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About the project

COwLEARNING is a 5-year research project dealing with the sustainable beef and dairy supply in Austria. The project started in March 2022. With our COwLEARNING project, we want to break through the blame game in the chain of beef and dairy supply. We want to explore new ways of change by bringing together scientific knowledge from universities and the experience of production, processing, trade, gastronomy and consumption.

Objective

The aim of the project is to work with key stakeholders to find ways of achieving a

  • more animal-friendly,
  • ecological,
  • more economical and
  • socially sustainable

dairy and meat production.

The heart of the project is a series of workshops that have several objectives:

  • Setting the course for the analysis (selection of sustainability innovations, indicators and their ranking for the integrated assessment)
  • Development of scenarios for a future-oriented beef and dairy supply in Austria
  • Development and playing of a new cattle game that invites to explore the possibilities and limitations of change playfully
  • Reflect on and discuss project results in terms of their practical relevance

Research approach

With the COwLEARNING project, we want to explore possible transformations by bringing together scientific knowledge from universities with experiential knowledge from production, processing, trade, gastronomy and consumption.

  • We organise joint workshops. Together we look for possible transformation and look at different innovations.

Workflow

Between 2022 and 2027 it will happen:

  • Establishment of a “Transition Arena” – a stakeholder network along the beef and dairy value chain. The Transition Arena includes representatives from science, the feed sector, breeding, farms, slaughtering, processing, marketing, gastronomy, education and consumption.
  • Identifying drivers of change processes in the past
  • Analysis of the well-being of humans and animals
  • Analysis of environmental impacts
  • Analysis of the socio-economic and the steering and regulatory mechanisms in the value chain
  • An integrated and comparative “farm-to-fork” assessment of sustainability innovations
  • An analysis of relevant options/limitations for the growth of sustainability innovations

Topics

The project contents are processed in different work packages:

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