BISCI workshop during Dutch Food Week
During the Dutch Food Week (4—16 October), Brightland’s Campus Greenport in Venlo is dedicated to healthy and safe nutrition, future farming and bio-circular economy. An important challenge related to these topics is how to improve the sustainability of food chains, which is one of BISCI's scientific director Bart Vos's areas of expertise. On Friday, 4 October, Vos hosted an interactive workshop to share this expertise titled ‘Sustainable food, how does it get on our plate?’ at BISCI’s home turf, the Villa Flora in Venlo.
While the focus of the Dutch Food Week is mainly on what we eat, Vos's workshop addressed how we get food to where it is consumed. By making use of well-known companies such as MacDonald’s and Mars, Vos provided the workshop’s participants with hands-on examples of challenges linked to shaping efficient food supply chains. The main focus of his story was related to sustainability rather than efficiency: ‘Do you have any idea how many kilograms of food the average person wastes per year?’ Vos asked his audience. ‘About 34.3; however, this equates to only an estimated 25% to 30% of the waste within the full food chain! There is enormous potential in making our food chains more sustainable through reducing waste.’
Vos encouraged his audience to brainstorm about possible ideas to reduce waste in the food chain. Technological innovations, more locally-oriented chains, improved collaboration and coordination, and influencing the behavior of consumers were listed as promising solutions in this co-creation effort. BISCI looks forward to expanding collaborations at Brightland’s Campus Greenport in order to investigate the feasibility of these initiatives to make our food chains more sustainable.
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