Baltic environment, food and health: from habits to awareness

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This project contributes to Central Baltic programme.We focus on the priority 3, Attractive and dynamic societies, from two perspectives: the impact of the Finnish and Estonian and Latvian food production onto sustainable healthiness of the Baltic Sea environment and environmental safety of the food originating from our mutual Baltic food shed. The direction of support of maintaining and improving the condition of the natural environment will be pursued by taking the challenge of the urgent and mutual need of environmental improvement of the Baltic Sea and the foodshed by facing the situation through improving awareness of consumers and fostering responsible consumption, and raising regional environmental responsibility of the food supply-demand chain through this approach. Our project contributes to food-environmental awareness and risk alertness by basic tools: food LCA, carbon and water foot prints, risk indices and indices of environmental and overall sustainability. The tools have been built by the partners and here used as link between protection of the Sea and the food shed and safety and sustainability of our regional food. A comprehensive approach of this project will be pursued by combining knowledge intensive tolls and consultative expertise, to outreach the challenges of implementing results of LCA and the previously mentioned indices into practice and to lead to collective know-how, individual and community accountability and best practices in public food-environmental co-operation. The final aim is to build up a culture for environmentally aware and risk alert food strategy for the mutual Estonian and Finnish foodshed around the Gulf of Finland, which in the project after life, emerges as a future competitive edge for the programme area. Specific actions are: a) to build up an interactive and updating knowledge base (research/university in main responsibility), b) to introduce user oriented informational paths and a collective learning process thru all major stakeholders (NGOs facilitated), c) to introduce environmentally and risk aware food choice models with mutual awarding approach and to start up a process for initiating a sustainable food strategy (NGOs facilitated), d) to establish a common exhibition platform for a public use and image support (science exhibition centre in main responsibility). Structurally these are included into two extensive work packages: regeneration of knowledge intensive facilities and transfer of knowledge, supported by the third: financial-logistic management of the project. The actions will be performed in a step-by-step process lead by the 3 partners and thru the 3 years, targeting young families and schools especially and involving stakeholders thru food chains and the region.

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