Spring 2021 Forum

About the Forum

How can we increase collaboration and ambition among civil society groups across Europe to transform the role of animal-source foods in food systems to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement?

This intersectional, interactive conference brought together civil society organisations and funders from across Europe who believe that in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement, we need a transformative shift in the way we produce and consume animal-source foods.

The conference provided a venue for exchange and learning from existing initiatives, space for joint strategising, and space to build momentum towards a grassroots-up Pan-European movement that can make such a shift possible within the next decade.

For this intersectional, virtual gathering the Healthy Food Healthy Planet Initiative invited experts and representatives from across Europe that brought a broad range of perspectives, including: labour & animal rights, health, nutrition, environment and rural livelihoods as well as those building food sovereignty.

All times in CET (Central European Summer Time)

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  • Day 1

    27 May 2021

  • This session focuses on creating an interactive exchange between participants to share how civil society is already working across Europe towards aligning food systems with the climate targets of the Paris Agreement and other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Bring your websites, pictures, video or a powerpoint slide to share your work and inspire each other.

  • We will be setting the scene in this session by bringing at the forefront of our minds ‘the why’ we are doing the work we do. Focusing on the reasons why transforming animal source foods in Europe needs to change for us to meet the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement. We will hear about the power of movements to bring about social change and jointly explore what is needed to increase collaboration and ambition among civil society across Europe.

  • In this session a panel of experts will investigate why unsustainable animal source foods are currently perceived as desirable, affordable and accessible in Europe. Following the panel we will break out into groups to explore: What are the root causes we need to address in Europe to make a transformation of animal source food consumption and production desirable, affordable and accessible?

  • This session is all about the dream we have for the future in relation to animal source foods in Europe. In a guided visioning exercise we will jointly identify key elements of the changes we want to see in the future.

  • Day 2

    28 May 2021

  • We will spark our thinking by presenting a map of our current system that leads to overconsumption of unsustainable and unhealthy levels of animal-source foods in Europea and a set of levers that could help align this system with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement. We want to hear from you what other levers or strategies are out there and what we should focus on based on the level of urgency and where our energy is drawn to.

  • Last month HFHP hosted workshops to investigate three leverage points to transform the production and consumption of animal sourced foods, notably creating retailer champions, changing local food environments with sub-national actors and engaging private investors. In this session we will dive deeper into 3 key ideas that emerged during the “Changing local food environments with subnational actors” workshop and look at where and how we can increasingly work together moving forward.

  • Last month HFHP hosted workshops to investigate three leverage points to transform the production and consumption of animal sourced foods, notably creating retailer champions, changing local food environments with sub-national actors and engaging private investors. In this session we will dive deeper into 3 key ideas that emerged during the “Creating retailer champions” workshop and look at where and how we can increasingly work together moving forward.


  • Last month HFHP hosted workshops to investigate three leverage points to transform the production and consumption of animal sourced foods, notably creating retailer champions, changing local food environments with sub-national actors and engaging private investors. In this session we will dive deeper into key ideas that emerged during the “Engaging private investors” workshop and look at where and how we can increasingly work together moving forward.

  • Across Europe our overconsumption of unsustainable animal source foods is driven by problematic narratives questioning whether diets with less and better animal source foods might affect our health, whether livestock is really that important when it comes to climate change and whether high levels of animal source foods are not essential parts of our European cultures. We will start off this session with a presentation of research on the narratives used by the livestock sector and how we can counter them. After which you will be asked to jointly develop key narratives for specific audiences that could replace the prevalent frames.

  • This is the session where it all comes together. In this session we will reflect on what we have heard during the forum and identify what CSOs and funders should do over the next year that fits with their current objectives, and helps with building a movement?
    Where
    Zoom link here

Forum Outputs

Forum Outputs