The European Commission makes publicly available through DataM the EU Food System Monitoring Dashboard.
It is a tool developed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) to monitor the sustainability of the EU food system from an environmental, economic and social perspective, based on a set of indicators.
This tool will evolve over time, in line with scientific, technical and policy developments.
Indicators in the dashboard, or the data used to calculate them, come from publicly accessible official data sources (such as statistics), or peer-reviewed scientific research. When analysed together, these indicators can improve understanding of the state of play and trends in food system sustainability.
The selection of indicators has been synthetised through:
- a rigorous review of existing frameworks and scientific evidence
- participatory processes involving relevant European Commission departments
- consultations with stakeholders and Member States.
The accompanying technical report describes in detail the process and methodology used for developing the dashboard.
The dashboard aims to give a comprehensive and cross-sectoral overview of the food supply chain. This includes all the chain’s components – primary production, food processing, distribution and consumption – and different sustainability aspects such as: (i) climate; (ii) pollution; (iii) biodiversity; (iv) economic viability of business; and (v) food environment.
This highlights the inextricable links between healthy people, healthy societies and a healthy planet.
Importantly, the process for selecting the indicators unveiled knowledge gaps (described in the technical report) that are inadequately covered by existing data, confirming the need for further work.
