L1D66

(1.3)
L1T153 (42%): food (19%)

L1T76 (5%): agriculture (17%), agricultural (11%)

L1T19 (4%): and (81%)
titleabstract

Tons, joules, and money: Modes of production and their sustainability problems (1997) 🗎🗎

This article seeks to describe sustainable development in operational terms for three different modes of production. It provides two theoretical concepts to characterize each society's relationship with nature: societal metabolism and colonization. Metabolism is the mode in which societies organize the exchange of matter and energy with their natural environment. Colonization refers to the strategies employed to transform parts of the natural environment to render them more useful for societal needs. The first section offers an exploration of the sustainability problems within three modes of production and social organization: hunter-gatherer, agricultural, and industrial societies. Metabolism and colonization are then empirically described in detail for industrial societies. The final section discusses strategies for industrial societies to reduce and transform their metabolism toward more sustainable development.

Quality farm food in Europe: a possible alternative to the industrialised food market and to current agri-environmental policies: lessons from France (1998) 🗎🗎

As consumer dissatisfaction with intensive farming systems and standardised farm products has grown, so has the demand for 'quality' produce emanating from alternative farming and marketing sectors. This paper describes one important quality food sector, namely 'vente directe' in France,'Vente directe' involves farmers selling their own produce directly, i.e. with no 'middleman', and is one means by which the demand for quality could be capitalised upon so as to support existing producers of traditional low intensity farm produce. The research shows that while there is unquestionably a sector of French consumers willing to support 'vente directe' by paying higher prices for perceived quality and confidence in their food, both demand and supply are too small to be very significant. Moreover, consumers within the sector are not always interested in farming practices, and often look no further than the marketing imagery for any evidence of a traditional low intensity farming system. An exception is the organic sector, where practices are clearly defined and clients often more discerning. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sustainable development: socio-economic metabolism and colonization of nature (1998) 🗎🗎

In this article the notions of 'societal metabolism' and 'colonization of nature' are used to describe the inter-relations between societies and their natural environment in order to operationalize the concept of 'sustainable development'. Metabolism refers to the material and energetic input-output processes of societies, i.e, the extraction of natural resources, their processing, storage within society, and finally their release as wastes and emissions. 'Colonization of nature' refers to activities which deliberately alter natural systems and keep them in a societally desired state. We empirically analyse the metabolism of five industrial countries. Their per capita material consumption is similar enough to support the notion of a 'characteristic metabolic profile' of industrial society, which can be viewed in a historical perspective against the metabolism of hunter-and-gatherer and agrarian societies, revealing an impressive increase. We then analyse the inter-relations between a society's energetic metabolism and the need as well as the limitations of its colonization strategies. For example, we discuss how the biomass productivity of plants limits the energy flow of agrarian societies and globally may limit population growth. Finally, we discuss how industrial societies might perceive their sustainability problems and respond to them.

Transition challenges in consumer acculturation: Role destabilization and changes in symbolic consumption (1999) 🗎🗎

Consumer acculturation consists of three phases: Pre-immigration, transition, and outcomes. This study investigates role adjustment and symbolic consumption during the transition phase of consumer acculturation. Rode adjustment in the transition phase includes movement into a new culture, role destabilization, changes in symbolic consumption, new roles, and role stabilization. A better understanding of the relationship between transition, role destabilization and symbolic consumption will help marketers develop more effective marketing programs and meet the needs of rapidly growing immigrant communities.

Integrated farming systems: the third way for European agriculture? (1999) 🗎🗎

The potential contribution of integrated farming systems (IFS) to the development of a more sustainable agriculture has been largely ignored within social science and by policy analysts. The goals of IFS are to sustain agricultural production, maintain farm incomes, safeguard the environment and respond to consumer concerns about food quality issues. IFS can be conceptualised as a 'third way' or middle course for agriculture between conventional and organic farming. This paper describes the origins and basic principles of IFS and positions this distinctive approach to agriculture within the agri-environmental debate. It also explores some of the implications of pursuing this 'third way' for farmers and the institutional and policy frameworks. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Health and safety issues pertaining to genetically modified foods (2001) 🗎🗎

Genetic modification involves the insertion of genes from other organisms (within or between species) into host cells to select for desirable qualities. Potential benefits of GM foods include increased nutritional value; reduced allergenicity; pest and disease-resistance; and enhanced processing value. Possible detrimental outcomes include producing foods with novel toxins, allergens or reduced nutritional value, and development of antibiotic resistance or herbicide-resistant weeds. Benefits to individuals or populations need to be weighed against adverse health and environmental risks, and may differ between developing and Westernised countries. Whether testing and monitoring should exceed requirements for conventional foods is under debate. While not necessarily scientifically justifiable, consumer concerns have resulted in Australian and New Zealand requirements to label foods containing GM-produced proteins. Dissatisfied consumer advocacy groups are calling for all foods involving GM technology to be labelled, irrelevant of whether the final product contains novel protein. Goals to improve the quantity, quality and safety of foods are laudable; however, the primary aim of the bio-food industry is financial gain. GM foods may be as safe as conventional foods but public distrust runs high. It is important that discussion is informed by science and that claims of both benefits and risks are evidence-based, to ensure that the process is driven neither by the vested interest of the bio-technical multinational companies on the one hand, nor ill-informed public fears on the other.

Sustainable consumption: A theoretical and environmental policy perspective (2003) 🗎🗎

Within environmental social sciences, the authors believe that the analysis of sustainable production should be complemented by bringing in issues of sustainable consumption and lifestyles. It is possible to place a stronger emphasis on consumption issues without lapsing into the socio-psychological models that were used for so long in the analyses of environmental (un) friendly behaviors of citizen-consumers. The article argues that the social practices model, derived from structuration theory, offers a feasible alternative in this respect, because the model makes possible a sociological, "contextual'' approach to consumption behaviors and lifestyles. The kind of questions the social practices model generates for empirical research are illustrated using the example of domestic consumption of utility products and services. By discussing a number of pilot studies within Dutch environmental policymaking, the future agenda of the politics of sustainable consumption is explored and commented upon.

Ecological citizenship and sustainable consumption: Examining local organic food networks (2006) 🗎🗎

Sustainable consumption is gaining in currency as a new environmental policy objective. This paper presents new research findings from a mixed-method empirical study of a local organic food network to interrogate the theories of both sustainable consumption and ecological citizenship. It describes a mainstream policy model of sustainable consumption, and contrasts this with an alternative model derived from green or 'new economics' theories. Then the role of localised, organic food networks is discussed to locate them within the alternative model. It then tests the hypothesis that ecological citizenship is a driving force for 'alternative' sustainable consumption, via expression through consumer behaviour such as purchasing local organic food. The empirical study found that both the organisation and their consumers were expressing ecological citizenship values in their activities in a number of clearly identifiable ways, and that the initiative was actively promoting the growth of ecological citizenship, as well as providing a meaningful social context for its expression. Furthermore, the initiative was able to overcome the structural limitations of mainstream sustainable consumption practices. Thus, the initiative was found to be a valuable tool for practising alternative sustainable consumption. The paper concludes with a discussion of how ecological citizenship may be a powerful motivating force for sustainable consumption behaviour, and the policy and research implications of this. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Path-dependency in plant breeding: Challenges facing participatory reforms in the Ethiopian sorghum improvement program (2008) 🗎🗎

Participatory plant breeding (PPB) seeks to involve farmers more closely in crop improvement in order to improve breeding impact. While PPB aims to reform breeding practice, there has been little analysis of the current practice breeding institutions. Such an analysis is necessary, both to understand why a breeding programme works the way it does, and to assess the possibilities of for reforms. This paper develops theories of path-dependency, social construction of technology, and actor-networks to analyse the historical development of the Ethiopian Sorghum Improvement Program (ESIP), a long-running and sophisticated public-sector effort whose outputs have had limited adoption. This analysis explores choices in technology development, the social networks influencing them, and the possibility that established choices become stabilized in a pathway that resists changes to different lines of research and technology development. Applying this analysis to ESIP helps to understand the path-dependency of sorghum breeding, showing how early choices around agroecological classifications, germplasm use, and F, hybrid development became 'locked-in', consequently resisting change. Technical constraints, breeding routines, and actor networks all reinforce particular choices from the past, as does the centralized organization of the ESIP team. Most PPB efforts assume that poor breeder awareness of the traits farmers desire is the main reason for low impact, and thus concentrate on addressing this gap. This study points to more fundamental reasons for poor impact, and indicates that institutional change in breeding is unlikely to emerge from a PPB intervention focusing on selection criteria alone. In order to be lasting, reforms need to recognise technical pathways, strengthen the voice of farmers or other beneficiary groups, and engage with dominant policy narratives. This highlights the value of analysing breeding institutions before designing breeding reforms, and the utility of path-dependency for such an analysis. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Envisioning agricultural sustainability from field to plate: Comparing producer and consumer attitudes and practices toward environmentally friendly' food and farming in Washington State, USA (2008) 🗎🗎

A substantial body of sociological research has examined the relationship between farmers' environmental attitudes and their conservation behaviors, but little research has compared the attitudes of producers and consumers toward the environment with their behaviors or practices in support of sustainable agri-food systems. This paper addresses these shortcomings by analyzing the intersection between producer and consumer attitudes toward environmental sustainability with their actual practices, drawing data from focus group interviews and surveys with producers and consumers in Washington State, USA. We compare farmers' attitudes toward several agricultural and environmental policies with their self-reported practices to examine whether support for environmental policies aligns with sustainable farming practices. For consumers, we investigate the relationship between their attitudes toward the same agricultural and environmental policy issues with their interest in purchasing food produced in an environmentally sustainable manner. Through our analyses, we find that consumers' and producers' practices are not always consistently correlated with their environmental attitudes, but that support for agricultural land preservation is one policy area in which the interests of producers and consumers intersect with their interest in sustainable farming and food. Findings from our individual and focus group interviews assist us in understanding the multiple, sometimes competing, factors that consumers and producers must weigh in making decisions about environmentally sustainable food and farming. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Greening global consumption: Redefining politics and authority (2008) 🗎🗎

In the recent upsurge of environmental concerns worldwide, sustainable consumption issues are more prominent than before on public and political agendas. But formulating policies for the greening of lifestyles and consumption patterns (e.g. traffic-behaviour, food, housing and leisure) turns out not to be an easy task, as consumption has become a global phenomenon and nation-states have lost their authoritative monopoly. This paper argues that, in the context of a globalising world of networks and flows, sustainable consumption policies have to be conceived of in terms of deterritorialised politics and programs which rely also on non-state environmental authority for the greening of consumption practices. In reflecting on the role of citizen-consumers in politics for the greening of global consumption, three basic concepts are presented to facilitate such analysis and to discuss non-state environmental authority: ecological citizenship, political consumerism, and life-politics. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How agricultural research systems shape a technological regime that develops genetic engineering but locks out agroecological innovations (2009) 🗎🗎

Agricultural science and technology (S&T) is under great scrutiny. Reorientation towards more holistic approaches, including agroecology, has recently been backed by a global international assessment of agriculture S&T for development (IAASTD). Understanding the past and current trends of agricultural S&T is crucial if such recommendations are to be implemented. This paper shows how the concepts of technological paradigms and trajectories can help analyse the agricultural S&T landscape and dynamics. Genetic engineering and agroecology can be usefully analysed as two different technological paradigms. even though they have not been equally successful in influencing agricultural research. We used a Systems of Innovation (SI) approach to identify the determinants of innovation (the factors that influence research choices) within agricultural research systems. The influence of each determinant is systematically described (e.g. funding priorities, scientists' cognitive and cultural routines etc.). As a result of their interactions, these determinants construct a technological regime and a lock-in situation that hinders the development of agroecological engineering. Issues linked to breaking Out of this lock-in situation are finally discussed. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Understanding Consumer Rationalities: Consumer Involvement in European Food Safety Governance of Avian Influenza (2009) 🗎🗎

Avian influenza is one more of the recent food scares inciting shifts in European food safety governance, away from a predominantly science-based approach towards one involving scientists, policymakers, actors in the food-supply chain and consumers. While these shifts are increasingly receiving scholarly attention, sociological insight into the involvement of consumers and other actors across the multiple levels of today's food safety governance requires further development. This article aims at contributing to the understanding of consumer perspectives on food safety governance by expounding the results of an explorative research among Dutch consumers, which focused on food risks related to avian influenza. To give ample room for the construction of contextual knowledge, consumers of poultry meat were questioned at various retailers by applying a qualitative interviewing method. From this research, it is concluded that multiple consumer rationalities about food safety governance exist. As a consequence of the existence of these multiple consumer rationalities, a differentiated governance approach to restore or retain consumer confidence in food safety in view of food-related risks is more likely to be pertinent than a 'one-size-fits-all' approach.

Environmental dialogue in online communities: negotiating ecological citizenship among global travellers (2009) 🗎🗎

The aim of this paper is to investigate how web-based online communities bring about new forms of environmental dialogue. We suggest that these online sites play an important role in setting the stage for new forms of cultural production, dissemination of environmental knowledge and environmental dialogue, through which particular forms of ecological citizenship and consumer culture are being created and sustained. Based on an empirical study of an online community of 'global travelers' carried out using netnographic methods, the study shows how environmental knowledge is being disseminated, negotiated and made sense of in the online environments of the global marketplace. Our findings illustrate, in particular, how online communities may work out an agenda for sustainable consumption practices and lifestyles, and create new forms of consumer citizenship. Regarding the environmental policy implications of our study, we argue that there is a need to facilitate the creation of online environments where consumers can participate in the construction of active consumer citizenship.

Construction of consumer choice in the market: challenges for environmental policy (2010) 🗎🗎

Drawing from the literature on the analytics of government, the paper discusses marketing as a form of government, elaborating and illustrating the many ways in which consumer choice is shaped, modified and directed in the market through practices and techniques of consumer marketing. The aim is to critically reflect upon and render problematic the individualistic ideas of the green consumer as a powerful market force and to provoke discussion on the conceptualization - and construction - of consumer subjectivity and social problems in marketing. Taking examples particularly from the fashion and clothing industry, the paper discusses the ways in which marketing activities come to shape consumer conduct by operating through the choice of individuals who freely pursue their needs and desires, and by working on the environment within which this freedom of choice is exercised. The paper contributes to the literature on green consumerism by systematically interrogating and elaborating on the modes and practices of marketing thought and expertise through which consumers and consumption are rendered intelligible and actionable in the market.

Total System Intervention for System Failures and Its Application to Information and Communication Technology Systems (2011) 🗎🗎

Total system intervention (TSI) for system failure (SF) is proposed for preventing further occurrences of SFs. TSI is a meta-methodology in critical system thinking for managing complex and differing viewpoints. First, the authors introduce meta-methodology called system of SFs (SOSF) as a common language among various stakeholders to improve their understanding of SFs. Then, we propose the actual application scenario, or TSI for SFs. TSI for SF identifies the stakeholders in the failure using a matrix that shows for each stakeholder the entity and/or the factor that is thought to have caused the failure. This helps to clarify the stakeholders' views and to identify stakeholders with opposing views. The SOSF meta-methodology and related methodologies are used in the course of the subsequent discussion and debate to agree upon who is responsible for the failure and to identify the countermeasures and/or preventative measures to be applied. An application example in ICT engineering demonstrates that using the proposed meta-methodology as a critical system practice helps prevent future SFs by learning from previous SFs. Three actions were identified for preventing further SFs: close the gap between the stakeholders, introduce absolute goals and enlarge system boundary. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Food crises, food regimes and food movements: rumblings of reform or tides of transformation? (2011) 🗎🗎

This article addresses the potential for food movements to bring about substantive changes to the current global food system. After describing the current corporate food regime, we apply Karl Polanyi's 'double-movement' thesis on capitalism to explain the regime's trends of neoliberalism and reform. Using the global food crisis as a point of departure, we introduce a comparative analytical framework for different political and social trends within the corporate food regime and global food movements, characterizing them as 'Neoliberal', 'Reformist', 'Progressive', and 'Radical', respectively, and describe each trend based on its discourse, model, and key actors, approach to the food crisis, and key documents. After a discussion of class, political permeability, and tensions within the food movements, we suggest that the current food crisis offers opportunities for strategic alliances between Progressive and Radical trends within the food movement. We conclude that while the food crisis has brought a retrenchment of neoliberalization and weak calls for reform, the worldwide growth of food movements directly and indirectly challenge the legitimacy and hegemony of the corporate food regime. Regime change will require sustained pressure from a strong global food movement, built on durable alliances between Progressive and Radical trends.

The Increasing Multifunctionality of Agricultural Raw Materials: Three Dilemmas for Innovation and Adoption (2011) 🗎🗎

Agricultural raw materials are increasingly being used for multiple industries or sectors beyond the traditional fiber and nutrition industries: energy in the form of ethanol and biodiesel, industrial products such as polymers and bio-based synthetic chemicals and fibers, and pharmaceutical/health products such as functional foods, growth hormones and organ transplants. A combination of the new science of biotechnology, the new potential end uses of the products of that science and the broadened social/public goals that these products can respond to surfaces at least three fundamental challenges or dilemmas: (1) the competing goals dilemma, (2) the incumbent vs. new entrant competition dilemma, and (3) the industry boundaries dilemma. This paper reviews the innovation and adoption research related to renewables and the bio-economy, and then frames the three dilemmas with the objective of identifying important research issues and the conceptual frameworks that might be useful to analyze these issues.

On the New Social Relations around and beyond Food. Analysing Consumers' Role and Action in Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale (Solidarity Purchasing Groups) (2012) 🗎🗎

This article aims at analysing the features and the dynamics of those alternative agri-food networks in which consumers act as initiators. Drawing on a survey of ongoing initiatives at national level and on evidence from empirical fieldwork in a specific territorial context showing a variegated and dynamic reality at this regard (Tuscany), the article analyses consumers' evolving attitudes and behaviour, around and even beyond food, unfolding during their involvement in these initiatives. In particular, it focuses on the experience of the solidarity-based purchasing groups, consumers' organisations promoted by groups of citizens aiming at getting control of the food they consume. Using an actornetwork perspective, the article analyses how purchasing and consumption routines change when consumers join these initiatives. The article also discusss the potential of these initiatives as drivers of change along with the following questions: to what extent do these initiatives challenge dominant food practices and system governance? On what basis are these initiatives sustainable and are replicable in different contexts? How can they foster other forms of civic engagement? In this regard, the article tests a transition management approach, considering solidarity-based purchasing groups as socio-technical niches within broader socio-technical regimes in a macro landscape characterised by the globalisation of the food system. In particular, it analyses the critical points where niches enter in conflict with existing socio-technical regimes, and the way in which these groups act to remove legal, technological and cultural barriers to their development.

