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Making food system impacts visible, understandable, and actionable – through precision, participation, and open knowledge

With over 447 million people consuming 1.6 billion tons of food and drink each year, the way we produce and consume food impacts everything from human health and economic stability to the environment.

In 2022 alone, the EU produced 271 million tons of cereals, 160 million tons of raw milk, 22.1 million tons of pig meat, and 3.5 million tons of fish. While this supports food availability and livelihoods, it also places a heavy strain on ecosystems.

Agriculture accounts for 11% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions, while also contributing to soil degradation, water pollution, biodiversity loss, and land-use pressure – all made more urgent by climate change.

At the same time, food systems must respond to rising concerns around food security, fairness, and economic resilience. Balancing these environmental, social, and economic demands is one of the EU’s biggest challenges, but also opportunities.

FOODTURE is a European research and innovation project redefining how we understand and improve our food systems.

FOODTURE delivers next-generation impact assessment tools, built on advanced Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies. These tools help track and reduce the environmental, social, and economic pressures linked to food production and consumption.

By developing Europe’s largest database of Life Cycle Inventories (LCIs) for food products and integrating technologies like satellite data, drone monitoring, and spatial analysis, FOODTURE makes the invisible impacts of food visible. This empowers farmers, businesses, policymakers, and researchers to make better-informed decisions – from field to fork.

But FOODTURE isn’t just about data—it’s about action. The project provides open-access tools, policy briefs, practical guidelines, and training opportunities to support real change across the agri-food value chain, without compromising productivity.

Through a deeply collaborative model, involving stakeholders across the system, FOODTURE sets a new standard for transparent, science-based food system management. It’s how we go from understanding the problem to shaping the solution.