This Brief describes research priorities for transforming Food Systems in Europe.

Agriculture-environment nexus and agroecology in Europe. Regenerative agriculture (as agroecology) embraces farming principles and practices that enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services and increase carbon capture and storage, helping to tackle climate change and improve agricultural resilience and yield. This can be viewed as a core feature of the EU’s Farm-to-Fork strategy but the scientific basis needs to be clarified in order to improve farming systems. Assessing the relative contribution of different production models to sustainably deliver healthy and nutritious diets and provide important ecosystems services is an important research priority. Deploying an integrated approach requires research to quantify the economic value of ecosystems, as part of the improvement and standardisation of methodologies to assess and compare the sustainability of food systems. There are continuing opportunities to link food systems and environmental objectives with bioeconomy policy (e.g. mycoproteins, algal feedstocks, cultured meat).

Delivering sustainable and healthy diets under climate change. A combination of measures is necessary to reduce GHG emissions from agriculture, including improved agronomic practices, reducing waste, and increasing sustainable consumption patterns. When carefully-designed and adapted to circumstances, diets can play a pivotal role in climate change mitigation, sustainable food systems and future population health. Accessibility and affordability issues related to sustainable diets need to be analysed. Policy implications for the promotion of sustainable food systems that reward good management practices include the introduction of sustainable stewardship, food labelling and certification schemes. There is also the need for rebalancing consumption by introducing incentives/disincentives for carbon and biodiversity costs of populations at risk of over-consumption, while protecting vulnerable groups.

Responding to COVID-19. In Europe there has been an increase in food wastage, partly as a result of the shutdown of restaurants, schools and other community facilities. Consumption related challenges reported during lockdowns include a small increase in the intake of calories and a decrease in the intake of vitamins, minerals and plant-based protein and fatty acids, in particular by the elderly as a group. Combined with reduced physical exercise during lockdown these dietary changes may increase the incidence of obesity and related NCDs. Opportunities for the increased localisation of production systems should be explored. Research priorities also include the development of food and environmental safety measures along the food chain; and the development of nutritional foods to promote immune function. Further areas for innovation comprise digitisation and the implementation of smarter logistics systems, including reverse logistics for secondary materials and waste products. The generation of robust baseline data on malnutrition levels in the EU Member States remains an important knowledge gap, in particular for vulnerable sectors of the population.

New breeding techniques: a case study in science, technology and innovation. Improved breeding of plants and animals for agricultural production is a key component of an integrated transformation of food systems to deliver healthy and nutritious diets sustainably in the face of climate change. The use of the full tool box of breeding technologies available, including the new breeding techniques (NBTs) and, in particular, genome editing, is required. Crops produced by genome editing techniques, including those with no foreign DNA, are regulated differently in different countries, with Europe holding the most restrictive regulatory regime, as they are to be subjected to the same regulations as GM crops. Around 40% of the SMEs and 33% of the large companies stopped or reduced their gene editing-related R&D activities after the 2018 EU Court of Justice ruling. EASAC advised that it is the products of new technologies and their use, rather than the technology itself, that should be evaluated according to the scientific evidence base, and that the legal framework should be revised.

Strengthening research and its uptake into policy and practice.

The purpose of this Brief has been to address three questions:

• How can scientific advances help to fill knowledge gaps in delivering food and nutrition security?

The recommendation is to promote transdisciplinary research to fill present knowledge gaps, and in particular foster social sciences research for evaluating specific instruments for promotion of sustainable food in EU policy, e.g. taxation schemes, consumer cooperatives, labelling and governance initiatives.

• What does Europe need to build its research capabilities and help build global scientific capacity and partnerships?

The recommendation is to continue strengthening the research enterprise in the EU: this requires public engagement to build trust, developing better linkages between public and private sector research objectives, and recognising that EU scientists have crucial roles to play in building global critical mass in food systems science

• How best can science-based evidence be used to inform innovation, policy development and practice?

The F2F Strategy highlights several controversies, e.g. on the objectives for food pack labelling, targets for pesticide use in farming, and nature-based farming solutions, all of which require a stronger evidence base. The F2F Strategy must be well aligned with objectives for the Common Agricultural Policy and with the biodiversity, circular economy and bioeconomy strategies, and transparent in communicating the consequences both for the domestic consumer and for the rest of the world.