EU food system “stress-test” underscores urgent need for political action to foster food system resilience

“A key inhibitor to more resilient food systems is the dearth of tools that can bridge the gap between scientific evidence and policy application; crisis simulation workshops like ‘Food Alert’, which engage multiple communities simultaneously and force participants to broaden their perspectives through role-playing, effectively marry up scientific evidence with real-world political processes in a way that studies and reports alone cannot. We know more crises are coming, faster and harder; we need to better prepare for those crises right now to decrease the risks of future food insecurity.”

"We live in a poly-crisis, constantly surprised by new emergencies. We wish we could travel in time to prepare before catastrophes strike.

“With policy simulations based on plausible crisis scenarios, we can! With crisis simulation, we can identify food system vulnerabilities to improve coordination, build response mechanisms, and strengthen the overall system resilience at all levels: regional, national, and local."

"Our current food system is highly vulnerable to external shocks. One of EIT Food’s core Missions focuses on the need to improve food security and safety by enabling and establishing resilient food supply chains.

“The Food Alert project has been game-changing in introducing the concept of “stress-testing” to Europe’s food system for the very first time. We are thrilled to support the project, and hope that this is the beginning of a broader conversation on how governments and actors across the food system can work together to prepare for future crises."

“Food systems are extremely complex due to intertwined biological, climatic, economic, political, and human factors, among others. As a result, disruptions sometimes throw up unexpected effects.

“The Food Alert scenario is carefully constructed by combining research and expertise from different perspectives to capture those intricacies, which participants then grapple with during the simulation. Having to deal with these unexpected effects under the real-time pressure of the simulation forces participants to think on their feet and better prepares them for facing real crises in future.”

“In times of increased uncertainty, we believe the novel foresight approach developed with the “Food Alert” project, combining science-based scenario building, design fiction and role play, is very promising for stimulating collective intelligence and imagining how policies will support more resilient future food systems.”

“In a world of increasing volatility, from climate’s impacts and geo-political tensions, we must expect shocks to our systems; but they are hard to predict. Stress-testing, such as that done by the “Food Alert” project, is a crucial part of our planning for the future.”

EIT Food, as Lead Sponsor of the project, played a critical role in providing ideas for workshop participants from among its broad network and in offering feedback on the Brussels food policy environment. The project is also supported by the Agriculture Ministry of the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which contributed expertise and leadership on food and agriculture policy when designing the scenario of the crisis simulation.