Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports

SysOrg

Organic agro-food systems as models for sustainable food systems in Europe and Northern Africa

SysOrg strives to establish possible intervention strategies, locally adapted, for transformation of food systems across Europe and Northern Africa. The goal is to identify possible entry points for sustainable, resilient and resource efficient food systems with less environmental impacts and high socio-cultural acceptance.

The food we daily eat not only contribute to our personal health and wellbeing. Diets are connected to food production, and to agriculture and, consequently, to environmental sustainability, such as biodiversity loss and waterway pollution due to overuse of nitrogen and phosphorus.

SysOrg aims to develop solutions that contribute to enhance change of the food systems to increase sustainability, including the environmental, social and economic perspectives. Many experts conclude that a shift of diets, such as more plant-based and locally produced food, will contribute largely to the global transition to sustainability.

Therefore, SysOrg investigates patterns that enhance dietary shifts and assess differences between drivers and barriers in five territorial places in Europe and Northern Africa.

Key research questions

This research project adds to knowledge about the transition towards sustainable, resilient, and resource-efficient, circular and zero-waste food systems.

How can pathways to increase sustainable consumption and food production be successfully designed?
What are the reasons, motivations or drivers for the actors to opt for the more sustainable solution
What are the intervention and entry points for the development, consolidation and dissemination of enhancing organic food and farming, reducing food waste and shifting towards sustainable diets? What are critical points when bringing these perspectives together in a system approach?

Overall purpose

SysOrg uses a future-oriented approach and applies innovative research through explorative systemic methods and the focus on interdisciplinary collaborations.

SysOrg investigates food systems in five different regions of Denmark, Poland, Italy, Germany and Morocco taking into account several perspectives (i.e. Diet, Organic Food and Farming, Food Waste and System Transition). The University of Copenhagen is leading the Diet perspective at the faculty of Science.

SysOrg is conducted in cooperation between the departments Nutrition, Exercises and Sports (NEXS) and Food and Resource Economics (IFRO).

SysOrg is part of an international scientific study that aims to increase the sustainability of our food system. In the EU, food consumption is one of the private consumption areas that has the largest impact on the environment, including energy use, land use, water and soil pollution.

Unhealthy diets threatens peoples’ livelihood. One third of people on the globe are malnourished, which means they lack sufficient micronutrients or consume too many or too little calories. Further, one of five deaths globally are caused by unhealthy diets.

Therefore, a shift is needed. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organizations (2019) sustainable and healthy diets are:

protective and respectful of biodiversity and ecosystems,
culturally acceptable, accessible,
economically fair and affordable;
nutritionally adequate, safe, and healthy,

while optimizing natural and human resources.

SysOrg investigates alternative and transformative food systems that contributes to sustainable development. This means SysOrg investigates food systems in terms of natural resources’ needs (including people) of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Thus, the 2030 agenda by United Nations is deeply embedded in SysOrg’s research goal, such as “Zero Hunger” (SDG2) and “Good Health and Wellbeing” (SDG3).