Shaping food futures: co-creating dietary and agricultural land use scenarios for transforming the regional agri-food system in Berlin-Brandenburg

Abstract

Purpose: This paper examines how knowledge co-creation between academic and non-academic actors can help balance agricultural and societal goals and transform regional food systems, while considering the importance of the local context. Design/methodology/approach: Focusing on the Berlin-Brandenburg region, the paper presents a stepwise methodological approach for co-creating sustainable diet and agricultural land-use scenarios. We collaborated with diverse stakeholders, including farmers, food processors, policymakers, researchers, and civil society, in the co-creation of future food system scenarios. These scenarios were translated into new agricultural land-use maps using participatory foodshed modelling and MapTable technology. Findings: The co-creation process enabled stakeholders to collaboratively develop and evaluate dietary and land-use scenarios, generating system, target, and transformative knowledge. Stakeholders aligned dietary choices with land capacity, co-created agricultural land-use maps, and identified policy implications. The iterative engagement fostered social learning, deepened the understanding of food system dynamics, and led to actionable insights for a regional food system transformation. The process influenced follow-up research and policy dialogue, though long-term political impact remains limited. Practical Implications: The paper demonstrates how collaborative and hands-on approaches can facilitate public and political discussions on sustainable, regional diets by making the process interactive, adaptive and user-friendly. Theoretical implications: Theoretically, this paper contributes insights into learning and knowledge co-creation processes, showing that a combination of bi- and multidirectional information flows can generate different types of knowledge crucial for regionalising food systems. Originality/Value: This paper offers a unique system perspective by linking dietary patterns with land use through participatory foodshed modelling. It shows how place-based, iterative stakeholder collaboration generates different knowledge for regional food system transformation in theory and practice.