FOOD ISSUES
- HOW CAN SOCIAL
SCIENCE CONTRIBUTE?
Lotte Holm, Jørgen Dejgaard Jensen & Peter Sandøe
Department of Food and Ressource Economics
University of Copenhagen, LIFE
REAL LIFE ISSUES
• That people are food insecure
• That people become overweight
• That people become malnourished
• That people become ill from the food they eat
• That food production harms the environment
• That food production harms biodiversity
• That food production leads to climate change
• That food production affects animal welfare
• ...
THE ROLE OF FOOD RELATED
RESEARCH
• Food related research may give us new insights that
can enable us to deal successfully with the issues
• But what kind of knowledge?
• Everyone seems to agree that in most cases knowledge
based on natural science is needed
• However, sometimes it is overlooked that technical
knowledge does not by itself move things
MOVING THINGS
• Even with the best technical knowledge things will only
move if the knowledge-based solutions
– are appropriated by the relevant people
– are linked in the right way to ways of life and practices
– do not run counter to accepted ethical values
– are backed by the right incentives
• An important role of social science is exactly to find out
what is required for these things to be in place
OUR EXPERIENCE
• We have been involved in numerous projects where we
in collaboration with researchers based in natural
science have tried to find ways to handle food issues
• Often this has been quite fruitful
• Particularly when we have been involved not only to
answer pre-defined questions but also to help asking the
most fruitful research questions