Dr Brídín Carroll (University College Dublin) – TRANSMANGO EU research project: a case study of scenario methodologies applied to food system planning
This presentation reports on a current EU research project, TRANSMANGO, which focuses on the vulnerability and resilience of European food systems in the context of socioeconomic, behavioural, technological, institutional and agro-ecological change. TRANSMANGO addresses the effects of global drivers of change (climate, economic concentration and market structure, financial power, resource competition, marginalization, property rules, geo-political shifts, consumer preferences, consumption patterns and nutritional transition) on European and global food demand, production, and food flows. The study seeks to review and develop vulnerability assessment methodologies and dynamic modelling tools in order to assess the resilience of Europe’s agro-food sector and food security under the new unfolding conditions. The project has gathered analytical data used to design scenarios for possible and desired transition pathways in the food system. This study is important as there are signals that both food and nutrition security in Europe will be threatened by new global challenges linked to resource scarcity, environmental degradation and climate change. The study provides a valuable case study of the application of scenario methodologies to food system planning in a range of policy-making contexts, and therefore offers useful guidance and potential models for policy-makers in Northern Ireland in the transition to sustainability.