How Farmers Learn About Environmental Issues: Reflections on a Sociobiographical Approach (2012) 🗎🗎

At the time of this research, protests of farmers against new environmental policy measures received much media attention. News reports suggested that farmers' organizations rejected the idea that modern farming techniques cause damage to the environment and even tried to undermine attempts to reconcile the goals of modern agriculture with environmental objectives. In this article, the authors focus on how farmers learn to connect to various narratives about the issues at stake and on how these narratives are constructed through everyday encounters within the diverse networks to which farmers belong. As this article demonstrates, of particular interest for researchers is the kind of learning that occurs in response to differences in opinion. Accordingly, the authors introduce a new metaphor, called "learning as response," which helps understand how farmers may learn, again and again, to respond "as singular beings" to the ambiguities and differences they encounter in their everyday professional life.

Debating the proper pace of life: sustainable consumption policy processes at national and municipal levels (2012) 🗎🗎

Time, harriedness and various time-related strategies of slowing down the pace of life have been introduced as critical standpoints in the literature on sustainable consumption. However, the pace of life has received relatively little attention in official policy documents on sustainable consumption. Slow living and wealth-in-time appear as promising and catchy slogans that nevertheless leave few or no marks on environmental policy as it unfolds. Focusing on the policy processes of Local Agenda 21 in Helsinki and of the Finnish National Committee on Sustainable Consumption, an attempt is made to understand how expertise and lay understandings about the pace of life are constituted, and to account for how these themes are introduced, debated and marginalised in policy formulation.

Rethinking the food security debate in Asia: some missing ecological and health dimensions and solutions (2012) 🗎🗎

Food security is a global and regional concern of rapidly increasing consequence. It is at risk of inattention because of competing crises, because of its theoretical amenability to previously effective, if temporary measures, most impressively with the so-called Green Revolution and because of the recourse to the global trade paradigm as a putative solution. We identify some missing or under-emphasised dimensions in this analysis, with particular reference to Asia, which in spite of recent growth-or in some cases because of it-faces particularly daunting food problems. Greater emphasis needs to be given to population size and distribution through more concerted family planning and enlightened migration policy; public policy to retain or encourage plant-based diets; integration of food, health and environmental approaches to create resilient regional food systems; and the incorporation of food into the broader human security agenda. While regional organisations, along with their NGO counterparts and nation states, have an over-arching role to strategise in this way, substantial progress could still be made at the community and household levels, especially with current technologies which can marshal their collective and coherent action.

A brief pre-history of food waste and the social sciences (2012) 🗎🗎

Food waste is a compelling and yet hugely under-researched area of interest for social scientists. In order to account for this neglect and to situate the fledgling body of social science scholarship that is starting to engage with food waste, the analysis here does a number of things. It explores the theoretical tendencies that have underpinned the invisibility of waste to the sociological gaze alongside the historical transitions in global food relations that led to the disappearance of concerns about food scarcity - and with them, concerns about food waste - from cultural and political life. It also sketches out some of the processes through which waste has recently (re-)emerged as a priority in the realms of food policy and regulation, cultural politics and environmental debate. Particular attention is paid to the intellectual trajectories that have complemented food waste's rising profile in popular and policy imaginations to call forth sociological engagement with the issue. With this in place, the stage is set for the individual contributions to this Sociological Review Monograph - papers that engage with food waste in a number of contexts, at a variety of scales and from a range of disciplinary perspectives. Together they represent the first attempt collectively to frame potential sociological approaches to understanding food waste.

Triggering change: Towards a conceptualisation of major change processes in farm decision-making (2012) 🗎🗎

In this paper, we present a broad conceptualisation of major change in farm level trajectories. We argue that as a result of path dependency, major changes in farming practice primarily occur in response to 'trigger events', after which farm managers intensify their consideration of the options open to them, and may set a new course of action. In undertaking new actions, the farm system enters a period of instability, while new practices become established. Over time these new practices, if successfully achieving anticipated aims, lead to a further period of path dependency. Recognising and capitalising upon this pattern of events is important for the development of policies oriented towards incentivising major change in farming practices, and may explain why similar projects and/or policies influence some 'types' of farmers differently, and at different times. To illustrate our arguments, examples of this process are described in relation to empirical examples of major on-farm change processes, drawn from qualitative interviews with organic and conventional farmers in two English case study areas. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An introduction to the 'new' politics of agriculture and food (2012) 🗎🗎

The agricultural policy agenda has been broadened with farm policy issues now interlinking with other policy domains (food safety, energy supplies, environmental protection, development aid, etc.). New actors promoting values which sometimes conflict, or which are not always easily reconcilable, with those previously guiding agricultural policy have entered the broader agricultural and food policy domain. The studies of various new policy issues inter-linking with the agricultural policy domain included in this special issue show that value conflicts are addressed in different ways and thus result in inter-institutional coordination and conflict unfolding differently. Studies of inter-institutional policy making in the agricultural policy sector have the potential to contribute to theoretical developments in public policy analysis in much the same way as agricultural policy studies did in the past. (C) 2012 Policy and Society Associates (APSS). Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stewardship of things: The radical potential of product stewardship for re-framing responsibilities and relationships to products and materials (2012) 🗎🗎

In the context of broad-based concerns about the need to move towards a more sustainable materials economy, particularly as they are expressed in debates around Ecological Modernisation (EM), we argue that product stewardship has radical potential as a means to promote significant change in the relationship between society and the material world. We focus on two important dimensions that have been neglected in approaches to product stewardship to date. Firstly, we argue that immanent within the basic concept of stewardship is a problematisation of dominant understandings of property ownership in neoliberal market economies. In the space opened up by notions of stewardship, different ways of enacting both rights and responsibilities to products and materials emerge which have potential to advance the sustainability of material economies. Secondly, through exploration of existing expressions of product stewardship, we uncover a neglected scale of action. Both policy and dominant articulations of EM focus primarily on the efficiency of production processes; and secondarily, the attitudes and behaviours of individual consumers. Missing from this is the 'meso-scale' of social collectives including households, neighbourhoods, more distributed communities and small scale social enterprises. Based on a review of existing research from Australia and the UK, including our own, we argue that understanding of embedded practices of material responsibility at the household scale can both reinvigorate the concept of product stewardship as a potentially radical intervention, and reveal the potential of the meso-scale as a challenging but worthwhile realm of policy intervention. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Moving from Access to Use of the Information Infrastructure: A Multilevel Sociotechnical Framework (2013) 🗎🗎

Universal access (UA) to the Internet and the associated information infrastructure has become an important economic and societal goal. However, UA initiatives tend to focus on issues such as physical access and geographical ubiquity, and they measure adoption through penetration rates. In this paper, we apply an interpretive case study approach to analyze the Philadelphia wireless initiative to provide insights into the nature of UA and extend this concept to also consider universal use (UU). UU is important because simply providing access does not guarantee use. UU is presented as a conceptual goal that starts with the challenge of physical access, but which necessarily also leads to considerations of use. The results show that the human and technological elements underlying individual access and use are deeply embedded within various institutional elements and collectives that enable but also constrain meaningful use. We integrate our findings into a multilevel framework that shows how access and use are influenced by both micro and macro factors. This framework provides new insights into the study of the information infrastructure, digital divide, and public policy.

Agricultural biodiversity as a link between traditional food systems and contemporary development, social integrity and ecological health (2013) 🗎🗎

Traditional food systems offer a key link between the social and economic resilience of smallholder farmers and pastoralists and the sustainable food and nutrition security of global populations. This paper addresses issues related to socio-cultural diversity and the continuing complex engagement of traditional and modern communities with the plants and animals that sustain them. In light of some of the unhealthful consequences of the nutrition transition' to globalized modern diets, the authors define and propose a process for a more successful food system transition that balances agro-biodiversity and processed commodities to support diet diversity, health and social equity alongside sustainable economic growth. We review empirical research in support of practice and policy changes in agriculture, economic development and health domains as well as cross-sectoral and community-based innovation. High-value food crops within domestic and global value chains can be an entry point for smallholders' participation as contributors and beneficiaries of development, while sustainable small farms, as purveyors of environmental and public health services, diversify global options for long-term adaptation in the face of environmental uncertainty. (c) 2013 Society of Chemical Industry

Multifunctional Agriculture Meets Health Care: Applying the Multi-Level Transition Sciences Perspective to Care Farming in the Netherlands (2013) 🗎🗎

Care farming is a promising example of multifunctional agriculture: it is an innovation at the crossroads of the agricultural and healthcare sectors. Our objective is to develop a framework for understanding the success of initiatives in this field. We link empirical data with the multi-level perspective from the transition sciences and extend this perspective with insights from the literature on entrepreneurship, alliance management and organisational attributes. This framework allows us to explain the success of the three major types of initiatives: (1) individual care farms; (2) regional foundations of care farmers; and (3) care institutions collaborating with groups of farmers at a regional level. We propose that the main factors responsible for the success of initiatives are the commitment and competences of the entrepreneur, the creation of alliances, the quality of the new regional organisations and the implementation of the care farm services in care organisations. The relative importance of the factors varies between the different types of initiatives and local and regional levels.

Food sustainability: problems, perspectives and solutions (2013) 🗎🗎

The global food system makes a significant contribution to climate changing greenhouse gas emissions with all stages in the supply chain, from agricultural production through processing, distribution, retailing, home food preparation and waste, playing a part. It also gives rise to other major environmental impacts, including biodiversity loss and water extraction and pollution. Policy makers are increasingly aware of the need to address these concerns, but at the same time they are faced with a growing burden of food security and nutrition-related problems, and tasked with ensuring that there is enough food to meet the needs of a growing global population. In short, more people need to be fed better, with less environmental impact. How might this be achieved? Broadly, three main 'takes' or perspectives, on the issues and their interactions, appear to be emerging. Depending on one's view point, the problem can be conceptualised as a production challenge, in which case there is a need to change how food is produced by improving the unit efficiency of food production; a consumption challenge, which requires changes to the dietary drivers that determine food production; or a socio-economic challenge, which requires changes in how the food system is governed. This paper considers these perspectives in turn, their implications for nutrition and climate change, and their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, an argument is made for a reorientation of policy thinking which uses the insights provided by all three perspectives, rather than, as is the situation today, privileging one over the other.

Creativity, plasticity, quality: on the emergence of a new food offering in Paris (2013) 🗎🗎

This paper presents the conditions of the recent emergence of quality fast food restaurants in Paris. Rather than being a radical innovation, the development of this new form of restaurants can be understood through the concept of path plasticity. That is innovation and change occurring within a well-established institutional setting of technology/knowledge development path (Paris catering services in our case) without necessarily breaking out of the path in question. Quality fast food has developed relying on the existing structures of the catering production system. while creating bridges between two kinds of restaurants: traditional tasty and fine cuisine and fast food way of eating.

Grassroots social innovations and food localisation: An investigation of the Local Food programme in England (2013) 🗎🗎

This paper seeks to orientate research on local food networks more firmly towards ideas of grassroots and social niche innovations. Drawing on recent conceptual ideas from strategic niche management, this paper provides an exploratory analysis of attempts to spread grassroots social innovations through the Big Lottery Local Food programme run by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts in England. This pound 59.8 million programme aims to distribute grants to a variety of food-related projects and to make locally grown food more accessible and affordable to local communities. Insights into 29 funded projects, of varying length and scale of operation, are provided through over 150 telephone and personal interviews. While the Local Food programme is undoubtedly about bringing small, often neglected pieces of land into production and increasing access to affordable food, results show that the programme is also very much seen as a vehicle for building community capacity through facilitating community cohesion, healthy eating, educational enhancement and integrating disadvantaged groups into mainstream society and economy. The paper concludes with some reflections on the extent to which the concept of grassroots social innovations, as a form of niche innovation, can help understand the ability of local food networks to develop the capacity of communities to respond to locally identified problems and to effect more widespread, sustainable change. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Framing behavioural approaches to understanding and governing sustainable tourism consumption: beyond neoliberalism, "nudging" and "green growth"? (2013) 🗎🗎

Three different sets of approaches to understanding behaviour with respect to sustainable tourism mobility and consumption are identified in this paper: the utilitarian, social/ psychological and the systems of provision/institutional approach. Each is based on different sets of assumptions on the factors that affect consumer sustainability behaviour. These assumptions not only affect the selection of policy tools to change behaviours but are also related to different modes of governance. Assumptions with respect to human behaviour and behavioural change and modes of intervention and governance are interrelated and mutually reinforcing and act as policy paradigms. Failure to recognise the importance of social structures in affecting behaviour has created a path dependency in which solutions to sustainable tourism mobility are only accepted within the dominant governance and behavioural paradigm. Other policy options and academic research that identify structures and institutions in systems of provision as a sustainability problem that requires non-market intervention and/or significant system change are regarded as marginal to the policy process or are ignored. It is concluded that all three different ways of approaching consumer behaviour are required if a sustainable transition to the socio-technological system of tourism mobility is to be made in a timely manner.

TOWARDS A REGIME CHANGE IN THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SEED SUPPLY SYSTEM IN CHINA (2013) 🗎🗎

This paper explores changes in the organization of seed supply in China over the last decade by means of a multi-level institutional analysis. At the landscape level, the implications for China of the regulation of plant genetic resources through various international treaties and conventions are reviewed in the light of the evolution of the global seed industry. At the regime level, the transition in the Chinese context to market-based seed supply and the development of commercial and public seed sectors are examined. The study then analyses trends in seed supply at the niche level, with reference to participatory maize (Zea mays L.) breeding in three provinces in southwest China where high rural poverty persists. This work offers radical novelty in variety development and seed provision on behalf of smallholder farmers. However, a series of technical, organizational and market 'mismatches' are demonstrated within the existing seed regime. The participatory work emphasizes breeding for diverse cultivars adapted to specific ecosystems but these are prevented from reaching commercial markets by existing varietal testing procedures. Participatory breeding has potential to address farmers' varietal needs as agriculture modernises and to support the public function of research institutes, but within mainstream intellectual property regimes the public value of participatory breeding cannot be accommodated adequately. Yet, when coupled to institutional innovations for recognising intellectual property and sharing benefit among all those who contribute, participatory breeding may initiate a powerful dynamics for change within seed regimes and a sui generis seed system suited to the Chinese context.

Vitamin A deficiency control measures: Importance of vitamin A supplementation as a public health policy in the Indian context (2013) 🗎🗎

Recently prominent nutrition scientists across the world have opposed continuation of vitamin A supplementation (VAS) programmes and recommended gradual phasing out VAS for pre-school children. A few eminent nutrition scientists in India have echoed this view, arguing that vitamin deficiency (VAD) is no longer a public health problem in India. We review the evidence, highlighting the high rates of VAD among pre-school children in India, (clinical, subclinical, and dietary deficiency) and argue that in India VAD remains an immensely important public health problem and it is crucial to strengthen and continue the existing VAS programme in India, and in other developing countries until such time as their children's dietary consumption of vitamin A is improved adequately and blood vitamin A levels reach optimal levels.

The role of institutions and social learning in soil conservation innovations: Implications for policy and practice (2013) 🗎🗎

Numerous economic, technical, and social challenges hinder farmers from adapting and adopting soil conservation measures in Ethiopia. Yet, some successful soil conservation measures are emerging in projects dedicated to sustainable natural resource management. This paper explores the role of institutions and social learning in changing the conventional top down technology transfer challenges to conditions that are conducive for soil conservation. The study was conducted by considering a successful soil conservation case in Ethiopia. Semi-structured interviews and workshops were used to collect data. In addition, the review of pertinent documents and literature was considered to complement this analysis. Innovation history analysis has been used as an approach to analyze the important events in the innovation process. The findings show that social learning has created opportunity for more understanding on soil conservation and the emergence of less hierarchy amongst actors. It has also created space for the application of both indigenous and scientific knowledge in the innovation process. Farmers' organizations and their institutions are viewed as the core to the innovation process in leading and facilitating social learning, and in the formulation of bylaws. Hence, based on our case study we suggest that social learning and local level institutions may encourage soil conservation whenever lack of common understanding on soil conservation problems and solutions exists among the actors. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Linking research to practice: The landscape as the basis for integrating social and ecological perspectives of the rural (2013) 🗎🗎

The rural spaces in Europe are undergoing complex processes of transition, at multiple scales, and rhythms. In order to grasp and understand the changes occurring, the need emerges for new, conceptual approaches that make it possible to combine the different factors that shape spaces. Recent, literature on the multifunctional character of rural spaces and their transition pathways shows the, need for spatially based approaches, where the natural characteristics of a landscape are combined, with the socio-economic and cultural drivers that affect its changes. Experience shows how practical, questions on the changes affecting the rural, addressed by society to the scientific community, are of a, new character and require novel research approaches. This paper argues that landscape based, approaches can be useful basis for the required conceptual innovation. The paper presents and, discusses a set of examples of practice driven research developments, in contrasting regions of Europe. And it proposes a conceptual model which aims to contextualize empirical research driven by, problems set up in practice, and combining the ecological and structural dimensions with the socioeconomic, and cultural ones, all converging in the rural landscape, at multiple scales. The landscape, as, the spatial entity, in its material and immaterial dimensions, is presented in this paper as the most, comprehensive basis for the required step forward. This does not mean a disciplinary landscape, analysis revisited, but a new multi-scale and multi-domain place based approach, where the place is, the rural landscape. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Quiet sustainability: Fertile lessons from Europe's productive gardeners (2013) 🗎🗎

This paper investigates notable examples of sustainable lifestyles in relation to food systems. It explores the surprisingly neglected case of widely practised and environmentally sustainable food self-provisioning in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. Our argument is rooted in qualitative and quantitative data gathered over a seven-year period (2005-2011). The research considers the extent of and motivations for these practices in Poland and Czechia. The very high rates compared to Western Europe and North America have generally been explained in terms of an 'urban peasantry' meeting essential needs. After reviewing and rejecting those accounts we present evidence for these as socially and environmentally beneficial practices, and explore how the motivations derive from a range of feelings about food, quality, capability and family and/or friendship. Rather than relate these practices to temporal signals of quality and sustainability in food ('slow' and 'fast'), or presenting them as 'alternative food networks' we suggest that they represent 'quiet sustainability'. This novel concept summarises widespread practices that result in beneficial environmental or social outcomes and that do not relate directly or indirectly to market transactions, but are not represented by their practitioners as relating directly to environmental or sustainability goals. These practices represent exuberant, appealing and socially inclusive, but also unforced, forms of sustainability. This case further demonstrates the severe limitations of decision makers' focus on economics and behaviour change, and their neglect of other dimensions of social life and change in developing environmental policies. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Designing an explanatory practice framework: Local food systems as a case (2013) 🗎🗎

This article elaborates an explanatory framework for the role of consumption practices in transitions to (enhanced) sustainability in the food system. To develop an applied practice approach we combine the concept of practice' with that of niche/regime', adopted from contemporary sociology and transitions theory, respectively. This re-combination adds to the field of applied consumption research and describes consumption beyond the boundaries of individualist and structuralist models, as well as integrates a conceptualization of the a-linear reproduction of aligning and competing consumer practices. We illustrate the methodology by showing its application drawing on data of a niche in the Belgian food system. Elaborating on the social practice model based on Giddens ((1984) The Constitution of Society. Cambridge: Polity Press), Bourdieu ((1976) Outline of a Theory of Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press) and Spaargaren and Van Vliet ((2000) Lifestyles, consumption and the environment: The ecological modernisation of domestic consumption. Environmental Politics 9(1): 50-76), we designate a three-tiered framework that endeavours to describe consumption practices in terms of everyday routines and habits, integrating an agency perspective with a dual perspective on structure. Consumer interviews and focus groups combined with a system analysis of the context of the alternative food practice allowed a schematization of what it implies to be a carrier of the niche practice. The practice schematizations of this niche are then considered vis-a-vis a schematization of the regime practice. The comparison shows two essential aspects: it points out that (1) although qualitative and systemic differences are found between niche and mainstream practices, in both cases the perception of the carriers (i.e. consumers) on what they need to do is to an equal extent normalized, and (2) empirical results indicate that central conceptions in the contemporary food consumption discourse, such as convenience, can in real life be redrawn by entirely different sets of interconnected routines. We reflect on the methodology and give suggestions as to how consumption governance could orientate towards practices as complementary to the traditional focus on individual consumer behaviour and consumer norm targets.

