“ Changing consumer and societal demands and the need for transforming agricultural and food systems ”

Consumers expect health-promoting and sustainable food at fair prices. Health is the central goal of sustainable nutrition, since what we eat and drink influences our health, quality of life and well-being. Consumers are also citizens which become increasingly aware of the risk of crossing planetary boundaries causing, e.g., irreversible climate change and biodiversity loss. Linking food security and accessibility with environmental objectives requires to cope with numerous trade-offs. These trade-offs become even more severe given the need to overcome the fossil-based economy.

Given these pressures, agricultural and food systems need to change dramatically or even a transformation. However, trade-offs and transformations create conflicts. Particularly, debates on agricultural and food systems are ideologically loaded. On the other hand, agricultural and food systems will change anyway because of further drivers, such as demographics, digitalization, and changing lifestyles. Therefore, a key challenge will be to exploit resulting new opportunities and to overcome ideological conflicts.