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Public Engagement with Planetary Health with Focus on Food and Nutrition

Menschenversammlung

Planetary Health and Food

The Way to your Wellbeing is through your Stomach

Planetary Health describes an integrated and holistic understanding of health and wellbeing that is concerned with the complex interrelationships between the health of individuals, public health, and the state of the natural systems on which it depends.

The DBU-funded project ‘Planetary Health - Public Engagement for Planetary Health’ opens up new ways for a sustainable transformation of our food systems and consumption behaviour. However, the necessary support and willingness to make adjustments to existing eating habits and food systems will only become possible through knowledge co-production and the involvement of businesses, farmers, and policy makers.

The goal of our project is to provide guidelines for various stakeholder groups that will lay the groundwork for planning and implementing public engagement activities for healthy eating habits in line with the Planetary Health paradigm.

Mission: Why you Should Care

The Earth does not need us, but it is the very basis of our existence. The planet provides us with essential resources such as water, fertile soils, and oxygen. However, our often-thoughtless actions cause the Earth's ecosystem to become unbalanced, leading to a loss of biodiversity and shrinking habitats.

Agriculture is one of the main drivers of environmental destruction. The food sector is currently responsible for c. 30% of global energy consumption and c. 40% of greenhouse gas emissions. As our diet not only has a significant impact on our health but also on the health of the planet, healthy nutrition and sustainable food systems play a key role in safeguarding and preserving all life on Earth.

Our Project

The Natural History Museum Berlin aims to develop long-term solutions to global challenges such as biodiversity loss, climate change, health, and sustainability. Addressing these challenges requires the rethinking and redesign of outdated relationships and hierarchies between science, society, industry, and politics. Even more importantly, it requires a new mode of knowledge production that integrates different perspectives, ideas, experiences, expertise, and competencies from a wide range of diverse interest groups.

Our practice-oriented research project builds on this premise. Through a variety of Public Engagement activities and methods, we aim to stimulate and facilitate interaction and collaboration between researchers and actors beyond the reach of academic research. Our team is based at the Natural History Museum Berlin and collaborate closely with our partners Charité Berlin and Oxford in Berlin.