Changing tables: Towards a transnational research collaboration operationalising transition to the Planetary Health Diet

Our current food system is causing problems worldwide: climate change, loss of biodiversity, widening health gaps and social inequality. The EAT-Lancet report (2025) shows that only by transforming the entire food system – from production to consumption – we can we work towards a Planetary Health Diet: a dietary pattern that is good for both people and the planet, featuring mainly plant-based foods, less meat and dairy, and room for local cultural differences. But such a transition is complex. Who decides what ends up on our plates? How do we ensure that everyone has equal access to healthy food? And how do we involve farmers, businesses, citizens and governments in the solutions?
In this networking project, researchers and regional partners from seven European regions will collaborate to explore how practice-based research can contribute to a just food transition. To this end, the partners take their own region as a starting point to investigate the (new) key players in the food network, what opportunities and barriers exist, and how initiatives around fair and sustainable food can be strengthened. We are doing this, among other things, through dialogue sessions (‘diner pensants’) with local stakeholders, centred around a meal based on the Planetary Health Diet.
The insights from all regions will be collated and compared. In this way, the participating countries learn from one another and a broader picture emerges of what can work in different contexts. The outcomes will form the basis for a joint European grant application for a large-scale follow-up project. The ultimate aim of this joint grant application will be to contribute to a Europe in which everyone has access to healthy, sustainable and affordable food reflecting the Planetary Health Diet – and in which regional food systems are stronger, fairer and better equipped to withstand future challenges.