Towards Sustainable Agricultural Stewardship: Evolution and Future Directions of the Permaculture Concept (2014) 🗎🗎

This paper traces the origins of the concept of permaculture and discusses the sustainability of permaculture itself as a form of alternative agriculture. The principles of permaculture are shown to have many views and perspectives in common with Taoism and with Buddhist ecology and economics. The amalgamation of these Oriental traditions can be translated into the Kaya equation and beyond. It is argued that future permaculture movements should focus on revitalising the communitarian spirit of traditional farming villages instead of building intentional communal communities. The paper also calls for more aggressive environmental-policy measures that support permaculture and internalise the non-market value of reduced fossil-fuel energy consumption and waste recycling.

Transitions to sustainability: a change in thinking about food systems change? (2014) 🗎🗎

In the present context of intertwined and intensifying economic, environmental and climate challenges and crisis, we need to enlarge our thinking about food systems change. One way to do so is by considering intersections between our longstanding interdisciplinary interest in food and agriculture and new scholarship and practice centered on transitions to sustainability. The general idea of transition references change in a wide range of fields and contexts, and has gained prominence most recently as a way to discuss and address sustainability challenges. To explore connections to food systems change, I highlight two broad approaches in the sustainability transitions research field. First is a multi-level perspective that examines sustainability innovation pathways and second is a social practices approach that illuminates the possibilities (or not) for shifts in normal everyday routines and practices. Taken together, these approaches offer different and useful ways to think about the dynamics, durability and significance of innovations in food and agriculture, and the part they play in transitions to sustainability. Numerous opportunities exist to forge more productive links between work on food systems change and the broad and growing sustainability transitions field. First, our research and practice insights about the importance of politics, governance, values and ethics in food and agriculture could help to strengthen the sustainability transitions field, which initially underplayed such questions. Second, the sustainability transitions field's implicit systems sensibility and its futures orientation could help to widen the scope of inquiry and the contribution to policy and planning of research and practice on food systems change.

"We must have the wrong consumers" - a case study on new food product development failure (2014) 🗎🗎

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to investigate, in detail, an unsuccessful food development project that took place in 2008-2010. The case is studied from the viewpoint of an interpretive paradigm. This article concentrates on constructing the critical elements that led to a food development project failure. The plan was to have a traditional Finnish dish updated and introduced as a mass produced high-end convenience food. The project included new convenience food development, packaging design, consumer market research and a sensory study to back up the food product development on behalf of a newly established company. Theoretical grounds for the case are based on the new product development (NPD) research process in the food sector. Design/methodology/approach - The method applied is an explorative single within-case study. The research data were mainly obtained from qualitative materials that ranged from marketing plans to case study field notes compiled by the researchers. Quantitative data were also obtained from various types of materials but to a lesser extent. Findings - The results of the study show that the failure of new product development was connected to the factors identified in classic NPD research. In addition, five phenomena that contributed to product development failure were constructed: path-dependency; "information condensations"; the illusion of mutual knowledge and understanding; practices of problem definition; and window-of-opportunity effects. The results are presented in a form of analytical generalisation that can be applied, with certain restrictions, to other contexts for new food product development. Originality/value - Failure rates of NPD have remained the same for the last 30 years in the food sector. Failed NPD projects can be valuable assets for the food industry when properly analysed. Examination of successful NPD projects has provided valuable lists of success factors, but knowledge on phenomena having an effect on NPD failure is needed.

A conceptual framework for thinking now (and organising tomorrow) the agroecological transition at the level of the territory (2014) 🗎🗎

The strong negative impacts of agriculture on the environment, combined with the energy crisis and the slowdown of the productivist model, has led to two forms of regreening of agriculture. One, called "weak ecological modernisation'' corresponds to the implementation of good agricultural practices that improve input efficiency. The other, called "strong ecological modernisation'' is based on ecosystem services provided by biodiversity. It corresponds to a paradigm shift due to the complexity in designing and implementing it. Strong ecologisation of agriculture requires to deeply revise farming systems, resource management at the territorial/landscape level, and the agrifood chain. After reviewing the principles underpinning this type of agriculture, we analyse the strengths and weaknesses of three conceptual frameworks (farming systems, socio-ecological systems and sociotechnical systems) with respect to this goal. We then propose an interdisciplinary multilevel conceptual framework integrating and articulating the three previous ones. It describes the nature of the system affected by this agroecological transition. This framework formalizes a system of actors whose behaviour is determined by formal and informal norms and agreements, interacting via technology, with farms, landscape and agrifood chain resources. This conceptual framework is intended to be used to analyse current agricultural systems at the territorial level and design strongly ecologised agricultural systems or "territorialized agroecological systems.'' In the following, we analyse the conditions for the implementation of the strong ecologisation of agriculture. We emphasize in particular the diversity of innovations to promote, the diversity of actors to coordinate, and therefore the need to implement a participatory, holistic, transdisciplinary and "localized'' (so called "territorialized'') design approach of the features of agroecological transition.

Governing China's food quality through transparency: A review (2014) 🗎🗎

In coping with food quality problems, China relies heavily on state institutions, such as laws and regulations, governmental standards and certification, and inspections and enforcement. Recently, transparency (or information disclosure) has been introduced in China's governance framework to cope with its growing food quality and related sustainability problems. This article investigates to what extent and how China's transparency institutions and practices regarding food production and products play a role in governing food quality and safety. Four forms of food chain transparency are distinguished and assessed: management transparency, regulatory transparency, consumer transparency and public transparency. It is concluded that in China food chain transparency is still in its infancy with respect to governing domestic food production and product quality and safety, and that only with respect to global (export) food chains transparency and accountability put some pressure on agro-food chain actors to improve their performance with respect to food quality and sustainability. By the same token furthering transparency on food quality is desperately needed as the state's food management and control system alone proves not capable to provide safe food that is credible and trusted by domestic consumers. (c) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Does Social Learning Lead to Better Natural Resource Management? A Case Study of the Modern Farming Community of Practice in Sweden (2014) 🗎🗎

This study investigates whether social learning among large-scale farmers in central Sweden leads to better natural resource management in the agricultural landscape. Three different frames of social learning are first identified: social learning as a fundamental social phenomenon, social learning as collaborative learning, and social learning as deeper learning. This article investigates the role of social learning and other factors through semistructured in-depth interviews. Results show that learning among farmers is inherently social, but that this learning does not necessarily improve natural resource management or lead to better environmental governance. The article discusses when social learning can be expected to influence natural resources management, and finds that without the presence of policy, individual leadership, or facilitation, it is not an important factor. Furthermore, the call for social learning based on results from successful instrumental application risks obscuring findings indicating that both social learning and better natural resource management are conditioned on the same external factors.

Consumer scapegoatism and limits to green consumerism (2014) 🗎🗎

An axiom that has shaped policy approaches to sustainable consumption has been that if more consumers understand the environmental consequences of their consumption patterns, through their market choices they would inevitably put pressure on retailers and manufacturers to move towards sustainable production. The result is the proliferation of consumption of "green" products, eco-labels, consumer awareness campaigns, etc. This paper, however, argues that the dominant focus on green consumerism as against the need for structural changes towards a broader systemic shift is unrealistic. Furthermore, promoting green consumerism at once lays responsibility on consumers to undertake the function of maintaining economic growth while simultaneously, even if contradictorily, bearing the burden to drive the system towards sustainability. Given the scope of the sustainability challenge and the urgency with which it must be addressed, this paper argues that the consumer is not the most salient agent in the production consumption system; expecting the consumer through green consumerism to shift society towards SCP patterns is consumer scapegoatism. This paper draws on the discursive confusion over discourse and practice of sustainable consumption. It attempts to clarify the differences between green consumerism and sustainable consumption, looking at each concept's historical development, its perspective on the consumer, and the main approaches to achieving sustainability. It then introduces the Attitudes-Facilitators-Infrastructure (AFI) framework - a framework for sustainable consumption policy design that goes beyond green consumerism, and that enables wellbeing and ecological sustainability without propagating the economic-growth dogma that has a stranglehold on contemporary policy-making. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Food Security: One of a Number of 'Securities' We Need for a Full Life: An Australian Perspective (2014) 🗎🗎

Although agriculture in Australia is very productive, the current food supply systems in Australia fail to deliver healthy diets to all Australians and fail to protect the natural resources on which they depend. The operation of the food systems creates 'collateral damage' to the natural environment including biodiversity loss. In coming decades, Australia's food supply systems will be increasingly challenged by resource price inflation and climate change. Australia exports more than half of its current agricultural production. Government and business are aiming to substantially increase production to bolster exports. This will increase pressure on agricultural resources and exacerbate 'collateral' damage to the environment. The Australian public have a deep and ongoing interest in a very wide range of issues associated with the food systems including the environment, health and sustainability. Food is something we require in order to live and a good diet is something we have to have to be healthy. For health over a life-time we need food security. However, we also require a range of other material goods and social arrangements in order to develop and flourish as human beings. And we need these other things to be secure over a life-time. Food is therefore one security among a range of other securities we need in order to flourish. The paper outlines a number of approaches, as examples, that help to identify what these other goods and arrangements might be. The approaches mentioned in this paper include human rights, national securities, human needs, authentic happiness, capabilities, sustainability and environmental ethics. The different approaches provide a way of evaluating the current situation and indicating a direction for change within the food systems that will address the problems. However, changing large systems such as those involved in food supply is difficult because inertias and vested interests make the current food supply systems resilient to change. The paper suggests that one of the first and ongoing tasks is to develop an understanding of the situation from a comprehensive social-ecological systems perspective. The paper also suggests that a practical leverage point for system change is restructuring the flow of information on the health, natural resources and biodiversity loss issues related to the food supply systems.

Adaptive Transition Management for Transformations to Agricultural Sustainability in the Karnali Mountains of Nepal (2014) 🗎🗎

Current agroecological approaches to farming have provided a limited understanding of transformations to sustainability, particularly in subsistence agrarian economies of geographically isolated regions of the world. Some suggest mitigating social and ecological impacts of modern industrial farming while others advocate for local adaptation to changes in socioecological systems, such as climate change, extreme weather events, and biodiversity loss. This article investigates effective pathways of fundamental transformations in technologies, livelihoods, and lifestyles referred to as "agricultural sustainability transitions" in the Karnali Mountains, the most impoverished region of Nepal. Findings suggest that neither management of change referred to as transition management nor adaptation to change referred to as adaptive management effectively leads to agricultural sustainability transitions in this region of the country. An integration of these two approaches, which this article theorizes as "adaptive transition management," can help charter transition pathways through system innovation making new and improved technologies more accessible and adaptable to smallholders while developing local capacity to adapt to changes in agroecological systems.

Making social sense of aquaculture transitions (2014) 🗎🗎

Resilience deals explicitly with change and provides a middle ground between the social and the environmental sciences. However, a growing critique by social scientists questions the ability of resilience thinking to adequately examine the social dimensions of change. The question that emerges is how social scientists should engage with resilience. We addressed this question by comparing resilience with agrarian change and transitions theory, through the backdrop of the fastest growing global food sector, aquaculture. Our analysis showed that each theoretical perspective provides fundamentally different insights into social and environmental transition inherent in the aquaculture sector. Although resilience thinking is best suited to assessing the ecological aspects of production, its systems ontology limits the inclusion of dynamic social relations or innovation. In contrast, agrarian transition enables a more meaningful understanding of how social relations are reconfigured as agrarian society shifts toward more capitalist modes of production, and transitions theory provides insights into social process of innovation. Given the epistemological differences between these theoretical approaches, we argue against attempts that reify systemic thinking by naturalizing social theories and concepts into resilience thinking. Instead, we argue that social theories such as agrarian change and transition theory should be seen as complimentary and that integration should focus on bridging results and insights. Doing so enables a more robust assessment of the social aspects of social-ecological transitions in the aquaculture sector and beyond.

Policy Integration for Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes: Taking Stock of UK Policy and Practice (2014) 🗎🗎

This paper examines English experience with agri-environment schemes as a tool to promote sustainable landscapes. Evidence is drawn from policy and academic literature and selected recent research. Performance is assessed by reference to key notions of sustainable landscapes: spatial coherence, functionality and socio-cultural meaning. Whilst now widespread across England and well-supported by the environmental community, agri-environment schemes suffer from weaknesses in design and delivery including insensitivity to the evolving needs and concerns of farming businesses, the wider policy context, and thereby to the integrity of the landscape. An upland case study illustrates problems of poor communication and advice, narrow and inconsistent delivery, and under-recognition of social issues which together work against more sustainable agricultural landscapes. In the context of emerging EU and global challenges, a shift of emphasis towards systemic approaches, developed territorially in partnership with farmers, is needed. Emerging non-policy innovations and new initiatives may offer lessons for an improved approach.

Producing healthy outcomes in a rural productive space (2015) 🗎🗎

Restructuring within European agriculture is an ever-emerging phenomenon shaped by a reforming Common Agricultural Policy agenda, and increased concentration within the food industry. As an element of reorganisation within Irish agriculture, a new phase of expansion into horticulture emerged in the late 1990s. This happened in correspondence with the introduction of a more concentrated retail market and within the context of specific labour market policies developed to facilitate a flexible workforce. Thus, producers were encouraged to expand production and divert from constraints associated within mainstream farming, as part of a wider entrepreneurial drive within agriculture. Regime change such as has taken place within horticulture corresponds with Guthman's valorisation thesis i.e. moving from so-called commodity crops to speciality crops in an attempt at overcoming a crisis in overproduction (2004). Within this context, 'health' emerges as an iteration of a localisation strategy and an attempt to counter the negative effects of globalisation. As the sector has undergone significant contraction, an unintended legacy of this valorisation project has been innovation in migrant workers' (the labour force) reproduction strategies and a dynamic engagement with the rural space. Taken together, these changes foreground the role of intergovernmental policy in shaping rural productive spaces in unintended ways. Furthermore, it suggests that more research needs to focus on health as a production system and the multi-dimensional factors that position it within a food chain context. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

'Neo-productivist' agriculture: Spatio-temporal versus struct uralist perspectives (2015) 🗎🗎

Critical commentators of agricultural/rural change in advanced economies have begun to refer to 'neoproductivist' pathways of change. However, conceptualizations of neo-productivism have so far largely failed to provide a robust analytical framework for understanding the propelling forces, processes and characteristics of complex modern agricultural pathways. This article analyses two key approaches used to conceptualize neo-productivism: an actor-oriented spatio-temporal perspective (the AOST approach) which focuses mainly on geographical and temporal-historical characteristics in the adoption of neoproductivist actor spaces, and structuralist interpretations which see neo-productivism predominantly as a response to macro-political regime change. There is an underlying assumption in both that productivist and non-productivist pathways of agricultural change can be identified in different guises and that the notion of neo-productivism can be situated in relation to productivist/non-productivist concepts. However, they differ in their temporal conceptualisations of agricultural change (i.e. neoproductivism as productivist resurgence versus productivist approaches adapted to match the new political realities of an era influenced by non-productivism), processes (i.e. non-productivist pathways forced by events 'back' towards productivist-dominated pathways versus neo-productivism as a shift from a state-led system of support responsible for driving state productivism, to market-based drivers enabled by the gradual withdrawal of the state), and spatial differentiation (i.e. complex geography of actor spaces in the adoption of neo-productivist pathways versus locked-in productivist pathways working alongside multifunctional agriculture). The article concludes with some critical thoughts about the utility of the term 'neo-productivism', but also argues that the term allows researchers to further nuance conceptualisations of the complex spatial, temporal and structural changes that characterise modern agriculture in any area of the globe. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Which functional unit to identify sustainable foods? (2015) 🗎🗎

Objective: In life-cycle assessment, the functional unit defines the unit for calculation of environmental indicators. The objective of the present study was to assess the influence of two functional units, 100 g and 100 kcal (420 kJ), on the associations between three dimensions for identifying sustainable foods, namely environmental impact (via greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE)), nutritional quality (using two distinct nutrient profiling systems) and price. Design: GHGE and price data were collected for individual foods, and were each expressed per 100 g and per 100 kcal. Two nutrient profiling models, SAIN, LIM and UK Ofcom, were used to assess foods' nutritional quality. Spearman correlations were used to assess associations between variables. Sustainable foods were identified as those having more favourable values for all three dimensions. Setting: The French Individual and National Dietary Survey (INCA2), 2006-2007. Subjects: Three hundred and seventy-three foods highly consumed in INCA2, covering 65 % of total energy intake of adult participants. Results: When GHGE and price were expressed per 100 g, low-GHGE foods had a lower price and higher SAIN, LIM and Ofcom scores (r=0.59, -0.34 and -0.43, respectively), suggesting a compatibility between the three dimensions; 101 and 100 sustainable foods were identified with SAIN, LIM and Ofcom, respectively. When GHGE and price were expressed per 100 kcal, low-GHGE foods had a lower price but also lower SAIN, LIM and Ofcom scores (r=0.67, 0.51 and 0.47, respectively), suggesting that more environment-friendly foods were less expensive but also less healthy; thirty-four sustainable foods were identified with both SAIN, LIM and Ofcom. Conclusions: The choice of functional unit strongly influenced the compatibility between the sustainability dimensions and the identification of sustainable foods.

