Infographic 1: Food System Synopsis – The foodscape in Luxembourg

 

In July 2020, the Sustainable Food Practices team published the first infographic, and its accompanying synopsis, in Forum: Für Politik, Gesellschaft und Kultur magazine. The infographic has been updated in September 2022 and the final version (IG1 v.A) is published on this page.

This visual depiction aims to unravel the complexity of the Luxembourgish food system, and avoid the downfalls of simpler depictions, which focus more directly on key actors, or what can be called the ‘food supply circuit’. The ‘food supply circuit’ includes the actions of:

• pre-farming input supply
• farming
• wholesale
• retail
• gastronomy
• individual citizens
• waste management 

While the importance of the roles of food supply circuit actors in the food system is indisputable, focusing merely on them, in a narrower approach, can overlook actors in the broader foodscape, which is why we explicitly include the following sets of actors.

• governance and regulation
• education and awareness-raising
• media
• research
• business interests and professional corporations
• marketing and advertising
• finance
• investing and insurance
• non-profit, voluntary and community groups
• operational services
• individual citizens

Our research resulted in the two overarching kinds of actors: those that deal directly ‘with’ food – operating at the level of the food supply circuit, and actors engaging in a varied array of activities revolving ‘around’ food – operating at the broader food system level. These two combined comprise the whole food system. 

The visual depiction of the whole food system shows that the food supply circuit actors operate within, and are constantly affected by and affecting, the broader and broader foodscape.

This infographic is part of a series of four to be published. In October 2022 the second and interactive infographic ‘Food System Discovery: Actors and Activities in Luxembourg’ was published and can be accessed here.