Building resilient agriculture: why EIT Food’s new think & do tank can drive change
As Europe faces mounting shocks to its food system, resilience has become a necessity, not a choice. This blog unpacks what resilient agriculture really means - from regenerative practices on farms to system-wide collaboration - and introduces EIT Food’s new Resilient Agriculture Think & Do Tank, designed to unite science, policy, and practice for a sustainable food future.
We’re living through a period of overlapping shocks to the European food system. The COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical events, and extreme weather have sent ripples across supply chains. Farmers have faced economic strain, alongside mounting pressures to comply with environmental standards. These shocks have revealed structural vulnerabilities in the way we produce and distribute our food.
That’s why resilient agriculture systems are essential. Europe needs new agricultural models that can absorb, adapt to, and transform in response to shocks - while continuing to provide food, livelihoods and protect ecosystem services. This is not a ‘nice to have’: It’s essential for feeding Europe (and the world) in a fair, sustainable way.
What is Resilient Agriculture?
Resilience matters at two linked levels. First, at farm and landscape scale: practices such as regenerative soil management, diversified rotations, agroforestry and smarter livestock integration build healthier soils, more biodiversity and better water retention that reduce vulnerability to droughts, floods and pest outbreaks.
Second, at system scale: stronger supply chains, improved data-sharing, financing instruments that reward stewardship, and governance that supports living labs and farmer-led innovation make the whole food system less brittle.
EIT Food’s portfolio of projects and programmes show both sides of this coin in action. We are now launching a Think & Do Tank to bring the pieces together. To join the dots, connect stakeholders, and accelerate the transition to resilient agriculture in Europe..
Why launch a dedicated Resilient Agriculture Think & Do Tank now?
1. Complex problems need convening power and joined-up thinking.
Resilience isn’t a single technology or policy, it’s an outcome of many coordinated changes across science and technology, markets, policy and behaviour. A think tank focused on resilient agriculture can bring together researchers, farmers, startups, corporates and policymakers to co-create practical solutions, test them in real-world settings, and translate lessons into scalable policies and investments. Over several years, EIT Food has built bridges between innovation and practice through our projects and programmes. A think tank amplifies that role and creates a space for long-term foresight and policy engagement.
2. Policy windows are opening ... if we act quickly and smartly.
The European Commission’s Vision for Agriculture and Food to 2040 emphasises resilience, fairness and sustainability. EIT Food formally welcomed that Vision, noting its alignment with community recommendations and the need for innovation-led pathways to real change. A think tank can operate at the interface between such high-level visions and the messy business of implementation, turning aspirations into funding instruments, living labs and farmer-friendly pathways.
3. We need rapid evidence synthesis and stress-testing.
EIT Food’s Food Alert and stress-testing work demonstrates how scenario -tools and “war games” can surface weak points in supply chains and identify interventions before a crisis hits. A resilient agriculture think tank would institutionalise that foresight capability for agricultural systems by building stress -tests, evaluating policy options, and advising on risk-reducing investments. That kind of anticipatory work saves costs and protects livelihoods.
4. Scaling regenerative and carbon-smart farming requires coordination and finance.
Initiatives such as the Regenerative Innovation Portfolio and LILAS4SOILS show two complementary approaches: the Portfolio aims to scale regenerative models across value chains, while LILAS4SOILS uses living labs and carbon-farming trials to restore soil health and create on-the-ground evidence. A think tank can help connect pilots and portfolios to the financial instruments, procurement pathways and regulatory signals farmers need to adopt resilient practices at scale.
Diverse challenges require diverse expertise
“Resilient agriculture is a very important strategic pillar for EIT Food. It has already been the case and it is now growing more and more for the future we would like to build.
The ambition of the group is to really drive transformation, wherever there is a problem at the moment. It really focuses on issues and challenges that we need to solve, to be able to transform agriculture. Let it be technical, let it be regulatory, let it be social, we are looking at all the areas that are unsolved at the moment to really find ways to change them as a group.” Gulsah Uysal, Director or Partnership and Corporate Services, EIT Food.
The EIT Food Resilient Agriculture Think & Do Tank brings together diverse expertise, from farmers to scientists, to entrepreneurs and policymakers, who all have an important role within the Think & Do Tank.
“The extent of the expertise that we need to bring on the table needs to call for everyone from academia, to the economic system, we need to bring all of these dimensions around the table to think together what is the direction, transformation and reconfiguration of the system and what will make it resilient and fit for this new era that will be anything but stable or predictable.” - Damien Jourdan, Director of Cofinance and Partnerships Agriculture Europe, Danone.
Investing in resilient agriculture is not just an environmental or ethical choice, it’s an economic one. Every euro spent on measures that reduce yield volatility, restore soils, and shorten brittle supply chains reduces future disaster costs and preserves livelihoods.
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