Imagine European Food Futures was an international workshop on speculative and participatory methods in food research and action, which took place on the OVALIE experimental platform, at Université Jean-Jaurès, Toulouse, France, on 4-5th September 2023.

The event united students, researchers, citizen science associations, and art collectives working in the field of food transition, articulating food democracy and citizen science. The workshop invited thinkers engaging with future-oriented and/or non-conventional ways of knowing and acting, e.g. science fiction, speculative design, gamification.

The aims were 1. To discuss, share, and mix methods of studying/problematising/intervening/disrupting possible food futures under the general STS umbrella; 2. To find points for collaborations between academic scientists, civil society organizations, food activists, community members, and art groups.

The first day was devoted to the presentation of participants’ projects. The second day consisted of a speculative small group workshop for toolbox development, ending with collective cooking of a “futurist meal” at the experimental kitchen.

The results will be assembled into an open access online toolbox, with a possibility to be further developed into a book project. The data collected via video cameras installed at the Ovalie platform will be shared among the participants for further multimodal analysis and outcomes (articles, art work, etc).

EASST Funds enabled the organisers to offer travel grants so as to assist low-income participants, privileging civil society actors and students.