Transitioning the food system: A strategic practice management approach for cities (2015) 🗎🗎

Socio-technical systems are composed of everyday practices that are forged as they are performed in specific places. Transitioning these systems toward sustainability involves changing the practices that constitute and reproduce them. This is true of the food system, which is enacted by the performance of activities, from food production to disposal, in specific communities. Cities shape, support and normalize food practices, and in the process play an important role in transitioning the wider food system. The practice of shopping at farmers markets in NYC by recipients of federal food benefits illustrates how this and related practices are initiated, encouraged, coordinated, and enacted, and how corresponding shifts in the meanings, competences and material elements comprising a practice influence the food system. Based on this case, the paper suggests opportunities for cities to engage in what we call strategic practice management to support shifts toward sustainable practices, and thus sustainable socio-technical systems. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dietary guidelines to nourish humanity and the planet in the twenty-first century. A blueprint from Brazil (2015) 🗎🗎

Objective: To present and discuss the dietary guidelines issued by the Brazilian government in 2014. Design: The present paper describes the aims of the guidelines, their shaping principles and the approach used in the development of recommendations. The main recommendations are outlined, their significance for the cultural, socioeconomic and environmental aspects of sustainability is discussed, and their application to other countries is considered. Setting: Brazil in the twenty-first century. Subjects: All people in Brazil, now and in future. Results: The food- and meal-based Brazilian Dietary Guidelines address dietary patterns as a whole and so are different from nutrient-based guidelines, even those with some recommendations on specific foods or food groups. The guidelines are based on explicit principles. They take mental and emotional well-being into account, as well as physical health and disease prevention. They identify diet as having cultural, socio-economic and environmental as well as biological and behavioural dimensions. They emphasize the benefits of dietary patterns based on a variety of natural or minimally processed foods, mostly plants, and freshly prepared meals eaten in company, for health, well-being and all relevant aspects of sustainability, as well as the multiple negative effects of ready-to-consume ultra-processed food and drink products. Conclusions: The guidelines' recommendations are designed to be sustainable personally, culturally, socially, economically and environmentally, and thus fit to face this century. They are for foods, meals and dietary patterns of types that are already established in Brazil, which can be adapted to suit the climate, terrain and customs of all countries.

Swedish food retailers promoting climate smarter food choices-Trapped between visions and reality? (2015) 🗎🗎

Food retailers are important actors in the development of a more environmentally sustainable food system. They are powerful in their procurement role and have the potential to promote and encourage consumers to buy climate smarter food. While food retailers have developed environmental visions, policies and goals, a major question is to what extent these commitments translate into action in the products sourced and promoted. This paper aims to explore the ways and extent to which food retailers assist consumers to make climate smarter food choices, more specific to reduce their meat consumption, and to identify potential and perceived difficulties towards doing this. The empirical data is based on interviews with 17 Swedish food retail representatives. The findings indicate that food retailers address climate change in their environmental policy statements and have environmental targets for retail operations, such as energy and transport efficiency and recycling of waste. Moreover, retailers promote and encourage consumers to buy organic, local, and seasonal food and to minimize food waste. No initiatives are taken to help consumers reduce their meat consumption. Yet, there is a growing consensus among scientists that meat production is a large contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Food retailers seem reluctant to guide consumers to climate smarter food choices if it means reducing the meat range or the promotion of meat. To broaden the range of high quality and more expensive meat is seen as a more feasible option. The meat category is perceived as important to attract new and keep loyal customers. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The role of consumers in transitions towards sustainable food consumption. The case of organic food in Norway (2015) 🗎🗎

Political targets for consumption of organic food are set in many European countries and also in Norway. Organic food is in these policies often considered as a spearhead for transition towards more sustainable production and consumption in the food sector. Measures such as consumer information and food labelling schemes are established in order to increase consumption of organic food. These policies are in line with a view within the academic discourse were the reflexive, political consumer is seen as a key agent for change. However, in spite of a major political effort to increase organic food consumption in Norway over the past 15 years, consumption has increased marginally. We therefore question this view of the consumer's influence and power to change the relations in and developments of the present food system. Based on the results of two consumer surveys carried out in 2000 and 2013, the article discusses the observed changes in perceptions of barriers towards purchase of organic food among Norwegian consumers. We found that organic food was considered more available in the stores in 2013 than in 2000. However, for other factors such as trust in the labelling system and the quality of organic food the perceptions had become more negative. Most important; more consumers saw no benefits from buying organic food in 2013 than in 2000. This means that the political emphasis on the self-regulating consumer has shown little effect. The article concludes that both the political tools and theoretical analyses to a greater extent must be turned away from a primary focus on the consumer towards identifying key economic and political conflicts of interest as important barriers to sustainable food consumption transition. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An integrated approach to identifying and characterising resilient urban food systems to promote population health in a changing climate (2015) 🗎🗎

Objective: To determine key points of intervention in urban food systems to improve the climate resilience, equity and healthfulness of the whole system. Design: The paper brings together evidence from a 3-year, Australia-based mixed-methods research project focused on climate change adaptation, cities, food systems and health. In an integrated analysis of the three research domains encompassing the production, distribution and consumption sectors of the food chain - the paper examines the efficacy of various food subsystems (industrial, alternative commercial and civic) in achieving climate resilience and good nutrition. Setting: Greater Western Sydney, Australia. Subjects: Primary producers, retailers and consumers in Western Sydney. Results: This overarching analysis of the tripartite study found that: (i) industrial food production systems can be more environmentally sustainable than alternative systems, indicating the importance of multiple food subsystems for food security; (ii) a variety of food distributors stocking healthy and sustainable items is required to ensure that these items are accessible, affordable and available to all; and (iii) it is not enough that healthy and sustainable foods are produced or sold, consumers must also want to consume them. In summary, a resilient urban food system requires that healthy and sustainable food items are produced, that consumers can attain them and that they actually wish to purchase them. Conclusions: This capstone paper found that the interconnected nature of the different sectors in the food system means that to improve environmental sustainability, equity and population health outcomes, action should focus on the system as a whole and not just on any one sector.

Framing niche-regime linkage as adaptation: An analysis of learning and innovation networks for sustainable agriculture across Europe (2015) 🗎🗎

This paper draws on the transition literature to examine niche-regime interaction. Specifically it aims to reveal and contribute to an understanding of the processes that link sustainable agriculture innovation networks to the agricultural regime. It analyses findings from participatory workshops with actors in 17 Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture (LINSA) across Europe. Framing linkage as an adaptive process, whereby regime actors and entities adapt to incorporate LINSA, and vice versa, reveals different patterns and processes of adaptation. Five adaptation modes are distinguished and described corresponding to different levels of adaptation between LINSA and the agricultural regime. Understanding adaptive linkage processes within and across these modes as reflexive, learning and networking processes enabled and facilitated by individuals and organisations provides more insights into linkage processes than a hierarchical approach. Analysis of results from 17 LINSA from a number of different contexts across Europe allows a broad empirical analysis and an overview of the interplay of processes contributing to the agricultural regime's adaptive capacity. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

'Sustainability does not quite get the attention it deserves': synergies and tensions in the sustainability frames of Australian food policy actors (2015) 🗎🗎

Objective: The development of food policy is strongly influenced by the understanding and position actors adopt in their 'framing' of sustainability. The Australian Government developed a National Food Plan (2010-2013). In public consultations on the National Food Plan Green Paper, the government sought stakeholders' views on sustainability. The present study examined the way in which the food industry and civil society organizations framed sustainability in their submissions to the Green Paper. Design: Submissions by food industry actors and civil society organizations were analysed using a framing matrix that examined positioning, drivers, underlying principles and policy solutions related to sustainability. Submissions were open coded and subsequently organized based on themes within the framing matrix. Setting: Australia. Subjects: One hundred and twenty-four written submissions (1420 pages). Results: While submissions from industry and civil society organizations often framed sustainability similarly, there were also major differences. Civil society organizations were more likely to make the link between the food supply and population health, while industry was more likely to focus on economic sustainability. Both viewed consumer demand as a driver of sustainability, welcomed the idea of a whole-of-government approach and stressed the need for investment in research and development to improve productivity and sustainable farming practices. Conclusions: The meaning of sustainability shifted throughout the policy process. There are opportunities for creating shared value in food policy, where the health, environment and economic dimensions of sustainability can be compatible. However, despite pockets of optimism there is a need for a shared vision of sustainability if Australia is to have a food policy integrating these dimensions.

Formulating policy activities to promote healthy and sustainable diets (2015) 🗎🗎

Objective: To develop a policy formulation tool for strategically informing food and nutrition policy activities to promote healthy and sustainable diets (HSD). Design: A policy formulation tool consisting of two complementary components was developed. First, a conceptual framework of the environment-public health nutrition relationship was constructed to characterise and conceptualise the food system problem. Second, an 'Orders of Food Systems Change' schema drawing on systems dynamics thinking was developed to identify, assess and propose policy options to redesign food systems. Setting: Food and nutrition policy activities to promote HSD have been politicised, fragmented and lacking a coherent conceptual and strategic focus to tackle complex food system challenges. Results: The tool's conceptual framework component comprises three integrated dimensions: (i) a structure built around the environment and public health nutrition relationship that is mediated via the food system; (ii) internal mechanisms that operate through system dynamics; and (iii) external interactions that frame its nature and a scope within ecological parameters. The accompanying schema is structured around three orders of change distinguished by contrasting ideological perspectives on the type and extent of change needed to 'solve' the HSD problem. Conclusions: The conceptual framework's systems analysis of the environment-public health nutrition relationship sets out the food system challenges for HSD. The schema helps account for political realities in policy making and is a key link to operationalise the framework's concepts to actions aimed at redesigning food systems. In combination they provide a policy formulation tool to strategically inform policy activities to redesign food systems and promote HSD.

Staging the Local: rethinking scale in farmers' markets (2015) 🗎🗎

Local food has become a significant focus of food studies analysis in recent years with much of this work identifying the potential environmental, social and economic benefits of food localisation. However, a growing body of literature destabilises these assumed benefits with research now questioning the utility of scale in assessing food system outcomes. This paper explores this destabilisation by examining how concepts associated with the 'local' have been deployed by the Capital Region Farmers Market (CRFM) in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). This leads to two key conclusions: firstly, the practical case study confirms theoretical insights highlighting the instability of the local, identifying how it is animated in multiple and sometimes contradictory ways often in response to conventional market forces; and secondly, we argue that the role of farmers' markets may not be best understood through the lens of the local but, rather, through their role in facilitating citizen engagement with the food system via the direct consumer-producer relationship at markets and the characteristics of the food purchased there (i.e. freshness and quality). In these ways, farmers' markets can disrupt conventional forms of engagement with the food system, creating a space that enhances social embeddedness and which may promote new forms of consumer understanding of food systems.

Transforming Consumption: From Decoupling, to Behavior Change, to System Changes for Sustainable Consumption (2015) 🗎🗎

Consumption, although often considered an individual choice, is deeply ingrained in behaviors, cultures, and institutions, and is driven and supported by corporate and government practices. Consumption is also at the heart of many of our most critical ecological, health, and social problems. What is referred to broadly as sustainable consumption has primarily focused on making consumption more efficient and gradually decoupling it from energy and resource use. We argue for the need to focus sustainable consumption initiatives on the key impact areas of consumption-transport, housing, energy use, and food-and at deeper levels of system change. To meet the scale of the sustainability challenges we face, interventions and policies must move from relative decoupling via technological improvements, to strategies to change the behavior of individual consumers, to broader initiatives to change systems of production and consumption. We seek to connect these emerging literatures on behavior change, structural interventions, and sustainability transitions to arrive at integrated frameworks for learning, iteration, and scaling of sustainability innovations. We sketch the outlines of research and practice that offer potentials for system changes for truly sustainable consumption.

What 'Works' in Environmental Policy-Design? Lessons from Experiments in the Australian and Dutch Building Sectors (2015) 🗎🗎

There has been a long-standing academic interest in experimentation with policy-designs. Researchers such as Charles Sabel and Jonathan Zeitlin claim that such experimentation may help to understand how significant legal, social or economic barriers can be overcome. This appears to be particularly true in the field of environmental policy. This article explores the nature and outcome of this experimentation by evaluating 21 policy-designs that have been experimented with by governments, businesses and citizens in the building sectors in Australia and the Netherlands. Building on the existing literature, it addresses expectations related to policy learning, collaboration, policy-outcomes and experimental biases. The article finds limited support for many of the claims made for experimentation in the current and past literatures. This may be a result of a mismatch between real-world experimentation with policy-designs and how academics conceptualize this process.

Sustainability and Resilience in Agrifood Systems: Reconnecting Agriculture, Food and the Environment (2015) 🗎🗎

The sustainability and resilience of agrifood systems are generally considered either through the sustainable development paradigm, which focuses on the interactions between agriculture and the environment and often neglects consumption and food issues, or through the relocalisation paradigm, which prevails in the literature on alternative food systems and social movements. Because of its focus on direct producer-consumer relations, the relocalisation perspective suggests a possible transition pathway, but does not fully address the diversity of interdependencies in agrifood systems (food being largely processed, distributed and provided by intermediaries) and therefore fails to effectively reconnect agriculture and food issues. This article shows the need to consider the possible reconnections between agricultural, food and environmental issues from a perspective that takes this diversity in agrifood systems into account. Such a perspective would go beyond the prevailing paradigm of relocalisation. Based on the analysis of recent scientific and public debates and on case studies carried out in France and Brazil, the article suggests a territorial agrifood systems perspective that takes account of the diverse actors and institutions involved in agriculture and food, and the diverse relations between agriculture, food and the environment that can contribute to the development of alternative and more resilient pathways.

Sustainable agriculture issues explained by differentiation and structural coupling using social systems analysis (2015) 🗎🗎

In spite of many initiatives to increase sustainability, agriculture moves in the opposite direction with increased pesticide impacts and decreased nature quality. Here, we propose that this issue is not mainly due to lack of agronomic knowledge, but due to the lack of knowledge on social processes of specialization and differentiation. Here, we review the challenge of agriculture and sustainable development based on Niklas Luhmann theory of social systems. We focus on the concepts of differentiation and structural couplings. We use two forms of analysis, discursive differentiation and organizational differentiation, which mutually support each other. First, we analyze discourse categories, named 'semantics' in the social systems theory, such as 'environmental problems' and 'food safety'. We then look at how these discourses are related to the discourse of sustainability. Secondly, we describe different forms of organizational differentiation within agriculture and food, e.g., in the pig production chain. Here, we show how sustainability problems can be seen as an unavoidable consequence of the 'decouplings' that follow these differentiation and specialization processes. Finally, using the insights from social systems theory, we discuss how these sustainability problems might be mitigated by the following three forms of new structural couplings: (1) functional couplings of organizations to generalized semantic perspectives on e.g., environment and nature, which can reintroduce the sensibility of agri-food systems to their surroundings, (2) structural couplings between organizations that can handle other dimensions than price and quantity, including couplings mediated by labels and network couplings such as partnerships that provide options for co-evolution, and (3) second order couplings to polyocular semantics such as the sustainability semantic; that is, semantics that have their strength and challenge in the fact that they are multiperspectival and must remain indeterminate. Social systems analysis is a novel and strong tool to analyze social differentiation processes in agriculture. Social systems analysis provides researchers, farmers, and companies new ways to understand the sustainability problems that these differentiation processes produce.

Possible Futures towards a Wood-Based Bioeconomy: A Scenario Analysis for Germany (2016) 🗎🗎

Driven by the growing awareness of the finite nature of fossil raw materials and the need for sustainable pathways of industrial production, the bio-based economy is expected to expand worldwide. Policy strategies such as the European Union Bioeconomy Strategy and national bioeconomy strategies foster this process. Besides the advantages promised by a transition towards a sustainable bioeconomy, these processes have to cope with significant uncertainties as many influencing factors play a role, such as climate change, technological and economic development, sustainability risks, dynamic consumption patterns and policy and governance issues. Based on a literature review and an expert survey, we identify influence factors for the future development of a wood-based bioeconomy in Germany. Four scenarios are generated based on different assumptions about the development of relevant influence factors. We discuss what developments in politics, industry and society have a central impact on shaping alternative futures. As such, the paper provides a knowledge base and orientation for decision makers and practitioners, and contributes to the scientific discussion on how the bioeconomy could develop. We conclude that the wood-based bioeconomy has a certain potential to develop further, if adequate political framework conditions are implemented and meet voter support, if consumers exhibit an enhanced willingness to pay for bio-based products, and if among companies, a chance-oriented advocacy coalition of bioeconomy supporters dominates over proponents of fossil pathways.

Promoting sustainable consumption in China: a conceptual framework and research review (2016) 🗎🗎

Various theories and approaches have been introduced in the debate on how to address sustainable consumption. In this study, we first discuss different theoretical perspectives on sustainable consumption, particularly developed in the fields of economics, social psychology and environmental sociology. We argue that neither an 'individualist' nor a system- or structural perspective alone is sufficient for understanding and analysing the transition towards sustainable consumption. Therefore, we propose to apply the Social Practices Approach (SPA) that combines both human agency and social structures to understand sustainable consumption issues. Following the SPA framework, we review and summarize research on sustainable consumption in China in particular on three consumption fields: food, housing energy and mobility. It is found that introducing more efficient production technology is commonly taken as the focal point in these sectors when sustainable consumption was introduced to China. Despite a rising interest in consumers' perceptions of products' sustainability in recent years, research has rarely paid any attention to consumers' behavioural change or to the transition dynamics towards sustainable consumption. In general, 'individualist' perspectives have largely dominated Chinese sustainable consumption research. This paper proposes to move attention to a better understanding of Chinese consumption issues by emphasizing the link between the provision of sustainable products and the diverse sustainable consumption practices. Also, images of food, energy, mobility and other consumption products that are undergoing transitions need to be considered in future research as these have consequences for socio-technical changes, material infrastructures and for 'lifestyle' innovations. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Scaling up and out as a Pathway for Food System Transitions (2016) 🗎🗎

This paper contributes to the understanding of sustainability transitions by analysing processes of scaling up and out as change pathway. It defines scaling up and out as a distinct form of policy transfer focused on programme implementation, with continuity of actors across jurisdictions. We detail how scaling up and out occurs, introducing a new mechanism to policy transfer frameworks. This is explicated through the case study of Food for Life (FFL), a civil society innovation programme promoting sustainable healthy food in public settings. We highlight why FFL was scaled up and out, how this was achieved, by whom, and the results and success factors. The case study demonstrates the importance of interrogating motivations for transferring policies, and how these influence whether successful outcomes are achieved. This requires a revised framework for analysing policy transfer, with greater attention to the links between motives and outcomes, and a less binary understanding of agents' roles. Where scaling is the mode of policy transfer, we suggest that continuous involvement of at least one transfer agent across the process is significant to success. We conclude by highlighting implications for future research into policy transfer and food system transitions.

