Closing the circle farm-to-fork - digital tools for sustainability for crises management

Purpose and goal:

The project has developed a pilot platform to make available open data on food that the company GSD owns and is now further developing with support from the Swedish Growth Agency. This work has taken place together with Region Örebro, municipalities and business. Our mapping of municipal documents, dialogue workshops in seven municipalities and interviews with key actors show that competence and knowledge about food supply, especially in crisis, is very fragmented. Future work needs to be adapted to municipality size, agrarian regions and vulnerability analyses.

Expected results and effects:

The project was designed to provide municipalities with digital decision support for food security and self-sufficiency. Through workshops and meetings, new interfaces have been created and old structures challenged, which can open up for more resilient food systems. Food has become an issue on the agenda and may be developed in revisions of municipal and regional policy documents.

Despite fragmented data on food, we have developed a pilot platform, which municipalities have an interest in using. It will be further developed and additional training and policy support offered. Approach and implementation:

The project has initiated a triple-helix collaboration between public actors, companies and researchers in meal knowledge and political science. We have engaged in active dialogues with both private and public key actors to map the food system and analyze available data. In addition, we have reviewed the handling of food in policy documents and plans.

Based on these insights, we have developed a pilot version of the digital decision support system. The results have then been presented through podcasts and scientific texts.