How the 6th MML Fair Food Systems Addressed Transformative Business Models and Lock-ins for Sustainable Change

On 29 October 2024, the 6^th MML workshop within the FOODCoST project took place online with the title: “Transforming food systems: addressing business models and lock-ins for the internalization of externalities”.

After an engaging ice-breaking game conducted by APRE – the Agency for the Promotion of European Research, through which more than 15 participants from the quadruple helix had the possibility to know each other, the FOODCoST coordinator briefly presented the project and its commitment to address externalities in food prices and move towards more sustainable food systems.

The first part of the session was managed by Anne Maud Courtois (UCLouvain) and Cynthia Giagnocavo (UAL), who set a common stage for the co-creation activity providing a background to participants on the work that has been done so far within the project. They shed light on the business models perspective in the internalization of externalities (IOE) and explained that despite supportive public policies and voluntary commitments from agri-food businesses to improve their social and environmental impact, the adoption of IOE strategies faces substantial barriers, limiting the shift to sustainable practices at scale. Lucas Olmedo Osuna (UAL) also presented a matrix developed within the project showing the interaction between business models and lock-ins to IOE, and Anton Riera (UCLouvain) presented a case study on protein transition in Belgium to provide a concrete example of a specific business model that has been confronted to specific barriers to IOE.

Once a common theoretical framework was provided, stakeholders were transferred to the Miro Board and asked to identify business models and barriers to their implementation through interactive and dynamic exercises. The stakeholders then discussed future perspectives and gave recommendations on specific business models which may deserve further study in the future, by prioritizing research areas for actionable change.

Not only the workshop allowed to collect valuable feedback on the topic from a variety of relevant actors, but it also will help to develop actionable recommendations for better integrating externalities into food system practices. The audience was active and eager to discuss the topic, and many participants asked to be kept informed about outcomes and events related to the FOODCoST project: this made the session very successful for the organizing team, who is already working on the next MML event.

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