The roles of users in shaping transitions to new energy systems (2016) 🗎🗎

Current government information policies and market-based instruments aimed at influencing the energy choices of consumers often ignore the fact that consumer behaviour is not fully reducible to individuals making rational conscious decisions all the time. The decisions of consumers are largely configured by shared routines embedded in socio-technical systems. To achieve a transition towards a decarbonized and energy-efficient system, an approach that goes beyond individual consumer choice and puts shared routines and system change at its centre is needed. Here, adopting a transitions perspective, we argue that consumers should be reconceptualized as users who are important stakeholders in the innovation process shaping new routines and enacting system change. We review the role of users in shifts to new decarbonized and energy-efficient systems and provide a typology of user roles.

From consumerism to wellbeing: toward a cultural transition? (2016) 🗎🗎

As it becomes evident that technology alone is unlikely to fully counteract the ecological impacts of consumer society, the debate increasingly focuses on a need to shift beyond the consumerist economy and culture. This paper considers how a cultural shift toward less consumerist lifestyle choices might originate, driven not by moral imperatives or environmental movements, but by the core pursuit of human wellbeing. Our goal is to jumpstart a serious conversation about plausible pathways to change, grounded theoretically and empirically. The history of consumer society is a reminder that cultural transformation of that magnitude could occur in a relatively short period of time. We hypothesize, drawing on demographic and economic trends, that technologically connected, educated, and open to change millennials might lead the way in that transition. Their diminishing interest in suburban life in favor of cities, constricted economic opportunities, and their size and interconnectedness all point in that direction. We envision a scenario in which the core understanding of wellbeing will change through the combined effects of changing lifestyles, adaptation to the economic, technological and demographic realities, and emerging new social practices. Extensive research on wellbeing suggests that such reframing can readily incorporate a shift away from consumerist lifestyles. To succeed, this shift needs government support at all levels through policies that enable young urban families to thrive. This paper is about the United. States because it a global leader in the creation of the consumer society, with a per-capita ecological footprint about twice that of Europe, and with many emulators across the world. We contend that the US-grounded analysis presented in this paper has relevance for other parts of the world, and that it can inform research and debate on similar cultural transitions in other national contexts. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Unintended Environmental Consequences of Improvement Actions: A Qualitative Analysis of Systems' Structure and Behavior (2016) 🗎🗎

We qualitatively analysed how and why environmental improvement actions often lead to unintended environmental consequences. Different theories are integrated to delineate the underlying system structure causing this system behavior. Causal loop diagram technique is utilized to explore and visualize: how incremental improvements in material and energy efficiency can unintendedly cause consumption to increase; how this consumption rebound effect is linked to generation of waste and pollution; and how this can give rise to social and negative externalities, economic inequalities and other broad unintended consequences in our society. Consumption and incremental innovation are found to be the highest leverage points and reinforcing factors driving unintended environmental consequences in this complex system. The paper in addition explores two potential modes of behaviour dissimilar to those of unintended environmental consequences. These emerging modes of behaviour are product-service systems and environmental policy instruments. Their combination forms a prominent transition pathway from a production-consumption-dispose economy to a so-called circular economy. Copyright (C) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Barriers to the adoption and diffusion of technological innovations for climate-smart agriculture in Europe: evidence from the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Italy (2016) 🗎🗎

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is one response to the challenges faced by agriculture due to climate change. As with other sustainability transitions, technological innovation is highlighted as playing a critical role, however, the adoption and diffusion of technological innovations in OECD countries is slow. The aim of this paper is to identify key socio-economic barriers, in terms of supply and demand, that inhibit the adoption and diffusion of CSA technological innovations in Europe. To achieve this aim, a theoretical framework is constructed based on a literature review of socio-economic barriers effecting adoption and diffusion. This framework is explored with data from semi-structured interviews with CSA technology providers and members of agricultural supply chains, such as farmers associations and consumer goods producers (the end-users of the technology). Data was collected on the barriers they experienced, with interviews conducted in the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Italy. This data was thematically coded and categorised to identify key barrier typologies. The results demonstrate that barriers exist on both the demand (user) and supply (technology provider) sides. The paper provides recommendations for increasing the adoption and diffusion of CSA technological innovations, as well as implications for the CSA and innovation literature. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Balancing competing policy demands: the case of sustainable public sector food procurement (2016) 🗎🗎

A focus on market-based green growth strategies to pursue sustainability goals neglects the pursuit of understanding how human health is interwoven with the health of eco-systems to deliver sustainability goals. The article argues that clarifying the difference between green and sustainable public sector food procurement, with political continuity that supports and enables policymakers and practitioners to take an incremental approach to change, makes an important contribution to delivering more sustainable food systems and better public health nutrition. Five European case studies demonstrate the reality of devising and implementing innovative approaches to sustainable public sector food procurement and the effects of cultural and political framings. How legislation is enacted at the national level and interpreted at the local level is a key driver for sustainable procurement. Transition is dependent on political will and leadership and an infrastructure that can balance the economic, environmental and social drivers to effect change. The development of systems and indicators to measure change, reforms to EU directives on procurement, and the relationship between green growth strategies and sustainable diets are also discussed. The findings show the need to explore how consistent definitions for green public procurement and sustainable public procurement can be refined and standardized in order to support governments at all levels in reviewing and analyzing their current food procurement strategies and practices to improve sustainability. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The cultural politics of the agroecological transition (2016) 🗎🗎

Scholarly attention to sustainability transitions is rapidly increasing. This article explores how cultural politics constrain agricultural change. Cultural politics, or conflicting values about appropriate types of agriculture, are an underexplored variable influencing whether or not farmers adopt agroecological methods. The research focuses on the environmental, cognitive, and relational mechanisms that influence cultural politics. It analyzes the intersection of mechanisms and cultural politics in an Amazonian agrarian reform settlement of the Brazilian Landless Workers' Movement (MST). Insights into the factors confounding the agroecological transition are derived from an analysis of longitudinal spatial data derived from historic aerial photographs and remotely sensed images, and ethnographic data from participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Drawing on a political ecology of education perspective, the cultural politics surrounding the agroecological transition are traced to the confluence of the region's historical usage for cattle ranching (environmental mechanisms), farmer's conceptions of space (cognitive mechanisms) and the combination of agricultural extension and government credit (relational mechanisms). The MST's agroecological education initiatives hold the promise to drive the sustainability transition, but are also constrained by these cultural politics and associated mechanisms.

Complementary system perspectives in ecological macroeconomics - The example of transition investments during the crisis (2016) 🗎🗎

Globally, societies are facing a number of interrelated environmental, economic and social crises. This paper is intended to contribute to the development of an ecological macroeconomics that addresses these multiple crises in combination. Insights from different research communities will be included in this effort. Taking an ecological economic understanding of sustainability as the point Of departure, and inspired by systems thinking, it is discussed which economic sub-systems should be in focus for sustainability transitions, and whether relevant guides for sustainability can be formulated for these systems. In particular, the focus is on systems that are decisive for resource consumption and pollution although their influence on these is indirect. A simple typology of sub-systems is suggested and applied in relation to an example that highlights the importance of the interplay between macroeconomic, provision and distribution systems. The example concerns investments in sustainability transitions of provision systems and demonstrates the complexities of implementing such transformations during the economic crisis. It also addresses the need for ecological macroeconomics to develop a third position beyond austerity policies and Keynesian approaches. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The transition to conservation agriculture: an insularization process towards sustainability (2016) 🗎🗎

Part of the Sustainability Transition Studies, this work addresses the question of the relationship between niches and regimes by examining the transition to conservation agriculture. It seeks to understand how farmers' transition to conservation agriculture can contribute to a better understanding of the transition of agro-food systems towards sustainability. Based on an analysis of farmers' trajectories in the Walloon region in Belgium, the paper develops the notion of insularization in order to characterize the emergence of conservation agriculture as a niche that is a dynamic process, growing from within and progressively detaching itself from the conventional agricultural regime. The analysis of farmers' transition shows how, after an initial phase of destabilization of the conventional ploughing regime, learning and experiencing processes can lead to a transformation in soil and soil quality management perceptions. Our hypothesis is that this cognitive transformation constitutes a tipping point in the insularization process because of its effects on agricultural practices, which increase the detachment of conservation agriculture from the regime and thus embed the irreversibility and sustainability of the transition. Insularization describes an ecologizational pathway of agricultural practices endogenous to the regime that can not only lead to adaptive changes on the periphery of the system, but might also induce a deep and systemic transformation of conventional agricultural practices.

Food safety risks, disruptive events and alternative beef production: a case study of agricultural transition in Alberta (2016) 🗎🗎

A key focus for agri-food scholars today pertains to emerging "alternative food movements," particularly their long-term viability, and their potential to induce transitions in our prevailing conventional global agri-food systems. One under-studied element in recent research on sustainability transitions more broadly is the role of disruptive events in the emergence or expansion of these movements. We present the findings of a case study of the effect of a sudden acute food safety crisis-bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease-on alternative beef production in the Province of Alberta, Canada. Employing the conceptual lens of Sustainability Transition Theory, we explore the perspectives of conventional and alternative beef producers, treating alternative beef production as a niche operating within the dominant regime of global industrial agri-business. Three key findings are presented here. First, food safety risks and disruptive events can emerge as a direct consequence of the socio-ecological contradictions embedded in industrial agriculture, representing an opportunity for expansion of agricultural niches. Second, certain features of socio-economic regimes can also contribute to niche emergence, such as an economic system that disenfranchises beef-producing families. Finally, our study highlights the high level of diversity among niche agents and the complex and nuanced nature of their support for the niche.

Systemic perspectives on scaling agricultural innovations. A review (2016) 🗎🗎

Agricultural production involves the scaling of agricultural innovations such as disease-resistant and drought-tolerant maize varieties, zero-tillage techniques, permaculture cultivation practices based on perennial crops and automated milking systems. Scaling agricultural innovations should take into account complex interactions between biophysical, social, economic and institutional factors. Actual methods of scaling are rather empirical and based on the premise of 'find out what works in one place and do more of the same, in another place'. These methods thus do not sufficiently take into account complex realities beyond the concepts of innovation transfer, dissemination, diffusion and adoption. As a consequence, scaling initiatives often do not produce the desired effect. They may produce undesirable effects in the form of negative spill-overs or unanticipated side effects such as environmental degradation, bad labour conditions of farm workers and loss of control of farming communities over access to genetic resources. Therefore, here, we conceptualise scaling processes as an integral part of a systemic approach to innovation, to anticipate on the possible consequences of scaling efforts. We propose a method that connects the heuristic framework of the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions (MLP) to a philosophical 'modal aspects' framework, with the objective of elucidating the connectedness between technologies, processes and practices. The resultant framework, the PRactice-Oriented Multi-level perspective on Innovation and Scaling (PROMIS), can inform research and policymakers on the complex dynamics involved in scaling. This is illustrated in relation to three cases in which the framework was applied: scaling agro-ecological practices in Nicaragua, farmer field schools on cocoa cultivation in Cameroon and 'green rubber' cultivation in Southwest China.

Companies in search of the green consumer: Sustainable consumption and production strategies of companies and intermediary organizations in Thailand (2017) 🗎🗎

Over the past two decades, Thailand, as an emerging economy, has developed sustainable consumption and production (SCP) policies and strategies to a considerable extent. While the first phase of SCP policy development has primarily focused on upstream actors and production processes, the second phase has extended company SCP policies and strategies to downstream actors and consumption processes. Through a desk study and interviews, we examine how appliance and dairy companies in Thailand have been involved in the shift from sustainable production to (also) sustainable consumption, from upstream to (also) downstream orientations, and from green supply to (also) green demand. Our analysis shows that carefully framing the role of citizen-consumers as change agents is required for the successful enrollment of Thai consumers in emerging markets for sustainable products and services. In making the shift towards consumers, companies can be assisted by so-called intermediary organizations that claim to hold specific knowledge on and access to Thai consumers.

Environmental concerns in political bioeconomy discourses (2017) 🗎🗎

The term bioeconomy has been generated as a new discourse in the environmental policy arena. This paper raises three questions: (i) are environmental concerns integrated in the political discourses of bioeconomy and, if so, to what extent?, (ii) in which way is the environment framed in the political discourses of bioeconomy?, and (iii) are environmental concerns considered in the political discourses on forest-based bioeconomy? The theoretical framework of this paper builds on the cognitive approach of policy integration and on frame analysis. The empirical research design is a comparative qualitative analysis of five different political bioeconomy discourses in the EU and four different EU member states - Germany, Finland, France and the Netherlands - in general and in the forestry sector specifically. Results show a weak and mainly rhetorical integration of environmental concerns in political bioeconomy discourses. Three major environmental frames are identified: (i) The dominant frame of 'Environment benefitting from economic growth', (ii) the 'Environment as a challenge' and (iii) the less visible 'Environment as a standard' frame. In general, these frames address the environment mainly as a challenge or something that needs to be safeguarded with the help of the bioeconomy. With the exception of Finland, amongst the countries studied, forests plays only a minor role in bioeconomy discourses while environmental concerns in this strand of discussion are mainly focused on sustainability arguments in general.

Designing coupled innovations for the sustainability transition of agrifood systems (2017) 🗎🗎

Numerous signs underline an urgent need for innovation in the current agriculture and food industries. However, even though the components of the agrifood systems are all strongly interconnected, the design processes to improve their sustainabilities are still mostly managed separately. This frequently leads to innovating in one domain in order to adapt to the constraints or specifications of the other, such as tweaking the farming systems to address processing issues, or the other way round. The objectives of this paper are first to show the limits of such an organization, and second to provide a heuristic framework to organize the design of coupled innovations, by reconnecting the dynamics of innovation in agriculture and food, with a view to improving the whole agrifood system. Our framework highlights that working at this level requires designing in raw production, exchange, processing, and consumption, while taking into account synergies or antagonisms between upstream and downstream. Thus, the innovations are not only technological e.g. concerning cropping systems or processing but also organizational and institutional. Based on several examples, in the cereal, linseed, legume, and market-gardening productions, at the junction of agriculture and food sciences, we also show that this perspective of designing coupled innovations calls for a renewed research agenda. Three main domains are thus questioned. First, coupling requires an innovative design process for radical innovations, challenging the coordination of exploration in both domains. Second, the development of "innovation niches" outside the dominant sociotechnical regime, in order to bypass the lock-in from the dominant system, faces the difficulty of favoring the building of renewed networks of actors, which were used to working separately so far. Third, the necessity to share expectations and knowledge, and to design together innovations that suit all sides, leads to making several recommendations for the governance of the design process. Finally, we conclude that the need for innovation in the agrifood systems requires going beyond the historical specialization of skills, and the usual forms of coordination between designers. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Resilience to Economic Shocks: Reflections from Zambia's Copperbelt (2017) 🗎🗎

The Copperbelt region in Zambia experienced significant economic destabilization after the 1970s which led to massive job losses in the mining and manufacturing sectors, forcing the local population into a range of informal sector activities and food self-provisioning. Resilience thinking and the concepts of adaptation and adaptability in particular provide a lense through which to understand how the mining industry was re-established, albeit in a radical altered form and how local individuals and households have had to cope through creative local responses. The practice of urban agriculture serves as a case-study of how, in the absence of formal sector employment opportunities, households have had to strengthen their food security through their own actions.

Analysing the role of consumers within technological innovation systems: The case of alternative food networks (2017) 🗎🗎

In recent years, an increasing number of studies have stressed the relevance of the consumer-experience in the research about new trajectories towards sustainability. These studies-suggest that consumers should not be viewed solely as passive agents who select between-different commercial options. This paper argues for a broader application of Technological Innovation System (TIS) conceptual framework and proposes an analytical approach that explicitly considers consumers-and producers as interacting and then co-evolving actors. We apply the TIS framework to the food industry, a low-medium technology sector where several "alternative" food networks (AFN) are emerging and acting as innovative systems in the transition towards sustainability. The analysis allows us to better understand the common structure and the functional patterns shared by the various models of AFNs. The paper points out how the interactive relation between consumers and producers may foster the transition into a more sustainable socio-technical regime. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Exposing the attractors of evolving complex adaptive systems by utilising futures images: Milestones of the food sustainability journey (2017) 🗎🗎

This study aims at exposing the potential of futures images in anticipating and informing transitions of complex adaptive systems toward sustainability. Our case concerns the food system. The inherent properties of complex adaptive systems make the exact trajectories of these systems unforeseeable. However, since the systems unfold into a common direction, we can say something about the qualities of the milestones toward which these systems navigate. Attractors configure the evolution of complex adaptive systems. Since attractors are the most stable and robust elements in these systems, they are more feasible targets for foresight than the several variants that they configure and effectuate. We have depicted attractors of sustainable local food systems by futures images: through working with an appropriate level of abstraction, by leaning on a multi-perspective approach and by breaking the linear relationship between the present and the future. In this context they were sustainability-oriented trading and delivery systems, food cultures, product development projects, food brands and transparent food systems. We also located hot spots of structural change and agency within the food system. These insights may inform transition management efforts, but they must be updated frequently, since sustainable development is a journey. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Structuring Tensions and Key Relations of Montreal Seasonal Food Markets in the Sustainability Transition of the Agri-Food Sector (2017) 🗎🗎

In cities across the world, local food networks aim to make food systems more sustainable and secure for all. As part of that effort, some of these networks also seek to introduce social innovation in the mode of selling food, namely as a way to initiate a broader transition of the sector. Based on two years of action research conducted together with promoters of Montreal's seasonal markets, this article offers an account of the co-constructed narrative of a transition of the agri-food sector. On the one hand, transition theory anticipates that the transition to sustainability of the agri-food sector would depend on the protection and empowerment of innovative niches' that are facing the locked-in structure of the agri-food 'sociotechnical regime'. Yet, on the other hand, the seasonal markets do not fit well in this portrait: they are shown to evolve at the intersection of the sociotechnical regime and innovative niches. For this reason, they are subject to regime rules and become difficult to protect as an entity. As such, seasonal markets face 'structuring tensions' that generate both practical dilemmas and innovative solutions in their modes of organization. These solutions, however, rely on webs of resources and supports that constitute key relations' for unlocking the agri-food regime rules. It is through managing these tensions and relations that the seasonal markets end up reconfiguring social and material relations and providing solutions for food security and a more sustainable food system. Therefore, we argue that the structuring tension and key relation concepts are useful for understanding the dynamics of social innovation in the transition to sustainability in food systems.

Transition to Sustainable Fertilisation in Agriculture, A Practices Approach (2017) 🗎🗎

It is argued that sustainability transition in agriculture requires a shift from a regime oriented towards increasing agricultural productivity to a regime in which the environmental and social effects of production are regarded as central. Practice theories represent an emerging perspective on analysing sustainability transitions and provide a way to focus on farming activities and their changes. Focusing on practice elements - materials, meanings and competences - we explore the prospects of applying practice theory when analysing differentiation and change in agricultural fertilisation practices. Empirically, the article is based on semi-open qualitative interviews among Finnish farmers. We identified five different fertilisation practices. The differences and changes in practices could be explained by the diverse and hierarchically organised purposes in farming which contributed to different elements and their linkages in the performance of the practices. Consciously cultivating changes in meaning are especially important in facilitating the change in practices.

