up a window for innovation, new ideas and new paradigms. Three pathways have been identified to guide the transition to a sustainable agri‐food system: consumption changes, technological innovation and organisational innovation. To make the transition successful, research and innovation programmes should be transformed in order to tackle these challenges and to produce the necessary system innovations. Diversity of approaches and paradigms, transdisciplinarity, experimentation in both the technological and social realm and coordination should be promoted in the design of the research and innovation programmes.