BEATLES: Co-creating Behavioural Change Towards Climate-Smart Food Systems
In the past few decades, we have seen a sharp increase in food production and consumption. To make our food system more sustainable, we need to reduce its environmental, economic, and social impacts.
BEATLES aims to transform the current agriculture and food system and accelerate the systematic transition to climate-smart agriculture and smart agriculture technologies.
This project uses appropriate behavioural and experimental conditions to identify the full range of “lock-ins” and levers that impede or motivate behaviour change, including individual, systemic, and policy factors. The diversity of agrifood systems and conditions in the EU will be explored by analyzing five major European food systems – cereals, dairy, stone fruit, livestock, and vegetables in Western, Eastern, Southern, and Northern Europe.
To promote the long-term, large-scale transition to sustainable, productive, and climate-resilient agriculture and food systems, BEATLES proposes innovative, systemic solutions, including business strategies and policy guidance.
Because wheat is Lithuania’s leading agricultural export, as well as having access to large amounts of cropland, the wheat farming system was selected as a use case. In this use case, our company – AgriFood Lithuania DIH – aims to achieve the following results: our company’s work, along with that of other project members, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss and improve soil health. Through our activities, we will contribute to agricultural productivity and economic performance focused on sustainability and improve the quality of life in rural communities.
Project Partners:
1 Agricultural University of Athens (AUA) GR
2 Wageningen Economic Research (WR) NL
3 Wageningen University (WU) NL
4 University of Copenhagen (UCPH) DK
5 Association Européenne pour l’Information sur le Développement Local (AEIDL) BE
6 Stiftelsen Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) SE
7 National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) GR
8 Q-PLAN International Advisors PC (Q-PLAN) GR
9 Naturland – Verband für ökologischen Landbau e.V. (Naturland) DE
10 Instituto Navarro de Tecnologias e Infraestructuras Agroalimentarias SA (INTIA) ES
11 Delphy BV (Delphy) NL
12 AgriFood Lithuania DIH (AFL) LT
13 Food & Bio Cluster Denmark (FBCD) DK
14 Zveza Potrosnikov Slovenije Drustvo (ZPS) SL
15 Sustainable Innovations Europe SL (SIE) ES
16 KPAD Ltd. (KPAD) UK
17 UAB ART21 (ART21) LT
18 Agro Digital Solutions (ADS) LT
Project website: beatles-project.eu