Enabling the dietary shift towards sustainable food choice decisions

DAAD Alumni Program AA and BMZ 2023-2024

The impact of global food production and consumption on economic, social, health and environmental aspects such as climate change and food security requires a transformation of the food system. One lever to achieve the necessary transformation is a "dietary shift", i.e. the change of the individual diet, towards a sustainable diet through the choice, preparation and consumption of sustainable food.

In the training seminar, a mix of online and face-to-face formats, lectures and participatory workshops will highlight various aspects on the topic of sustainable nutrition as well as tools to achieve the "dietary shift" and combine them into an overall view. After an overview of factors influencing global food consumption, opportunities for changing decision-making environments will be presented. Subsequently, the change in supply is brought into focus, especially to address sustainable food alternatives. As an example, a detailed overview of different alternative protein sources is given. Further aspects of the change in supply or the replacement of individual ingredients will also be highlighted with regard to global value chains, for example, and brought to life for the concrete design of a sustainable supply of meals in practice by using the Nahgast calculator, as a tool for calculating the sustainability of meals. The fact that the participants bring local recipes into the workshop ensures that the food choices are specific to the target group. Alumni will also be given space to network and present their own research topics.

The goal of the seminar is to network and build up the competence of alumni of the TU Berlin and other German universities/research institutes that deal with the topic of sustainable nutrition. As future multipliers, they should be equipped with potential solutions and tools for a sustainable food system.