Veggielab

This project revolves around the question: which media concepts can be used effectively to encourage residents of the Northern Netherlands to adopt a more sustainable (and healthier) diet.

Motivation

A healthy diet is a sustainable diet and vice versa. 20 to 35% of the environmental burden and greenhouse gas emissions come from food production and consumption. Dutch soil is becoming increasingly depleted with adverse effects on the production of healthy crops and the environment. There are other ways of farming that can enhance biodiversity and soil such as organic farming and nature-inclusive farming.

Veggielab is a POP-3 cooperation for innovation project with the aim to "show parties from the entire chain how farmers can process their crops on the farm into semi-finished products (ready-to-use) and finished products (ready-to-eat, ready-to-cook) and thus strengthen their position in the chain, leading to a better earnings model. A symbiosis is hereby established with running a farm based on the principles of nature-inclusive agriculture. By doing so, parties also want to show that it pays to switch from conventional agriculture to nature-inclusive agriculture". The consortium also needs more insight into which media and communication interventions can be used to encourage a more sustainable and healthier diet among the population. In which it also investigates what we can learn from other countries where the diet already consists of more ecologically sound food.

Project approach

Based on an in-depth literature review, we will investigate which communication interventions are effective in motivating a healthier and more sustainable diet. In addition, through a quantitative survey, the knowledge and preferences of the inhabitants of the Northern Netherlands for organic and nature-inclusive food are inventoried. Based on the results, possible media interventions that stimulate a sustainable and healthy diet will be investigated together with students from the Content & Media Strategy master's degree programme.