„Voll (&) lecker – so schmeckt die Zukunft“

By: Anne Schlieker
Supervisor: Dr. Gesa Lüdecke

Food is part of our everyday life. However, our nutrition and food production negatively affect the environment, causes global inequalities in food distribution, and more. To reach food security for all people in the future while remaining within the planetary boundaries, a dietary shift towards a healthy diet for us and the planet is needed. Meanwhile, though, especially in countries of the global north, food has increasingly become fast and easy, with its origins increasingly obscure. In the process, diet-related competences are decreasing as many people are not aware of the consequences their diet has on environment, economy, society, and health.

And here lies the focus of my final project: I created a workshop aiming at conveying practical knowledge on how and what to change for a more sustainable diet. Participants not only learn about nutrition and sustainability, but also reflect on their own dietary patterns and are encouraged to formulate concrete personal steps towards a more sustainable diet.

In the following, I would like to point out three aspects that were important to me when creating this workshop:
First, nutrition is a very complex topic. Thus, my aim was that participants would learn about sustainable nutrition and different influencing factors without being overwhelmed. This was also one of the challenges I faced – deciding which aspects to address and which ones to only touch very briefly or not at all.
Furthermore, a dietary change can only be successful if it is in alignment with one's individual daily routine. Therefore, the workshop was designed to be close to the participants' everyday lives, e.g., by giving them the opportunity to choose aspects according to their own interests.
Lastly, the workshop was designed to be interactive and to foster exchange amongst the participants. Therefore, I incorporated different learning methods, such as a blind tasting, a short quiz, group discussions and individual reflections.

The workshop took place on June 19th 2022. Even though less participants than expected took part, I was content with how the workshop turned out. We had interesting discussions and I received positive feedback from the participants. Some results: After the workshop, all participants agreed that they were motivated to try out more things in the future. They also agreed to have concrete ideas on how to make their diet more sustainable and that they had a concrete plan, which aspects they wanted to change within their diet first.