On Thursday, September 5, the Food Transformation Forum 2024 took place at Omnia, Wageningen University & Research, bringing together around 80 key decision-makers from across the entire food value chain. Participants emphasized the importance of collaboration and taking personal responsibility within their respective organizations for the next steps to drive progress and accelerate the ongoing food transition.
Key insights:
- Participants compared the food sector to the energy sector, noting that restoring biodiversity needn’t be more complex than CO2 reduction.
- Both within and between sectors of the food industry, collaboration needs to be improved.
- Driving the food transition is an iterative process consisting of many small and large steps.
- A key bottleneck is the search for perfect solutions and the postponement of actions that don’t lead to consensus.
- Chain innovation, nature-inclusive innovation, scalability, and knowledge sharing are key drivers of food system transformation, ensuring sustainability while safeguarding affordability.
- The importance of considering convenience for consumers when implementing new sustainable measures was clearly highlighted.
- Consumers are ready for more plant-based options and recognize the need to reduce meat consumption. However, they still need support in making informed choices, and there is still room for improvement when it comes to taste.
- Pointing fingers at the government doesn’t help move things forward. Support the government in a pragmatic way to ensure success, and take action together with others to make progress.
Moderator:
Hajar Yagkoubi
Contributors:
Marieke Blom, ING
Marit van Egmond, Albert Heijn
Diederik Samsom, former European Commission
Richard Zaltzman, EIT Food