Fifteen new indicators to achieve a more balanced indicator coverage
Food systems play a pivotal role in preserving the balance between environment and human activities. Their sustainability is key for operating within the planetary boundaries. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) published its first food system monitoring dashboard in November 2024, to provide information on progress towards a fair, healthy and environmentally friendly food system. In addition to selecting indicators for monitoring, the related work identified important knowledge gaps on food system sustainability. These gaps were marked with placeholders indicating research or data collection needs.
This report describes the first phase of the evolutionary maintenance of the dashboard, providing overall context and methodological steps for turning placeholders into headline or secondary indicators. Importantly, the report also informs on how data in the monitoring system is managed, ensuring balanced and non-repetitive coverage of the environmental, economic and social dimensions, as well as the components of the food supply chain. The first phase of placeholder development yielded 15 new indicators in the dashboard- out of which 9 had been formulated as placeholders in the November 2024 report while 6 were newly proposed and developed indicators. These indicators draw on newly discovered public data, data derived from original research, and data resulting from the combination of public and commercial data sources.
Beyond informing on the sustainability of the EU food system, the monitoring framework including the upgraded dashboard and this report, may also contribute to policy making on issues such as competitiveness, social inclusion and environment.
TÓTH Katalin;
ACS Szvetlana;
BARBERO VIGNOLA Giulia;
BOSCO Simona;
CAIVANO Arnaldo;
CATARINO Rui;
DRUON Jean-Noel;
DE LAURENTIIS Valeria;
DE JONG Beyhan;
ERMOLLI Monica;
GALIMBERTI Francesco;
GUERRERO Irene;
GURRIA Patricia;
LEITE Joao;
LISTORTI Giulia;
LASARTE LOPEZ Jesus;
M'BAREK Robert;
PUERTA PINERO Carolina;
SMALLENBROEK Oscar;
TAMOSIUNAS Saulius;
WOLLGAST Jan;
PROIETTI Ilaria;
2025-11-06
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC143237
978-92-68-33320-4 (online),
1831-9424 (online),
EUR 40522,
OP KJ-01-25-556-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC143237,
10.2760/5463127 (online),
