The FP7 project ‘Food Planning and Innovation for Sustainable Metropolitan Regions’ FOODMETRES) thrives to assess both the environmental and the socio-economic impacts of food chains with regard to spatial, logistical and resource dimension of growing food as well as food planning and governance. FOODMETRES uses food-chain characteristics (such as environmental and performance indicators) to assess the “land footprint” of urban food consumptions in terms of the socio-economic and environmental impacts.
The main goals are:
- Identify opportunities for food chain innovation at both the local-regional as well the large-scale metropolitan level;
- Assess the economic, environmental and social impacts of food chain systems by means of ecological footprint and product life cycle analysis;
- Study and compare technical, logistical, organisational and governance aspects of innovative food chain systems in selected case studies in Europe and Africa.
- Develop and provide scenario modeling and impact assessment tools in support of stakeholder interaction and policy making;
- Apply knowledge brokerage techniques to speed up innovation and innovation exchange within the case studies.