Food Alert - social simulation

About

Project Partners designed Food Alert to be a practical and direct means to help bridge the gap between policy analysis and practical application by those involved in the complex process of transforming food systems. The first edition of Food Alert focused on a simulation of a climate-triggered crisis affecting EU food supplies.

The idea for Food Alert came to life during 2023, as an effort to strengthen food systems, particularly their resilience to external stressors and shocks caused by increasingly severe climate change and related sustainability challenges. Project Partners include: Chris Hegadorn (Lead Organizer, Sciences Po Paris), Centre for Systems Solutions, Prospero & Partners, Chatham House, European Policy Centre and INRAE.

The Food Alert project benefits from the recent global attention directed toward food systems transformation fostered by the UN Secretary General’s September 2021 Food Systems Summit. It also builds upon the earlier work performed within the CASCADES EU Horizon project and other EU-funded projects linked to addressing climate impacts and improving EU food system resilience. Each of the six Food Alert partners and supporters has brought with them a wealth of expertise and experience linked to food and agriculture that, collectively, has enriched the process from start to finish.

Food Alert Report

Media about us

Food Manufacture, Urgent need for political action to foster food system resilience

Handelsbaltt, Die hohen Lebensmittelpreise sind erst der Anfang

International Dairy Magazine, EU food system ‘stress-test’ underscores urgent need for political action

Workshop

On February 1, 2 in Brussels, Belgium, 60 stakeholders from government, industry, civil society, academia, agriculture, and media engaged in lively debate aimed at anticipating and responding to future food crises in Europe. Participants in this first-ever Food Alert workshop assumed the roles of crisis ‘Task Force’ members entrusted with the crucial role of formulating policy recommendations for senior EU decision-makers, to address an unfolding food crisis. Participants were split into three working groups, each addressing a different aspect of the multifaceted nature of the scenario: Crisis Response Mechanisms, Agriculture & Food Production, and Trade & Finance.

The exercise used a policy simulation scenario to immerse participants in the co-creation of potential policy responses, mitigate the impacts of such a crisis, and closely examine current policy and institutional arrangements and policy response frameworks. Building on various Horizon projects and EU policy documents, workshop participants developed and presented their ideas and proposals for improving and strengthening systemic response capabilities.

It was pretty interesting to see that when you’re in the room together there are differences, but there are also people who understand that changes are needed. Sometimes I like to think bureaucrats think behind their desks and just just think in abstract terms. And here, we could really see that they were thinking: “Okay, this is what’s happening to us. This is what’s happening to Europe. This is what’s happening to the world. This is what we need to do.”

– Bartosz Brzeziński, POLITICO

We can’t predict the future. None of us have a crystal ball. We can make sure that we’re better prepared and we can make sure that we have a better understanding of impacts on the crises and on our food system, and our responses to them and then hopefully we can use this to build resilience.

– Lucy Wallace, EIT Food

In the simulation, it’s quite beautiful to step into another role, and try to think from another role, and then, okay, are there some kind of assumptions, that are not maybe true, or how would this kind of person think. I really like the methodology, it’s very inspiring and concrete.

– Kati Partanen, World Farmers’ Organization

The Food Alert Simulation is a great opportunity for meeting and exchanging among colleagues from all around Europe from different spectrums of the food system, and to start thinking of different scenarios and different stress tests of our strange food system.

– Andrea Magrini, the Food Policy department of the city of Milan

The Food Alerts Workshop has been eye-opening for me. Especially the aspect of being “forced” to take on a completely different perspective, so representing a stakeholder that you normally don’t represent. That was very valuable.

– Isabelle Vreeke, Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality

It is a way to step outside of your own shoes and to work together on solutions that are then not attributed to one single organization and so there’s much more capacity for compromise.

– Milan Petit, SEER

Policy Simulations

Policy simulations take participants into the future to engage them in co-creating policies to reduce risk, build resilience, or achieve other urgent goals. Together, participants will explore research-based future stories offering realistic effects of business-as-usual trends. In their scenario roles as future policy advisors and policy-makers, they will be invited to embrace diverse values and perspectives while negotiating issues linked to a fictional food crisis, accelerating constructive responses that protect the food supply, ensure food security, and foster the achievement of the EU’s environmental, social and economic goals linked to a sustainable food system.

Food Alert Report Launch

The dissemination of a summary report based on the Food Alert Workshop will take place on 27 March 2024 at the Permanent Representation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the EU in Brussels. The report will be disseminated to the EU Commission, Members of Parliament and the public, providing reflections, outcomes, and valuable insights for strategic crisis preparation.

The Food Alert Report Launch will be broadcasted via a YouTube livestream broadcast. Participants will be able to pose questions during the webstream, which host organizers will strive to respond to either live or afterward.

Keynote Speakers

Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle
Director Strategy and Policy Analysist at the Directorate-Generale of Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission

Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle

Director Strategy and Policy Analysist at the Directorate-Generale of Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission

Pieter Jan Kleiweg de Zwaan
Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the European Union

Go to Food Alert Report Launch

Let’s stay connected!

Are you interested in becoming a partner of the Food Alert initiative?

Contact our Lead Organizer,
Chris Hegadorn, to discuss potential collaborations.

+33 783624773

We are actively seeking a diverse range of sponsors with unique perspectives to join our initiative!

Reach out to, Kristen Sukalac (Consulting Partner at Prospero & Partners) for more information on how to become Food Alert sponsor:

We welcome interest from

Agricultural banks
Research institutes
Endowments, family offices, and NGOs dedicated to enhancing food system resilience
Sovereign wealth funds and donor organizations
Food and agricultural industry entities, particularly trade associations or foundations

We appreciate your consideration and look forward to potential collaborations!

Food Alert News

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Acknowledgments

The Food Alert Simulation project will benefit from earlier work done in the context of the CASCADES, EU Horizon 2020 project, which explored cascading climate impacts on various aspects of European societies.

The Food Alert workshop was also greatly assisted by contributions to a specially-created “Technical Working Group” by experts of the OECD and IDDRI (Paris) who worked with project partners to finalize the crisis simulation scenario, to enhance its factual content and accuracy. The workshop was also enhanced by Listening Inspires, an NGO that brings together a rich network of individuals committed to inspiring creative solutions to modern-day challenges through deep listening – to ourselves, each other and Nature.