IMS Luxembourg is one of the 60 founding members of the Luxembourg Food Council, Ernärungsrot Lëtzebuerg, founded on 10 March 2025. The aim of the Ernärungsrot Lëtzebuerg is to unite many stakeholders of the food system to contribute to a sustainable and resilient food system, as well as to food sovereignty in Luxembourg and the Greater Region.
The Ernärungsrot Lëtzebuerg aims to achieve the following objectives:
- Promoting food sovereignty, by asserting everyone’s right to healthy, diversified and culturally appropriate food, using ecologically sound production methods, socially just and sustainable, allowing citizens and producers to define their own system and agriculture, in a democratic context that guarantees their equitable participation.
- Create a forum for discussion, exchange and experimentation for all the stakeholders of the food system as well as for food policy, with the goal of proposing innovative and transdisciplinary solutions in the Grand-Duchy and even in the Greater Region.
- Strengthen food resilience by bringing stakeholders together to support each other's initiatives, whether they are professional or citizens initiatives, to create synergies and encourage collective learning, bringing together structurally distinct points of view in an inclusive, relational process of adjustment.
- Formulate proposals for a coherent food strategy and food policy in Europe, by establishing concrete sub-objectives tested through innovative field projects, developed within the working groups.
- Assist political decision-makers in adapting public policies to the challenges of sustainability and the resilience of the food system, by systematically integrating food practices, by facilitating dialogue, and by providing data-based recommendations and concrete examples.
- Propose the monitoring and evaluation of a future food policy, by providing advice and recommendations (both qualitative and quantitative) to government bodies, amongst others in the areas of food safety and sovereignty, biodiversity, resource protection (water, air, soil, etc.), one health approach, human rights, animal welfare, reducing food waste, and social, climate and environmental justice, etc.
- Facilitate the transfer of knowledge and the exchange of best practice between potential coordinating bodies dealing with the future food policy and/or between stakeholders in the field, by maintaining critical independence.
- Carrying out research, studies, and projects on food policy and support of the scientific processes of the Ernärungsrot Lëtzebuerg, in accordance with the principles of academic freedom and integrity, by presenting the results to the public authorities.
- Improving education for sustainable development (Bildung für Nachhaltige Entwicklung) and the sustainable food systems, by adopting a systemic approach through discussions, knowledge exchange, and shared experiments.
- Raising awareness among stakeholders of the food system of the global impact of food choices, particularly to the countries in the global South.
- Favouring partnerships with fair trade suppliers in order to ensure good working conditions, respect for human rights, and protection of environment for raw materials and products made from raw materials coming from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and if a fair-trade supplier exists for these raw materials, it should be certified as defined by the Fair Trade Charter and audited by a certification body accredited.
- Integrate criteria of social justice, environmental protection and food sovereignty in all food policy proposals and projects, considering the global inequalities.