Building togEther A sUstainable fuTure Improving Food systems thrOugh Open Democracy

ongoing

Building togEther A sUstainable fuTure Improving Food systems thrOugh Open Democracy (BEAUTIFOOD) is a project conceived to promote active citizen participation in shaping a sustainable and climate-friendly food system future of the EU. The project's main objective is to engage citizens in the process of changing the food system towards sustainability. By involving youth, women, farmers and food producers, civil society, and decision makers, the project aims to engage them in the debate recognizing the need to transform food systems, creating enabling food environments, and emphasizing the importance of citizens' participation in policy-making processes. By fostering dialogue and collaboration, the project seeks to generate instances that may serve local and EU decision-makers to feed the decision-making process. The project aims to build knowledge and trust among the population, for the transformation process envisaged in the Green Deal and F2F, highlighting the importance of bottom-up approaches to address the interconnected challenges in food systems. The project methodology is anchored in events that will be organized by an innovative methodology with edutainment and artistic format taking center. The 3 steps of the project methodology are: 1) informing and opinion polling with creative and appealing events to draw the general public's attention to the issues described, give tangible information and gather input from citizens through a participatory approach; 2) dialoguing with local/regional institutions though workshops where proposals and inputs received at previous events will be discussed and where the spaces and tools to participate in the democratic life are made tangible; 3) feeding the EU policy process thanks to the results will be presented to relevant EU institutions through the organization of meetings with relevant representatives, and more broadly will be integrated in the EU advocacy work that the partners conduct.