Abstract

As early as 2008, the then Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) recognised that the megatrend of sustainability was influencing life in our century. This trend has also penetrated the field of nutrition:

Today, companies and consumers are increasingly turning away from conventional products and production methods and are looking for new products, technologies and approaches to food production and consumption that promise sustainability. This development is reflected in the quest for healthy and responsible nutrition. People are interested in alternative, innovative products and also associate them with ethical and social objectives: animal welfare, avoidance of climate-damaging emissions, avoidance of antibiotics, protection of finite resources. The objectives and principles of food law and health and consumer protection are affected, as the scandals surrounding BSE, rotten meat and dioxin contamination show. Ethical, legal and social aspects of new foods and their production are increasingly moving to the centre of social debate. In line with the ELSA - "Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects" - funding programme of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, a well-founded and factual debate on the legal, social and ethical aspects of both new and alternative foods and their production processes was conducted with young people as the target group. As well as being highly relevant to everyday life, the project was also very well suited to inter- and
to gain transdisciplinary insights at the interface of risk research, technology assessment and participation research.

Authors