This paper formulates recommendations for action for policy makers to promote sustainable food systems in Germany and identifies open research needs. Stephanie Wunder and Dr. Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers of Ecologic Institute contributed to this. The results paper is available for download.

In the following four fields of action, ideas were developed for political approaches to the design and implementation of sustainable food systems:

1. Creation of appropriate political and financial framework conditions for sustainable agri-food systems
2. Cooperation of all stakeholders for holistic strategy development
3. Strengthening competencies
4. Establish assessment models for sustainable agricultural and food systems

Priority research needs were identified in five areas:

1. Further development, harmonisation of data evaluation and practice-oriented processing of measuring instruments.
2. Continuous evaluation of policy objectives, for example in the field of sustainable procurement.
3. Analysis of barriers and conditions for the success of sustainable food systems.
4. The inclusion of practitioners from all parts of the value chain. Analysis of the communication and cooperation processes between the various actors.
5. Further development of suitable teaching methods for sustainability competencies in order to integrate research results and instruments into the working methods, (communication) structures and routines of the relevant stakeholders.

The synthesis paper was developed in cooperation with six research projects that were part of the BMBF funding measure "Sustainable Management" (NaWi) launched in 2014 and worked on various aspects of sustainable nutrition and sustainable food systems.