Integrated scenarios of sustainable food production and consumption in Germany

Abstract

Making food production and consumption more sustainable is a highly complex venture, requiring varied policy instruments. While finding an integrated and coherent approach is difficult, the use of strategic foresight might help to fill the gap. This article presents the results of an extensive scenario-building process in which we searched for sustainable solutions regarding food production and consumption in various possible future contexts in Germany. First, so-called context scenarios were formulated to describe different developments beyond the control of the relevant players, but that might have a significant impact on food production and consumption. Second, strategic food scenarios were developed to examine a wide range of sustainable solutions. Finally, the context and strategic food scenarios were merged and assessed to provide policy makers with a helpful "reality check" on different strategy options and guidance in prioritization. We explain the underlying methodology and, after a brief discussion of the main advantages and limitations of our approach, we draw some conclusions for sustainable food-consumption policy, highlighting the important role of society. © 2013 Lorenz & Veenhoff.