The Governance Features of Social Enterprise and Social Network Activities of Collective Food Buying Groups (2017) 🗎🗎

Collective food buying groups, such as community supported agriculture or self-organised citizen groups for delivery of food baskets, have emerged throughout the world as an important niche innovation for promoting more sustainable agri-food systems. These initiatives seek to bring about societal change. They do so, however, not through protest or interest-based lobbying, but by organising a protected space for learning and experimentation with lifestyle changes for sustainable food consumption and production practices. In particular, they aim to promote social learning on a broad set of sustainability values, beyond a focus on "fresh and healthy food" only, which characterizes many of the individual consumer oriented local food chain initiatives. This paper analyses the governance features of such local food buying groups by comparing 104 groups in five cities in Belgium. We find that the social networking activities of these groups, as compared to the social enterprise activities, have led to establish specific governance mechanisms. Whereas the main focus of the social enterprise activities is the organisation of the food provisioning logistics, the focus of the social network activities is the sharing of resources with other sustainable food initiatives, dissemination of information and broader discussion on sustain ability issues. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Towards phosphorus sustainability in North America: A model for transformational change (2017) 🗎🗎

Global food production and security rely heavily on finite reserves of newly mined phosphate for fertilizers. However, systemic inefficiencies result in the deposition in aquatic ecosystems of much of the phosphorus mined for food production causing costly eutrophication problems that damage aquatic ecosystems and human health. The Sustainable Phosphorus Alliance (SPA, formerly named North American Partnership for Phosphorus Sustainability) was created to implement sustainable phosphorus solutions through active engagement of stakeholders in both the private and public sectors. This paper describes a conceptual model of transformative change to a sustainable phosphorus system for the North American region. The model emerged from discussions at a series of formal and informal meetings held in conjunction with a 'Future of Phosphorus' event (National Science Foundation's Phosphorus Sustainability Research Coordination Network) and an inaugural SPA Board meeting. Model development drew on the multi-level perspective of socio-technical transitions to develop a series of pathways to a transformed phosphorus system. The uses of the model and transition pathways are discussed in terms of their potential to form an important first step towards the development of a regional vision for improved phosphorus sustainability. The process provides an example of how research in sustainability science can contribute to action on environmental improvement.

Acceptance of Innovation and Pathways to Transition Towards More Sustainable Food Systems (2017) 🗎🗎

The main driver of agricultural systems of the twentieth century was yield. Awareness of the limits of the planet and the impacts of agriculture triggered the realization that new objectives have to be part of the food systems agenda. The development of new models of agriculture including environmental and sustainability dimensions implies a new view on the process of innovation and a better balance between the paradigms of innovation. Systemic lock-ins are keeping the agricultural and food systems on less relevant pathways. Acknowledgement of the relevance of alternative systems of production such as organic farming and a shift from a linear model of innovation diffusion to the building up of new partnerships of innovation are key enablers of a transition.

Mapping the Organisational Forms of Networks of Alternative Food Networks: Implications for Transition (2017) 🗎🗎

In response to the failures of the dominant agro-food regime multiple practices for transition towards more environmentally and socially sustainable food systems have been proposed and put into practice by Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). To advance societal transitions, some AFNs have employed a strategy of developing broader networks. These network of networks, take various forms. To date, the ways in which networks of AFNs organise remains understudied, yet how they organise is likely to influence the transition pathways they advance. Drawing on organisation theory we propose a typology of organisational forms for networks of AFNs. We theorise that networks of AFNS that adopt organisational forms that are isomorphic to the dominant food regime may have their practices adopted, but that these risk co-option and dilution. Networks of AFNs that organise around polymorphic organisational forms are less likely to see their practices integrated at the dominant regime level, but their practices could have a more fundamental transformative impact.

Practice-based spillover effects: Evidence from Calgary's municipal food and yard waste recycling pilot (2017) 🗎🗎

Analyzing the spillover effects of environmental interventions is vital for understanding how they contribute to broader societal transitions towards or away from sustainability. Past research analyzing spillover effects has produced inconsistent results, which we argue is in part due to its assumption that social life consists of rational and autonomous individuals. By contrast, we place practices as central units of inquiry, arguing that social practice theory opens up promising alternative sets of theoretical and methodological possibilities for analyzing spillover effects. Using the City of Calgary's municipal food and yard waste recycling pilot program known as the Green Cart Pilot (GCP) as a case study, we adopt a mixed methods approach to analyze practice-based spillover effects (PSEs). The results suggest that the GCP had positive PSEs on dry recycling and food shopping, and negative PSEs on home composting. These PSEs could be tracked through the shared elements and geographies of mutually evolving practices, providing opportunities to respond with further interventions informed by social practice theory.

Food as Commons or Commodity? Exploring the Links between Normative Valuations and Agency in Food Transition (2017) 🗎🗎

The food system, the most important driver of planetary transformation, is broken. Therefore, seeking a sustainable and socially-fair transition pathway out of this crisis becomes an issue of utmost priority. The consideration of food as a commodity, a social construct that played a central role in this crisis, remains the uncontested narrative to lead the different transition pathways, which seems rather contradictory. By exploring the normative values on food, this paper seeks to understand how relevant is the hegemonic narrative of food as commodity and its alternative of food as commons to determine transition trajectories and food policy beliefs. Applying the multi-level perspective framework and developing the ill-studied agency in transition, this research enquired food-related professionals that belong to an online community of practice (N = 95) to check whether the valuation of food is relevant to explain personal stances in transition. Results suggest that the view of food as commodity is positively correlated with a gradually-reforming attitude, whereas food as commons is positively correlated with the counter-hegemonic transformers, regardless of the self-defined position in the transition landscape (regime or niches). At a personal level, there are multiple loci of resistance with counter-hegemonic attitudes in varied institutions of the regime and the innovative niches, many of them holding this discourse of food as commons. Conversely, alter-hegemonic attitudes are not positively correlated with the alternative discourse, and they may inadvertently or purportedly reinforce the neoliberal narrative. Food as commons seems to be a relevant framework that could enrich the multiple transformative constituencies that challenge the industrial food system and therefore facilitate the convergence of movements that reject the commodification of food.

Disrupting household food consumption through experimental HomeLabs: Outcomes, connections, contexts (2017) 🗎🗎

This article explores the implications of conceptualising, designing and implementing experimental sites seeking to support more sustainable home-based eating practices, or HomeLabs for brevity. Building on earlier phases of practice-oriented participatory backcasting and transition framework construction, the HomeLabs involved collaboration with public, private and civil society sectors and with the members of participating households. These collaborations identified a suite of supportive socio-technological, informational and governance interventions that mimicked, as far as possible, the characteristics of promising practices for sustainable eating developed through backcasting and transition planning. The implemented interventions enabled householders to question, disassemble and reconfigure their eating practices onto more sustainable pathways across the integrated practices of food acquisition, storage, preparation and waste management. This process generated manifold insights into household eating practices, and this article focuses specifically on key outcomes of the HomeLabs, and the significance of social context, social relations and micropolitics of everyday life in shaping those outcomes. In particular, the HomeLabs findings reinforce calls to connect, combine and align product, regulatory, informational and motivational supports across the interdependent practices of eating (acquisition, storage and preparation and waste recovery) to optimise transitions towards sustainability. Offering a lens to interrogate interventions for sustainable food consumption in the home, this article provides a novel exercise in operationalising social practice theory.

New generation of knowledge: Towards an inter- and transdisciplinary framework for sustainable pathways of palm oil production (2017) 🗎🗎

The production and expansion of palm oil have emerged as a major and controversial issue in political and public debates in the North and the South on sustainable food and agriculture. Scientific research has played a marginal role in these debates that are characterized by black and white views on palm oil as a good, bad or even ugly crop, and by solutions that are limited in scope. Our first argument is that new conceptualization of the complexity and dynamics of the palm oil sector can revitalize debate on sustainable palm oil and be used to identify sustainable pathways for palm oil production. For this purpose, we develop an interdisciplinary framework, conceptualizing the palm oil sector as consisting of systems, flows and networks. Our second argument is that a transdisciplinary approach is need to identify and develop sustainable pathways. We present six ideas on how to do so. Given the controversy in debates on the production and expansion of palm oil, we consider switchers as critical actors for shaping sustainable pathways, both in the palm oil sector and at the science-policy interface. (C) 2017 Royal Netherlands Society for Agricultural Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The need for policy to address the food system lock-in: A case study of the Finnish context (2017) 🗎🗎

The introduction of synthetic fertilizers transformed the food system into the one we know today in the Western world. The present paper argues that this transformation has become an irreversible self feeding process referred to as food system lock-in, which threatens planetary boundaries of nitrogen and phosphorus, hence the food security in the future. A system in a lock-in state can undermine its own existence by deteriorating the capacity to cope with upcoming crises of resource scarcity and environmental instability. In this paper, the roots of lock-in are explored and empirically grounded in the historical narrative of the food system transition in Finland in the past 60 years. The theoretical framework builds on socio-technical studies and the economic theory of increasing returns. The aim of the paper is to identify, through an evolutionary analysis, the processes of increasing returns that have become path inefficient and have reinforced the lock-in in the food system. Three separate but interdependent processes in the production, in the policy and institutions, and in the supply chain create systematic resistance towards sustainability transition. These findings indicate that more attention should be paid at the public policies that are currently too narrow in their scope and do not effectively bridge the entire system, from food production to consumption. Public intervention is critical for the unlocking, but individuals in the various parts of the food system are those who create new paths. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The key role of the meat industry in transformation to a low-carbon, climate resilient, sustainable economy (2017) 🗎🗎

Climate change, air pollution and refugees have become key global challenges threatening sustainability of lifestyles, economies and ecosystems. Agri-food systems are the number one driver of environmental change. Livestock production is the worlds largest land user, responsible for half of greenhouse gas emissions from agri-food systems, and the source of repeated health crises. Poor diets have become the number one cause of ill health. Recommendations for a healthy diet emphasize plant-based food. Rapidly falling costs in information technology, biotechnology, renewable energy and battery technology will disrupt current energy and transportation systems and offer opportunities for responsible meat production. Growing consumer interest in healthy food, combined with innovative information systems, offer opportunities to create value through quality control and consumer information in integrated value chains. Meat scientists have a major role to play in the necessary transformation of global agri-food systems towards a new model of green economic growth that is climate resilient, sustainable and provides green jobs.

Bioeconomy Strategies: Contexts, Visions, Guiding Implementation Principles and Resulting Debates (2017) 🗎🗎

Over the last decade, bioeconomy policies, guided by integrated bioeconomy strategies, have developed. This paper presents a systematic and comparative analysis of official bioeconomy strategies of the EU, Germany, OECD, Sweden and the USA with regard to their context, visions and guiding implementation principles. In an additional step, the relationship between these strategies and important scientific and societal debates around bioeconomy is assessed. In conclusion, five major stumbling blocks for the further development of the bioeconomy are worked out. First, there is the risk of disappointment because far-reaching promises of the strategies are difficult to achieve. Second, the bioeconomy is not the only way to a low carbon economy so alternatives could impede the desired development. Third, persistent conflicts between the different uses of biomass for food, material and energy production could lead to unstable policy support with short-term shifts. Fourth, a broader success of new bioeconomy value chains could trigger new societal conflicts over bioeconomy if efficiency gains, cascading use, residue use and sustainability certification are not sufficient to ensure a sustainable supply of biomass. Fifth, the acceptance of bioeconomy could be compromised if bioeconomy policies continue to ignore the on-going societal debates on agriculture and food.

Precaution and Equivalence: The Critical Interplay in EU Biotech Foods (2017) 🗎🗎

Scientific uncertainty surrounds biotech foods. To regulate such foods and to ensure consumer choice and safety, the EU has adopted a precautionary approach based on premarket authorisation and mandatory labelling. Despite these regulatory requirements, the controversial concept of substantial equivalence is still present within the existing regimes for GM and cloned foods. The concept uses a comparative analysis of conventional and biotech foods to assess their safety. If substantial equivalence is present, biotech foods are regulated in the same manner as conventional foods. The concept restricts consumer choice and calls into question the safety of such foods because it requires no specific mandatory labelling or traceability and only minimal premarket authorisation. The dynamic between substantial equivalence and the precautionary principle is problematic as the two concepts seem contradictory. This situation prevents the existence of an adequate and efficient regulatory environment for EU biotech foods regulation and undermines a comprehensive precautionary approach towards such foods and the EU food system in general.

Drivers for the Adoption of Different Eco-Innovation Types in the Fertilizer Sector: A Review (2017) 🗎🗎

Numerous innovations have been developed in the fertilizer and plant nutrition area in recent decades. However, the adoption of many new products and techniques at farm level is still low. In this paper, based on a literature review, we explore the main drivers for innovation adoption or rejection. By splitting up the extant research landscape into disruptive and continuous innovations and innovation types (product, process and innovation of other types), we aim to identify drivers explaining innovation adoption in the fertilizer sector in particular and in the agricultural sector in general.

The "barn": a conceptual framework for understanding the services provided by livestock in a territory (2017) 🗎🗎

Livestock and livestock products are often examined by discipline (environment, economy) or by organizational level (farm, sector, territory, country), making it difficult to simultaneously assess the diversity of services and impacts generated by livestock farming systems. Based on the scientific literature, we consider livestock farming systems at the interaction between the ecological, technical and social systems. Doing this, we can identify factors (biotic interactions, system management, collective organization) at the origin of their impacts and services. We then propose a simplified representation, the "barn", which visualizes how livestock systems (described by land use, animal density.) interact with their environment along five interfaces (inputs, environment and climate, markets, labor and employment, social and cultural factors). Two key characteristics of livestock farming systems, their integration into food systems (globalized vs. territorialized) and the extent to which they rely on exogenous vs. endogenous inputs, allow proposing a grid to analyze sustainability pathways for each type of territory; we use this grid to position the case studies analyzed in this special issue.

Contribution of transition theory to the study of geographical indications (2018) 🗎🗎

The green revolution and globalization have profoundly transformed agri-food systems, leading to standardized food products of diminished taste quality. Geographical Indications (GIs) have emerged as powerful regulatory tools for sustaining alternative quality models. In this paper, we analyze GIs as governance tools for "terroir niches", viewed as sociotechnical systems whose functioning is influenced by specific resources. Building on this framework, we study the reconfiguration of the Corsican clementine production area under a recent Geographical Indication. We show that the innovation trajectory was driven by specific resources (climate, with-leaf marketing), leading to the emergence of a niche that conflicted with the rules of the citrus regime. The implementation of a GI in the early 2000s strengthened this endogenous innovation pathway since it gave the niche renewed protection and prompted systemic changes. These results open prospects for cross-fertilization between GI studies and the Multi-Level Perspective on sustainability transitions.

Case study on Bioeconomy Campus, Central Finland (2018) 🗎🗎

This paper studies the development path, assets, and challenges of an initiative for a bioeconomy innovation ecosystem located in a sparsely populated rural area. The case studied is the Bioeconomy Campus in northern Central Finland. Central Finland was one of the European bioregions whose bioeconomy was analyzed from the clustering point of view by the FP7 project BERST - BioEconomy Regional Strategy Toolkit (20132015). In this paper, the role of the Bioeconomy Campus in the Finnish research, development, and innovation (RDI) system is described and the development path of the campus is studied in the context of the BERST results from Central Finland. The cluster analyses in BERST were based on information about bioeconomy clusters located mostly in densely populated central European areas with big industries. The potential of the Bioeconomy Campus to further develop and to promote smart growth in the surrounding rural environment is discussed by comparing the findings of this case study with the BERST results and with some results presented in literature on clusters and innovation ecosystems. The main aim of the comparison is to get indication of the relevance and usefulness of this type of down-scaling for further exploitation of BERST results. (C) 2016 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Does Fairtrade Certification Meet Producers' Expectations Related to Participating in Mainstream Markets? An Analysis of Advertised Benefits and Perceived Impact (2018) 🗎🗎

In this paper, we identify three literature-based hypotheses about how and whether Fairtrade labeling delivers its advertised benefits: a market mechanism that provides producers in developing countries advantaged access to consumer markets; a sustainable agriculture mechanism that improves the sustainability of Fairtrade products and a social justice mechanism that protects the rights and livelihoods of farmers and workers. We surveyed a broad cross-section of Fairtrade-certified producer organizations and compared their expectations with their satisfactions using an importance-performance analysis (IPA), principal component analysis (PCA) and ordered logit regression analyses. According to our results, Fairtrade producers report both high importance and high performance in terms of metrics such as empowering women, democratic decision-making and reduction of child labor, suggesting that farmers are most satisfied with Fairtrade as a social justice mechanism. Fairtrade producers report high importance but lower performance of Fairtrade as a market mechanism and least satisfaction as a sustainable agriculture mechanism. We explore the drivers and implications of these findings for Fairtrade and provide recommendations to increase producer satisfaction. Copyright (C) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Transitioning without confrontation? Shared food growing niches and sustainable food transitions in Singapore (2018) 🗎🗎

Following a series of global food crises and an increasing dependence on food imports, the Singaporean government has begun to support local food production as a means to improve the sustainability of its food regime. This extends to the development of state-led ventures which support shared food growing in the city. In parallel, informal citizens' groups are experimenting with collaborative forms of food provisioning. Both types of initiatives utilise Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to facilitate their practices of shared growing and seek to reorient the current food regime onto a more sustainable pathway. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted with two initiatives representative of both organisational positions, this paper critically examines the efficacy of using a transitions thinking approach to assess their actual and potential contribution to the disruption of the food regime in Singapore. The paper first reviews existing approaches to transitions thinking in order to distil insights for examining shared food growing initiatives in Singapore as niche projects. The broader socio-cultural and political context of Singapore's food system and the food growing niche projects which are emerging within it are then delineated, followed by a strategic niche management (SNM) analysis of the two initiatives. Ultimately, the paper makes two linked contributions: firstly, it diversifies the empirical foundations and the sectoral and geographical reach of sustainability transitions research. Secondly, it provides space for critical reflection on transitions thinking when applied beyond the Western liberal democratic settings from which it emerged.

Fare sharing: interrogating the nexus of ICT, urban food sharing, and sustainability (2018) 🗎🗎

Sharing economies are being identified across diverse territories, including the food sector, as potential means to enact urban sustainability transitions. Within these developments ICT (information and communication technologies) are seen as a crucial enabler of sharing, stretching the spaces over which sharing can take place. However, there has been little explicit conceptual or empirical attention to these developments within the broad landscape of food sharing. In response, this paper provides the first macro-geographical analysis of urban food sharing mediated by ICT. Focusing on individual food-sharing initiatives drawn from a scoping database of 468 urban areas and ninety-one countries, this analysis reveals a variegated geography of food sharing in terms of location, what is being shared and the mode of food sharing adopted. Also documented is the extent to which these initiatives articulate sustainability claims and provide evidence to substantiate them. In conclusion, the paper reflects on the work that such a scoping database can do in relation to wider challenges of transforming urban food systems.

