A scoping review of the impact of agricultural, food, and environmental policies on the transition towards a safe and just operating space for EU agri-food systems

The transition of agri-food systems towards a safe and just operating space (SJOS) is a complex phenomenon, which implies finding proper pathways for satisfying human needs and social justice for all, while staying within the limits of the planet's natural resources. In this context, public policies can play a key role in driving the transition. Thus, in this paper, we have carried out a scoping review of the literature on the relationships between some key public policies affecting agricultural and food and the SJOS dimensions, with the purpose of identifying the most important knowledge gaps. Following the most recent protocols proposed by the literature, we have reviewed papers published in the 2000–23 period using the Web of Science database as the main reference. Our results show that the available evidence is somehow scattered across the SJOS thematic areas, with a clear prevalence of the environmental (safe operating space) with respect to the social [just operating space (JOS)] ones. Thus, there is a clear research gap in exploring the impact of public policies on JOS issues such as social equity, health, and nutrition security. Moreover, very few studies explore synergies and trade-offs between different SJOS dimensions. This is especially relevant in evaluating a complex policy mix such as the Green Deal of the European Union. Finally, from a methodological perspective, the available studies provide some interesting hints for extending the available toolkit for ex-ante policy modelling, which deserve further research.