Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Staff Echange - FoodMAPP
Introduction
The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action “Local Food supply communicated through a transactional searchable MAP based APPlication (FoodMAPP) to promote short food supply chains, food security, business development and reduction in food waste” is an EU Staff Exchange (SE) project which will bring together leading experts in the fields of agri-food economics, technology development, food supply chains, psychology and consumer behavior. Four academic beneficiaries will be partnered with two industry partners with extensive networks and experience in food supply systems. The project is coordinated by University of Zagreb and will run from March 2023 until February 2027.
Project description
Interconnected challenges of climate change, food supply resilience, food miles, food waste and supporting the next generation of producers and operators with a fair income are all highlighted in the EU Strategic Plan. Foundational redesign of our food supply systems is required, with urgency, to address these challenges and accelerate the twin green and digital transitions. Current industrial scale food producers and processors lead to complex supply chains that are disconnected from local communities and a rebalancing toward more local supply is sought to address these challenges.
FoodMAPP will lead this transformation of food supply by enabling and promoting transparent local provision from local producers, including small scale family farmers, and processors direct to consumers. FoodMAPP will, for the first time, gather extensive market intelligence from all stakeholders including producers, processors, consumers to understand market demand and preferences towards localised food supply transparency. This underpinning research will inform the development of a dynamic searchable map-based platform enabling local providers to supply and sell produce directly to consumers.
Food supply from small scale family farmers, local processors and food service operators will be included. The platform will be trialled with local communities and refined prior to full exploitation and comprehensive dissemination to stakeholders and policy makers.
Objectives
These are the objectives of FoodMAPP:
- Mapping consumer preferences toward localised food supply and developing a critical understanding of key barriers and opportunities for localised food supply across Europe through stakeholder insights of all stages in the food supply chain
- Developing a user-friendly real-time searchable map-based platform (app) enabling local providers to supply and sell produce directly to consumers while delivering personalised local food supply information to consumers supporting business and more sustainable consumption practices
- Supporting European industry competitiveness including Small Scale Family Farming and facilitating both more sustainable consumption practices and a reduction in Food Waste.
Role of Ghent University
Ghent University will lead Work Package 1 focusing on stakeholder requirements and consumer preferences for local food supply and related applications.
Website
Contact
Prof. Hans De Steur
Department of Agricultural Economics
Phone number: +32 9 264 59 30
E-mail
Funding info
Disclaimer
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the authority can be held responsible for them.