‘Exploring Priorities of a Food Policy Council for Luxembourg’

 

February 2022

Anna Pax and Dr. Rachel Reckinger published a report titled ‘Exploring Priorities of a Food Policy Council for Luxembourg’. This report is based on the results of two surveys with the Luxembourgish population on the topic of the establishment of a Food Policy Council (FPC) in Luxembourg. The first survey was carried out by Dr. Reckinger and Norry Schneider (Centre for Ecological Learning Luxembourg. The Transition Hub), and the second was carried out by the Sustainable Food Practices Team at the University of Luxembourg. The goal of the surveys was to gain empirically documented insight on:

• What Luxembourgish citizens and professionals would like to see a national-scale Food Policy Council accomplish and avoid
• The goals and topics it should address
• Who should be invited to participate
• The knowledge that respondents have about FPCs
• The likelihood of respondents participating
• The pre-existing knowledge about projects and tools in the Luxembourgish foodscape.

Read the full report here

The report presents and analyses the key trends about these interests and concerns that Luxembourgish citizens and food system professionals have concerning the creation of an FPC.

The results of the analysis were encouraging and showed more than anything that the respondents are interested in, and opinionated about, the Luxembourgish food system. They see the creation of an FPC, if set up on specific democratic grounds, as an opportunity for positive developments towards a sustainable and equitable food system transition.

As such, the opportunity should be seized, to build multi-stakeholder-led effective food policies; cooperatively shorten sustainable supply circuits; and encourage innovation, diversification, and collective learning. Luxembourg can use its political and economic international weight to push best practices for food sovereignty forward.

Food and incidentally climate, sovereignty can only be achieved by uniting governmental action, business innovations and civil society initiatives into collective action, underpinned by systemic ethics. For this, Food Policy Councils, from local levels to national ones and even an EU one, are key tools for democratic and efficient food system transformation.

To read more about Sustainable Food Practices’ involvement with the Food Policy Council click here.

The surveys and the report were partially funded by the Ouevre Nationale de Secours Grand-Duchesse Charlotte, and the Conseil Supérieur pour un Développement Durable. The first survey was conceived and conducted by Norry Schneider (Centre for Ecological Learning Luxembourg. The Transition Hub) and Dr. Rachel Reckinger (University of Luxembourg).