Big data and food retail: Nudging out citizens by creating dependent consumers (2018) 🗎🗎

The paper takes a critical look at how food retail firms use big data, looking specifically at how these techniques and technologies govern our ability to imagine food worlds. It does this by drawing on two sets of data: (1) interviews with twenty-one individuals who oversaw the use of big data applications in a retail setting and (2) five consumer focus groups composed of individuals who regularly shopped at major food chains along Colorado's Front Range. For reasons described below, the "nudge" provides the conceptual entry point for this analysis, as these techniques are typically expressed through big data-driven nudges. The argument begins by describing the nudge concept and how it is used in the context of retail big data. This is followed by a discussion of methods. The remainder of the paper discusses how big data are used to nudge consumers and the effects of these practices. This analysis is organized around three themes that emerged out of the qualitative data: path dependency, products; path dependency, retail; and path dependency, habitus. The paper concludes connecting these themes through the concept of governance, particularly by way of their ability to, in Foucault's (2003: 241) words, have "the power to 'make' live and 'let' die" worlds.

The plurality of values in sustainable agriculture models: diverse lock-in and coevolution patterns (2018) 🗎🗎

In Western economies, several agriculture models coexist. For instance, intensive agriculture organization, which has increased yields while causing major pollution and resource depletion, competes with alternative models, which tackle these sustainability issues and lead to lower yields. An agronomical typology of current agriculture models in Western societies is proposed that describes multiple sustainability issues through an agroecological perspective. However, in order to choose between these agroecological pathways, we must understand their social structure and the principles underlying them. Thus, our purpose is to characterize the institutional aspects of the alternative models using socioeconomic convention theory. We conducted a series of workshops with specialists in the natural sciences (agronomy, landscape ecology, and entomology) and social sciences (economics and sociology) to describe sustainable agriculture models. This characterization revealed the values underlying six different sustainable agriculture models, their forms of organization, and the institutions governing them. We discuss the implications of the coexistence of these six models in light of sustainable transition issues. From this coexistence perspective, transition (i) refers to an intertwined process of legitimation and disqualification, and (ii) means seeing pathways as the multiplicity and degree of interconnection between models. Therefore, we (i) identified the elements in each model that legitimize its mode of organization, and (ii) disqualified the elements that are incompatible with the principles underlying the model's practices. Moreover, we emphasize that multiple transition pathways are possible based on complex, complementary combinations of different models. This revealed the intricate processes of competition and complementarity involving these models. Finally, our study on the coexistence, interdependence, and coevolution of multiple agriculture models led us to advocate a precautionary principle so that marginal innovative models are not prevented from emerging.

Seeking unconventional alliances and bridging innovations in spaces for transformative change: the seed sector and agricultural sustainability in Argentina (2018) 🗎🗎

Experimental spaces for learning about and nurturing processes of social-ecological transformation are of increasing interest; a reflection, in part, of a more interventionist approach to sustainability research and funding. We reflect on our experience in Argentina facilitating a multistakeholder transformative space to identify and discuss agricultural sustainability challenges associated with seed market concentration, and to explore social innovations in the seed sector that can help foster more sustainable pathways of change in agricultural systems. We argue that in facilitating such a process, it is important to understand the diversity of perspectives on the meanings and functions of seed systems, the agricultural sustainability challenges those systems give rise to and of potential solutions, and to work with and from those divergent perspectives to identify areas of actionable consensus or potential affinities between actors who otherwise understand or prioritize agricultural sustainability in different ways. We suggest that ideas for intervention that are able to exploit common ground are more likely to be politically and practically viable. We illustrate this claim with a proposal for an open source seed licensing system, which potentially addresses distinctive concerns about strict intellectual property rules on the part of domestic seed breeders, farmers, rural social movements, and parts of government, who otherwise adopt different perspectives on desired agricultural futures. We suggest that this kind of bridging innovation may help to reconfigure social relations around seed systems in ways that can open up space for more sustainable pathways of agricultural change.

Beyond agricultural innovation systems? Exploring an agricultural innovation ecosystems approach for niche design and development in sustainability transitions (2018) 🗎🗎

Well-designed and supported innovation niches may facilitate transitions towards sustainable agricultural futures, which may follow different approaches and paradigms such as agroecology, local place-based food systems, vertical farming, bioeconomy, urban agriculture, and smart fanning or digital farming. In this paper we consider how the existing agricultural innovation systems (AIS) approach might be opened up to better support the creation of innovation niches. We engage with Innovation Ecosystems thinking to consider the ways in which it might enhance efforts to create multi-actor, cross-sectoral innovation niches that are capable of supporting transitions to sustainable agricultural systems across multiple scales. While sharing many similarities with MS thinking, Innovation Ecosystems thinking has the potential to broaden MS by: emphasizing the role of power in shaping directionality in innovation platforms or innovation communities that are connected to niches and their interaction with regimes; highlighting the plurality of actors and actants and the integral role of ecological actants in innovation; and offering an umbrella concept through which to cross scalar and paradigmatic or sector boundaries in order to engage with a variety of innovation systems affecting multifunctional agricultural landscapes and systems. To this end, an Agricultural Innovation Ecosystems approach may help design and support development of transboundary, inter-sectoral innovation niches that can realize more collective and integrated innovation

Transitions in water harvesting practices in Jordan's rainfed agricultural systems: Systemic problems and blocking mechanisms in an emerging technological innovation system (2018) 🗎🗎

This study identifies systemic problems and opportunities for transitions in water harvesting - a water conserving agricultural practice in the context of a developing country pursuing greater agricultural sustain ability. We utilize a combined and enriched functional-structural technological innovation system (TIS) analysis to identify systemic problems in the water harvesting TIS in rainfed agricultural production systems of Jordan. Results indicate Jordanian water harvesting TIS development is hindered by three principal blocking mechanisms: 1) inadequate financial resources to support innovation; 2) lack of a common vision across government ministries; 3) institutional problems that inhibit legitimizing the technology. These challenges are caused by interlocking systemic problems, which indicate the need for integrated policy approaches and interventions. Our analysis reinforces the concept that in developing countries, donor interventions should be centrally considered because they play a role in influencing priorities throughout the system and in supporting TIS development. Donors can counteract TIS development and contribute to directionality problems that favor one form of the technology over another, which gives insufficient protection for the water harvesting TIS until markets for technologies form. This would require more effective coordination between different donors' efforts to develop critical mass in TIS development. We also show that cultural institutions and interactions between formal and informal land tenure laws play a significant role in causing an erosion of trust in the government and counter efforts to promote and engage farming communities in water harvesting activities and innovation. This requires recognition that, in developing countries, informal institutions may have the same status as formal institutions.

The Governance of Indigenous Natural Products in Namibia: A Policy Network Analysis (2018) 🗎🗎

At the end of the 20th century, optimism existed that non-timber forest products (NTFPs) can form an integral part in conservation and development strategies. However, there is limited knowledge on how the different stakeholders could relate to the state or to each other in promoting commercialization of NTFPs. Applying the policy network as an analytical framework, we investigated the structural patterns of actor relations in the governance structure of indigenous natural products (INPs) in Namibia, to understand the implications of such relations on INP policy process. The findings indicate that the INP policy network in Namibia is multi-dimensional, consisting of the Indigenous Plant Task Team (IPTT)-the key governance structure for resource mobilization and information sharing; and functional relations which serve specific roles in the INP value chain. The existing relations have facilitated policy development particularly for heavily regulated species, such as devil's claw; but for other species, only incremental changes are observed in terms of small-scale processing facilities for value addition and exclusive purchase agreements for sustainable sourcing of INPs. Participation of primary producers, private actors and quality standardization bodies is limited in INPs governance structures, which narrow the scope of information sharing. Consequently, despite that the IPTT has fostered publicly funded explorative pilot projects, ranging from production to marketing of INPs, there are no clear guidelines how these projects results can be transferred to private entities for possible commercialization. Further collaboration and information sharing is needed to guide public sector relations with the private entities and cooperatives.

Disciplining the State: The role of alliances in contesting multi-level agri-environmental governance (2018) 🗎🗎

This study evaluates the development of a national agri-environment scheme under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on "commonage" or collectively owned land in the Republic of Ireland. In doing so, it explores the role of alliance building in reasserting marginalised narratives in multi-level agri-environmental governance processes. To this end, process tracing analysis is carried out on government policy documents and reports; interdepartmental exchanges; parliamentary testimonies; and media reports relating to the policy development process. This allows, firstly, for the tracing of the historical emergence of collectively owned land as a differentiated agricultural space. Secondly, it explores how a specific governing device - Commonage Management Plans (CMPs) - emerges in national debates as means of regulating these spaces. Finally, it provides insight on how alliances comprised of commonage farmers, farm extension professionals, and politicians at national and international levels successfully challenged aspects of the proposed CMPs. This illustrates how marginalised, but capable actors may navigate multi-level governance structures to influence state institutions and policy outcomes. We thus make two main contributions. First, we foreground the role of alliances to provide an illustration of how marginalised actors may gain influence in multi-level governance processes. We demonstrate how these alliances are built around specific shared narratives and operate with cognisance of the power dynamics in which they operate. Second, we highlight how both consultation and contestation contribute to co-producing policy design outcomes. However, the case study indicates that more extensive participative policy making could address such contestation more effectively.

Patterns of world wheat trade, 1945-2010: The long hangover from the second food regime (2018) 🗎🗎

Food regime analysis is concerned with interpreting possibilities and conflicts inherent to the 21st-century food system in historical terms. This paper summarizes the theoretical discussion of the food regime method, and of the identification of different food regime periods throughout modern history. While it is widely accepted that the so-called second food regime has already ended, there is much discussion on whether or not it is possible to talk about a more recent third food regime. This paper traces the evolution of the wheat complex over the second food regime (1947-1973) and over the next 45 years, and offers an explanation for the evolution of world wheat trade distribution, based on food regime analysis. Certain authors have claimed that the collapse of the WTO Doha round of negotiations may be understood as a hangover from the second food regime. Similarly, this paper argues that the increasing wheat dependence of poor and insecure countries over the past 40 years may be considered as a path dependence outcome of a process initiated during the second food regime.

Exploring the Role of Taste in Middle-Class Household Practices Implications for Sustainable Food Consumption in Metro Manila and Bangalore (2018) 🗎🗎

Food consumption patterns and practices are undergoing changes in the mega-cities of South and Southeast Asia. Based on a qualitative, comparative case study, this article examines food consumption practices among middle-class households in Bangalore and Metro Manila. We demonstrate how taste preferences, shaped by and shaping food consumption practices, directly relate to increases in meat consumption, food packaging and household food waste-all areas of environmental significance. Taste preferences, which evolved over time, are explained through three inter-related dimensions: (a) the competencies involved in preparing food or eating out; (b) the material dimension of consumption, or products available in sites of food consumption; and (c) the different meanings attached to what makes for a tasty meal. The differences and similarities in food consumption practices between each research site provide insights into how food consumption practices might shift towards more sustainable pathways in Bangalore and Metro Manila, and in similar settings.

"We see a real opportunity around food waste": exploring the relationship between on-farm food waste and farm characteristics (2018) 🗎🗎

The objectives of this research are to provide a better understanding regarding whether organic food producers produce more or less waste than nonorganic food producers, if food waste management practices differ between organic and conventional food producers, and what role producer food waste practices play in agricultural sustainability. This qualitative study found no conclusive differences between organic and nonorganic food producers regarding volume and management of on-farm food waste; however, different farm characteristics were found to intersect in numerous ways, resulting in a variety of impacts associated with on-farm food waste. Additionally, all research participants indicated that the factor most likely to encourage them to address on-farm food waste is cost savings. To fully address food waste, actions oriented toward minimizing and sustainably managing food waste must be undertaken in a collaborative manner across all stages of the food supply chain.

The agroecology of food systems: Reconnecting agriculture, food, and the environment (2018) 🗎🗎

Re-localization is part of the solution but does not fully address the diversity of interdependencies within food systems. Based on the discussion in a workshop that was part of the 2015 conference on The Agroecological Imagination, we argue that an agroecological approach to food systems might provide an appropriate framework for understanding food systems transitions. We address three central questions. (1) Can agroecological practices add value to food, and what process of certification and labeling would help consumers understand the added value that certain practices provide? (2) How can agroecology introduce ecological concepts into decisions on food systems, especially at the scale of food systems rather than the scale of specific products? (3) What approaches to research and action-research are most appropriate - or remain to be developed - in order to favor such processes of reconnection between agriculture, environment and food? We conclude by arguing that an agroecological approach to food systems should favor processes which allow relational reflexivity - the capacity to take into account one's own interdependencies to others but also interdependencies between other actors.

Examining Innovation for Sustainability from the Bottom Up: AnAnalysis of the Permaculture Community in England (2018) 🗎🗎

This article applies the transition approach to a novel food production context, via an examination of the food production side of permaculture. More specifically, it examines attempts by the permaculture community in England to interact and influence the Agriculture Knowledge System of the mainstream agro-food regime. Strategic Niche Management and Communities of Practice theory are combined to examine the ways in which the permaculture community has evolved and has sought to develop its agro-ecology message and influence the agro-food regime. Evidence of second order learning and networking with stakeholders outside the community of practice is limited. A tension between internal activities that reinforce a boundary between the permaculture knowledge system and the wider Agriculture Knowledge System are evident. Some external activities designed to cross boundaries are noted. However, activities designed to translate permaculture ideas into mainstream agriculture have had limited success. There is some evidence of interaction and lateral linkage with sub-regimes to enhance capacity but this is usually in individual capacities. Examining the evolution of radical niche innovations such as permaculture thus reveals the way that beliefs, values and epistemologies make the process of sustainability transition challenging and complex, particularly when different knowledge systems clash with one another.

Consumer Readiness to Reduce Meat Consumption for the Purpose of Environmental Sustainability: Insights from Norway (2018) 🗎🗎

Food production is associated with various environmental impacts and the production of meat is highlighted as a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. A transition toward plant-based and low-meat diets has thus been emphasised as an important contribution to reducing climate change. By combining results from a consumer survey, focus group interviews and an in-store field experiment, this article investigates whether Norwegian consumers are ready to make food choices based on what is environmentally sustainable. We ask how consumers perceive the environmental impacts of food consumption, whether they are willing and able to change their food consumption in a more climate-friendly direction, and what influences their perceptions and positions. The results show that there is uncertainty among consumers regarding what constitutes climate- or environmentally friendly food choices and that few consumers are motivated to change their food consumption patterns for climate- or environmental reasons. Consumers' support to initiatives, such as eating less meat and increasing the prices of meat, are partly determined by the consumers' existing value orientation and their existing consumption practices. Finally, we find that although providing information about the climate benefits of eating less meat has an effect on vegetable purchases, this does not seem to mobilise consumer action any more than the provision of information about the health benefits of eating less meat does. The article concludes that environmental policies aiming to transfer part of the responsibility for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to food consumers is being challenged by the fact that most consumers are still not ready to make food choices based on what is best for the climate or environment.

Prototyping sustainable mobility practices: user-generated data in the smart city (2018) 🗎🗎

Although smart cities are now the subject of a growing literature, there is a paucity of research which considers how smart city projects develop on the ground. This paper begins to address this concern by exploring the development of a transport application, MotionMap, within the MK: Smart smart city programme. MotionMap aims to provide city-wide real-time transport information services. It is being developed through an ongoing dialogue sparked by the interaction of lead users and prototypes of a smart transport app. We draw on insights from Strategic Niche Management and social practice theories to explore how 'smart' might be integrated within and potentially transform the plurality of mobility practices that exist in cities.

Cuba's agrifood system in transition, an introduction to the Elementa Special Feature (2018) 🗎🗎

Cuba's experience in sustainable agriculture and agroecology has been the subject of much international attention, particularly as advocates of agroecology aim to demonstrate the feasibility of implementing alternatives to industrial agriculture on a national scale to support ecological resilience, food security, food sovereignty, and human wellbeing. Such attention has increased since relations between the U.S. and Cuba began to normalize, stimulating speculation as to how this will affect Cuba's advances in sustainability. The Special Feature Cuba Agrifood Systems in Transition analyses the nuances of agroecological development in Cuba. We emphasized amplifying the voices of locally-based researchers and practitioners by targeting manuscript invitations to Cuban scholars and publishing in both Spanish and English. We outline the process, challenges and goals of this unique endeavor and introduce seven articles, all contributions from Cuba except for one, which is a collaboration between U.S. based and Cuba based scholars. These articles unpack some of the complexities of Cuba's agrifood system transition and draw on specific information and experiences to discuss successes and challenges of this transition. We thus underline the instructive value of the Cuban experience regarding the path to agrifood system sustainability and hope to spark new collaborative opportunities as scholars and citizens around the world look to develop agrifood systems that will sustain human society long into the future.

Materially Constituting a Sustainable Food Transition: The Case of Vegan Eating Practice (2018) 🗎🗎

Informed by several intellectual turns and sub-areas of sociology this article explores veganism as a practice and argues that its nascent social normalisation can be partly explained by specific modes of material work with food performed by vegan practitioners. Based primarily on interview data with UK-based vegans the research identifies four modes of material constitution - material substitution, new food exploration, food creativity and taste transition - which are of particular importance in strengthening links between the elements of the practice. The article argues that these are significant for offering an explanation for the recent growth of vegan practitioners in UK society and that they are also of value to the broader endeavour of understanding sustainable food transitions and intervening for more sustainable food policies.

Every City a Food Growing City? What Food Growing Schools London Reveals about City Strategies for Food System Sustainability (2018) 🗎🗎

Cities have emerged as leaders in food system innovation and transformation, but their potential can be limited by the absence of supportive governance arrangements. This study examined the value of Food Growing Schools London (FGSL) as a programme seeking city-wide change through focusing on one dimension of the food system. Mixed methods case study research sought to identify high-level success factors and challenges. Findings demonstrate FGSL's success in promoting food growing by connecting and amplifying formerly isolated activities. Schools valued the programme's expertise and networking opportunities, whilst strategic engagement facilitated new partnerships linking food growing to other policy priorities. Challenges included food growing's marginality amongst priorities that direct school and borough activity. Progress depended on support from individual local actors so varied across the city. London-wide progress was limited by the absence of policy levers at the city level. Experience from FGSL highlights how city food strategies remain constrained by national policy contexts, but suggests they may gain traction through focusing on well-delineated, straightforward activities that hold public appeal. Sustainability outcomes might then be extended through a staged approach using this as a platform from which to address other food issues.

