How to make a Pandoc table wider than textwidth? - layout

Question

I'm adding a table to a document and discovered that the columns are too narrow, making it a bit difficult to read. Therefore I'd like to make the entire table (and thus also the individual columns relative sizes) wider while keeping the textwidth of the rest of the document unchanged. Is it possible to do this using the Pandoc multi-line tables? Or do I need to use pure LaTeX for this table?
This is what the Pandoc markdown for my table looks like:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DSR Activity Description In this thesis
-------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Problem Identification & Motivation The specific research problem is defined, The research problem was initially defined by Simon Hacks
and the value of a solution is justified. and Robert Lagerström in a thesis proposal. The value of
the solution is that the produced artifact will establish
a foundation for further work in EAD detection and analysis.
2. Defining Objectives for a Solution The objectives of the solution are infered In order to determine the objectives of the solution the problem
from the problem definition and knowledge definition is examined.
about what is possible and feasible. This
might e.g. be a description of how the
artifact is expected to support solutions
to problems which have not yet been
addressed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And the resulting PDF (compiled simply using pandoc myfile.md -o myfile.pdf), where you can see that the table is only as wide as the textwidth:
In case it matters, I'm using
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\pagestyle{fancy}

Answer 1

A crude but effective method is to widen the \columwidth just for the table. You'll probably want to change the \LTleft table margin, like so:
```{=latex}
\newlength{\extraspace}
\setlength\extraspace{4cm}
\setlength\columnwidth{\columnwidth + \extraspace}
\setlength\LTleft{-0.5\extraspace + \tabcolsep}
```
Table goes here
```{=latex}
% restore old columnwidth, table placement
\setlength\columnwidth{\linewidth - 4cm}
\LTleft=\fill
```
Result:

Answer 2

I ended up using this solution:
\usepackage[textwidth=12.1cm,textheight=22cm]{geometry}
...
\newgeometry{textwidth=18cm,textheight=22cm}
<!-- my table here -->
\restoregeometry