KER-01 provides a structured basis for assessing environmental, economic and social outcomes together, helping policymakers, researchers and modelling communities understand the wider implications of agricultural and food system policy choices.
The challenge
EU agricultural and food system policies can generate multiple and interlinked environmental, economic and social effects. Yet policy assessment is often constrained by differences in analytical approaches, indicators, data availability and the way relationships between policy interventions and food system outcomes are represented.
For stakeholders assessing future agricultural policies, this makes it difficult to obtain a coherent picture of trade-offs, synergies and wider food system consequences. A more integrated analytical framework is needed to connect policy interventions with food system activities and their resulting sustainability outcomes.
ACT4CAP27 has developed an operational food systems framework for analysing sustainable outcomes and indicator data. The framework builds on a food systems perspective in which drivers, food system activities and outcomes are connected across environmental, economic and social dimensions.
It maps key food system dimensions and outcome areas to relevant EU policy objectives, including the objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy and relevant European Green Deal strategies and objectives. It also identifies thematic areas, indicator domains and data requirements that are relevant for assessing food system performance.
The framework provides a structured basis for the further development of ACT4CAP27’s analytical tools. It helps identify which sustainability outcomes and indicators should be considered, what data are required, and where modelling approaches may need to be strengthened to assess policy impacts more comprehensively.
The framework also reviews existing EU monitoring approaches, notably the EU Food System Monitoring Dashboard and the CAP Indicator Dashboard, as important references for indicator coverage, data availability and monitoring practice.
Integrated assessment – The framework enables users to consider environmental, economic and social outcomes together, rather than assessing individual sustainability dimensions in isolation.
Clearer policy – outcome linkages – It provides a structured way of connecting policy objectives, food system activities, outcomes, indicators and data requirements, supporting more transparent policy impact assessment.
Identification of trade-offs and synergies – The framework draws attention to the fact that policy interventions can generate simultaneous and potentially competing effects across different food system outcomes.
Stronger analytical capacity – It provides a basis for identifying data and modelling improvements needed to strengthen the capacity of analytical tools to assess future agricultural and food system policies.
The added value of KER-01 is its integrated, operational perspective: it connects food system dynamics with sustainability outcomes and indicator requirements, providing a common analytical basis for strengthening policy assessment across multiple dimensions.
EU and Member State policymakers – The framework can support the assessment of policy options and their potential environmental, economic and social implications, particularly in relation to CAP post-2027.
Researchers and universities –Researchers can use the framework to structure food system analyses, identify relevant outcome indicators and explore relationships between policy interventions and sustainability outcomes.
Agricultural modelling communities – Modelling teams can use the framework to identify opportunities to broaden model coverage, strengthen outcome indicators and improve the representation of food system impacts.
International organisations and other food system stakeholders – The framework can provide a common conceptual and analytical reference for discussions on sustainable food system transitions and integrated policy assessment.
Assessing policy impacts across sustainability dimensions – The framework can be used to structure assessments of how agricultural and food system policies may affect environmental, economic and social outcomes simultaneously.
Supporting CAP post-2027 analysis – It can inform the identification of relevant indicators, data and analytical requirements for assessing future CAP policy options and their wider food system implications.
Strengthening modelling approaches – The framework can guide the identification of gaps in model structure, outcome coverage and indicator availability, supporting the further development of analytical tools.
Structuring indicator selection – The framework provides a basis for considering which sustainability indicators could complement existing model outputs, taking account of relevance, data availability and the analytical architecture of individual models.
The result can be used to strengthen integrated food system assessment and help translate sustainability objectives into measurable outcomes and analytical requirements.
KER-01 is a non-commercial, openly accessible methodological result designed for uptake through dissemination, application, integration and further development. The framework is documented in ACT4CAP27 🔗 Deliverable 1.1, An operational food systems framework (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.19695434) and is available through the ACT4CAP27 website and ACT4CAP27 Zenodo Community page.
Researchers, policymakers and modelling communities can use it as a reference for structuring integrated food system assessments, identifying relevant indicators and considering data and analytical requirements for policy assessment.
KER-01 has been developed and documented as an operational analytical framework and provides the conceptual and methodological basis for connecting food system dimensions, policy objectives, activities, sustainability outcomes, indicators and data. It can be used now as a methodological reference for integrated food system and agricultural policy assessment, while further development within ACT4CAP27 will strengthen its application through work on indicators, data and analytical and modelling capabilities.
KER-01 can contribute to evidence-based assessment of the Common Agricultural Policy post-2027, by providing a structured approach for considering environmental, economic and social outcomes together. It can support the identification of relevant indicators, data requirements, trade-offs and synergies and inform the further development of analytical capacities for assessing agricultural and food system policies. Its relevance extends to agriculture, food systems, climate action and environmental sustainability, including considerations related to biodiversity, soil, food security, health and farm viability.
Stakeholders can engage by applying the framework in food system and agricultural policy assessments, integrating it with complementary models, datasets and indicator systems, or contributing to its further research and development.
Opportunities also exist for validation and demonstration across policy questions and scenarios, as well as collaboration with other research projects and stakeholder communities working on sustainable food systems, CAP policy and agricultural modelling.
ACT4CAP27 welcomes collaboration that can test, strengthen and extend the framework beyond its initial project application.
The framework is supported by a growing body of openly available scientific evidence and project outputs.
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