The Evolution of Problems Underlying the EU Agricultural Policy Regime (2018) 🗎🗎

This article conceptualises the common agricultural policy (CAP) of the European Union as a policy regime. Policy regimes are defined as meso-level, problem-related, dynamically stable, multidimensional governance arrangements consisting of substantive and institutional elements. Utilising the policy regime as the unit of analysis makes it possible to study the lifespan of a certain policy with many levels of abstraction (paradigm, dimensions, elements, topics). This meso-level focus provides a meaningful way to explain or anticipate regime change and stability based on diverse sources. In this study, an empirical analysis of policy documents exposes the lifespan of the problems underlying the CAP regime. The analysis assesses the stability of the CAP state-assisted agriculture paradigm, the smooth diversification of the CAP elements and the volatile ups and downs of the CAP topics. Policy design and delivery has become the most extensively considered problem of the CAP, whereas the other dimensions (farms, consumers, regions, markets and trade, environment, taxpayers and budget) have converged towards a more balanced setting. As problems precede policy solutions, the design and delivery of the CAP could be the next target of major reforms.

Triggering regime change: A comparative analysis of the performance of innovation platforms that attempted to change the institutional context for nine agricultural domains in West Africa (2018) 🗎🗎

The article synthesises the experiences of innovation platforms (IPs) that engaged in open-ended experimental action to improve the institutional context for smallholder farm development in West Africa. The IPs sought change at the level of the institutional regime covering an entire agricultural domain (such as cocoa, cotton, oil palm or water management). Their purpose was therefore not to 'roll out' farm-level technologies across rural communities. The IPs's outcomes were documented and analysed throughout by means of theory-based process tracing in each of seven of the nine domains in which regime change was attempted. The evidence shows that by means of exploratory scoping and diagnosis, socio-technical and institutional experimentation, and guided facilitation IPs can remove, by-pass, or modify domain-specific institutional constraints and/or create new institutional conditions that allow smallholders to capture opportunity. The article describes the 5-year, 4.5 million research programme in Benin, Ghana and Mali, covering theory, design, methods and results. It is the sequel to Hounkonnou et al. in AGSY 108 (2012): 74-83. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stakeholder responses to governmental dietary guidelines: Challenging the status quo, or reinforcing it? (2018) 🗎🗎

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how stakeholders in the food and nutrition field construct and conceptualise appropriate national dietary advice. Design/methodology/approach In total, 40 voluntarily written stakeholder responses to updated official dietary guidelines in Sweden were analysed thematically. The analysis explored the logics and arguments employed by authorities, interest organisations, industry and private stakeholders in attempting to influence the formulation of dietary guidelines. Findings Two main themes were identified: the centrality of anchoring advice scientifically and modes of getting the message across to the public. Stakeholders expressed a view of effective health communication as that which is nutritionally and quantitatively oriented and which optimises individuals' capacities to take action for their own health. Their responses did not offer alternative framings of how healthy eating could be practiced but rather conveyed an understanding of dietary guidelines as documents that provide simplified answers to complex questions. Practical implications Policymakers should be aware of industrial actors' potential vested interests and actively seek out other stakeholders representing communities and citizen interests. The next step should be to question the extent to which it is ethical to publish dietary advice that represents a simplified way of conceptualising behavioural change, and thereby places responsibility for health on the individual. Originality/value This research provides a stakeholder perspective on the concept of dietary advice and is among the first to investigate referral responses to dietary guidelines.

Throwing it out: Introducing a nexus perspective in examining citizen perceptions of organizational food waste in the U.S (2018) 🗎🗎

While advocacy groups and environmentalists have sought to highlight the issue of food waste, relatively little is known about individual citizen concern about food wasted by organizations in the U.S. This paper examines the extent to which individuals are concerned about organizational food waste, and to what extent they would support policies intended to reduce food waste. We also address how food waste reduces efficiencies in the water-energy-food nexus. We use a nationally representative sample of survey respondents to identify the personal characteristics that relate to concern about food waste and to corrective public policies. We expand the use of water-energy-food awareness indexes and examine if nexus awareness influences opinions and policies regarding food waste. Results show that nexus awareness, or awareness of the interconnections between food-water and food-energy, is significantly related to food waste concern and policy preferences to reduce food waste. We conclude with some strategies and policy recommendations on increasing awareness and action to reduce food waste.

Saying all the right things? Gendered discourse in climate-smart agriculture (2018) 🗎🗎

Amidst debates about the role of climate-smart agriculture' (CSA), the intersection of concerns about climate change and agriculture offer an opportunity to consider how gender is considered in global policymaking. The latest module in the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, World Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development Gender and Agriculture Sourcebook - Gender and Climate Smart Agriculture' - offers an opportunity to reassess how gender factors into these global recommendations. This contribution argues that the module makes strides toward more gender-aware policymaking, but the version of CSA discussed in the module sidesteps the market-led and productivity-oriented practices often associated with CSA. As a result, though the module pushes a more feminist agenda in many respects, it does not fully consider the gendered implications of corporate-led and trade-driven CSA.

Financialisation as a strategic action field: An historically informed field study of governance reforms in Chinese state-owned enterprises (2018) 🗎🗎

This paper extends extant research on financialisation, which has mainly evolved in advanced capitalist economies, through an historically informed field study of governance reforms in Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Mobilising the theory of strategic action fields (SAFs), we conceptualise the evolution of such reforms as a protracted framing process where different actors sought to influence the meanings attributed to shareholder-focussed governance practices. We examine how challengers of extant governance practices, such as the World Bank, and incumbent actors representing the interests of the Chinese state vied for influence over governance reforms and how various regulatory bodies, assuming the role of internal governance units (IGUs), enjoyed varying degrees of success in advancing context-specific governance practices. Shareholder-focussed accounting techniques, such as Economic Value Added (EVA (TM)), played an increasingly salient role in this process. Yet, emerging governance practices primarily came to reflect the interests of the Chinese state in maintaining and increasing the value of state assets whilst preserving its political control of SOEs. We contribute to the literature on financialisation by showing how pressures for shareholder value creation can be channelled into governance practices which attenuate the pervasive effects of financialisation in contemporary society. We also contribute to research on accounting in emerging economies by exploring the under-researched role of IGUs in the local adaptation of "Western" governance practices. We discuss how future studies can bring these bodies of research closer together and extend research on financialisation to a wider range of institutional contexts. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Urban food environments in Africa: implications for policy and research (2019) 🗎🗎

Africa is currently experiencing rapid urbanisation impacting on people's food environments and dietary habits. Such changes are associated with higher prevalence of obesity coexisting with undernutrition. The present paper provides an overview of the healthiness of African urban food environments. We discuss the ways that food environments can be characterised and summarise the methods that can be used to investigate and intervene in the food environment. Data for Africa over a 50-year period (1961-2013) suggest an increasing availability of energy, animal products, fruit and vegetables, vegetable oils, sugar and sweeteners but a decrease in animal fats. There is a lack of evidence about how social, physical and macro-environments drive dietary habits in urban Africa, as most research has focused on the individual level. Examining how food consumption is embedded in everyday life, by investigating social environments is crucial to developing effective interventions. The informal food sector plays an important role in the retail food environment. Macro-level food price changes are an important factor influencing nutritional quality of African diets. The rapid expansion of food/beverages advertising in Africa threatens traditional food habits. Liberalisation of food trade is already impacting on the nutritional quality of food available. Improving African food environments represents a pressing public health concern and has the potential to prevent all forms of malnutrition. Hence, by conducting research into the role of urban social, physical and macro-environments, emerging interventions and policies are likely to positively impact on nutritional status, thereby enhancing social and economic development.

Systemic ethics and inclusive governance: two key prerequisites for sustainability transitions of agri-food systems (2019) 🗎🗎

Food retailers are powerful actors of the agro-industrial food system. They exert strong lock-in effects that hinder transitions towards more sustainable agri-food systems. Indeed, their marketing practices generally result in excluding the most sustainable food products, such as local, low-input, small-scale farmers' products. Recently in Belgium, several initiatives have been created to enable the introduction of local products on supermarket shelves. In this article, we study three of those initiatives to analyse if the development of local sourcing in supermarkets opens up an opportunity for a transition towards more sustainable agri-food systems. We conceptualise transitions as a shift in governance and ethical values and adopt a pragmatist approach of ethics combined with the systemic perspective of transition studies, to evaluate the impact of these initiatives. Our analysis shows that they mainly contribute to the reproduction of the incumbent agri-food system. It also highlights that first, to be a driver for sustainability transitions, food ethics need to be systemic i.e. relate to a systemic understanding of problems and perspective of sustainability, including social justice. And second, it highlights that governance arrangements involving not only representative organisations of the various agri-food and non-agricultural actors, but also actors upholding ethical values that are currently missing in conventional supply chains and representing excluded and marginalised interests, favour the uptake of such systemic ethics by incumbent actors. Hence, systemic ethics and inclusive governance are key features for initiatives to contribute to a sustainability transition.

The Role of Law in Transformative Environmental PoliciesA Case Study of "Timber in Buildings Construction in Germany" (2019) 🗎🗎

Over the last decades, environmental law has significantly contributed to limiting the environmental impacts of our mode of living. Yet environmental problems still prevail and are strongly linked to our production and consumption systems. Therefore, the current challenges must be tackled with a systemic approach. The concept of transformative environmental policy identifies approaches for policymakers to interfere in socio-economic systems in order to give them a more sustainable structure. This article seeks to identify the contributions that law can make to a transformation towards sustainability. For illustrative purposes, I point out the concrete steps in a case study on increasing the use of timber in buildings construction in Germany. I argue that law plays a role in all three phases of a transformation/transition. The legal framework must enable innovations and experiments in the first transformation phase, come up with restricting regulations for old non-sustainable structures in the second phase, and in the third phase provide course stability for the new system. I conclude that the concept of transformative environmental policy helps to design adaptations of the legal framework in order to transform socio-economic and socio-technical systems towards more sustainability.

Assessing the role of CAP for more sustainable and healthier food systems in Europe: A literature review (2019) 🗎🗎

Today, the European food system is characterized by unhealthy dietary trends, environmentally unsustainable production, and a dependency on an ageing farming population. The ongoing reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) represents an opportunity to redress these issues. This literature review highlights trends in how academic and grey literature have received CAP attempts in addressing the (i) environmental issues, (ii) nutritional outcomes, and (iii) rural livelihoods. Additionally, future policy and research directions relating to the CAP have been identified from the selected literature. The reviewed literature varies in approach and perspective. In particular, since the environment and rural development are already part of the CAP, the reviewed studies analyze and propose improvements to existing mechanisms. While for nutrition, the reviewed studies assessed possible policy strategies for integrating this sphere within the CAP, highlighting both the complexity of this task as well as its potential benefits. Despite these differences, a clear commonality emerged from the policy recommendations: the CAP should promote the European Union (EU) policy integration and multi-disciplinary and participatory research as key strategies to meet food system sustainability targets. (c) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Roadmapping to Enhance Local Food Supply: Case Study of a City-Region in Austria (2019) 🗎🗎

Due to the current challenges of climate change, population growth in urban settlements and resource depletion, agri-food researchers have put an increasing emphasis on the sustainability transitions of food systems. In this regard, there has been an increasing interest in the local food supply of cities and their surrounding regions, as local food is considered to be a contributing factor toward more sustainable, resilient and just urban food systems. Based on this background, a roadmapping process was conducted to assess the status quo and to identify measures to enhance the local food supply in the city-region of Graz in Austria. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 47 stakeholders, analysed textual materials and calculated food carrying capacities. The obtained data served as input for a series of three workshops, where measures were derived. Our results suggest that cooperation among agri-food stakeholders should be facilitated by local decision makers in order to promote food from regional sources within the target area. Furthermore, smart technologies can help to scale-up local food supply schemes, and to track down food stocks and flows more efficiently. Besides, food policy councils and open food labs can help to incubate food product innovations and to support partnerships among agri-food stakeholders, including local small-scale farmers. In the future, engagement and empowerment processes with local food stakeholders should be addressed to enable transformational processes. Roadmaps can help to initiate such processes.

Hybrid potato breeding: A framework for mapping contested socio-technical futures (2019) 🗎🗎

This article characterizes the diverging expectations about hybrid potato breeding in the Netherlands. This potentially disruptive innovation for breeding new potato varieties has been subject to contested expectations, ranging from hybrid breeding amounting to nothing to it strongly upsetting the existing potato sector and bringing food security to developing countries. Literature in the sociology of expectations has highlighted that expectations are key in shaping the future of this innovation. In the case of hybrid potato breeding, these expectations are articulated in an unstructured setting, often within the walls of individual organizations. This makes an informed societal debate difficult. To aid the governance of expectations in unstructured settings, this article develops a mapping framework for expectations. Building on distinctions that emerged from the empirical material, stakeholders are positioned with respect to the expected impact of the innovation on the sector and on society. We found that stakeholders can be distributed along a clear curve that leads from low expectations for sector and society, to modest expectations for the sector and low expectations for society, to high expectations for both. This overview provides a basis for an informed societal debate and the articulation of socially robust expectations.

The Food Desert as a Concept and Policy Tool in African Cities: An Opportunity and a Risk (2019) 🗎🗎

The idea that food insecurity can be resolved by increasing the presence of supermarkets has been gaining traction in African cities and has recently gained political traction in Africa. This paper interrogates the potential value and risks associated with the adoption of the discourse of the food desert in the African context. The paper draws on findings from a households survey, neighborhoods-scale food retail mapping and surveys, and city-wide supermarket mapping conducted in Cape Town (South Africa), Kisumu (Kenya), and Kitwe (Zambia). Following a discussion of why the concept is gaining traction, the paper identifies false assumptions associated with the food desert framing in Africa, namely: supermarkets provide better access to healthier food, low-income areas have poor access to healthy food; and food security can be reduced to economic and physical accessibility. The paper concludes that although the food desert concept may be valuable for African researchers to provoke debates about systemic inequality, the food desert policy narrative should be rejected as it is ill-informed by the lived experiences of food insecurity in African cities and may promote policy interventions that erode rather than enhance the capacity of the food system to meet the food security needs of African urbanites.

Food and nutrition security and sustainability transitions in food systems (2019) 🗎🗎

The concepts of food security and food sustainability are two main paradigms in the food system discourse-however, they are often addressed separately in the scientific literature. We argue that this disconnect hinders a coherent discussion of sustainability transitions, which will be necessary to solve problems (environmental, social, economic, and health) generated by conventional food systems. Our review highlights linkages between sustainability transitions and food and nutrition security using the perspective of sustainable food systems. We explore the diversity of food security narratives and food sustainability paradigms in the agro-food arena, analyze relations between food security and food systems sustainability, and suggest options to foster a transition toward sustainable food systems. It is widely acknowledged that food systems sustainability must entail long-term food and nutrition security in its availability, access, utilization, and stability dimensions. For food systems to deliver food and nutrition security for present and future generations, all their components need to be sustainable, resilient, and efficient. These linkages between food sustainability and food and nutrition security intersect at global, national, local, and household levels. Different strategies can be pursued to foster sustainability transitions in food systems: efficiency increase (e.g., sustainable intensification), demand restraint (e.g., sustainable diets), and food systems transformation (e.g., alternative food systems). Creating sustainable food systems requires moving from an agriculture-centered to a food system policy and research framework. This will be fundamental to foster the complex and holistic transformation necessary to achieve sustainable food systems, which is, in turn, a prerequisite to achieving sustainable food and nutrition security.

Opportunities for the Adoption of Health-Based Sustainable Dietary Patterns: A Review on Consumer Research of Meat Substitutes (2019) 🗎🗎

This article reviews empirical research on consumers' adoption of meat substitutes published up to spring 2018. Recent meat substitutes often have sustainable characteristics in line with consumers' concerns over aspects of healthy food and the environmental impact of food production. However, changing lifestyles with less time for cooking, any transition from a strongly meat-based to a more plant-based diet depends on the successful establishment of convenient meat substitutes. This article reviews the growing body of research on meat substitutes. These research articles were classified into five different stages in line with the innovation-decision process of: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation. The research was analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively, with results suggesting that although health, environmental and animal welfare aspects can persuade consumers and influence their decision to try a meat substitute, the appearance and taste of those meat substitutes are crucial factors for their consumption on a regular basis. However, there still remains a gap in research articles focusing on the regular consumption of meat substitutes.

Mapping innovation and diffusion of hydrogen fuel cell technologies: Evidence from the UK's hydrogen fuel cell technological innovation system, 1954-2012 (2019) 🗎🗎

With the global sustainability transition in energy, hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) applications currently have important niche roles to play across several industrial sectors. Theorists examining this innovative activity have identified key socio-technical factors affecting the nature and pace of change. One functional approach to innovation, Technology-Specific Innovation Systems (TSISs), places national HFC Technological Innovation Systems (TISs) within a framework of a global HFC TSIS. This analytical approach suggests that HFC innovation can start anywhere in space. However, in a case study of HFC innovation and diffusion in the UK covering sixty years' activity, this theoretical assumption is challenged. Event history analysis and interviews using a neofunctionalist TSIS approach suggest that positive feedback was on the brink of occurring in the UK HFC TIS by 2012. When additional organisational and spatial indicators are added, the evidence on the ground does not support the aspatial assumptions that underlie TIS heuristic thinking. Rather, it suggested that type of investment funding and spatial location can influence HFC innovation. In this context, the implications for HFC policy in the UK are discussed. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Investments in Innovative Urban Sanitation - Decision-Making Processes in Sweden (2019) 🗎🗎

This paper studies decision-making processes in relation to the implementation of innovative source-separating wastewater systems in the development area of Helsingborg called H+, and the non-implementation of the same in Stockholm Royal Seaport. Two analytical perspectives were used to identify critical organisational functions, drivers for change and the anchoring of these decisions within policy: (i) a sustainability transitions framework, and (ii) a policy trickle-down study assessing policy-concept uptake by stakeholders. Critical functions supporting implementation of source-separating systems in H+ were: common vision, leadership, cross-sectoral cooperation, and an innovative approach both within the utility and in the city administration in Helsingborg. In Stockholm, with regard to source-separating wastewater systems, there was a lack of common vision and of cross-sectoral cooperation and leadership. This was also evident in the lack of uptake by stakeholders of the policies for source separation. In Helsingborg, the main drivers for source-separating wastewater systems are increased biogas generation and improved potential for nutrient recycling. In Stockholm, these drivers have not been enough to create change, but the potential for increased heat recovery from greywater at source may be the additional driver necessary for future implementation of source-separating wastewater systems. Comparison of the stalled source-separation policy in Stockholm with a successfully implemented policy in a related field found a key criteria to be the presence of inspired individuals in positions where they had the mandate as well as the ability to create a common vision for change.

Linking Food Democracy and Sustainability on the Ground: Learnings from the Study of Three Alternative Food Networks in Brussels (2019) 🗎🗎

The article explores and discusses, both conceptually and empirically, the exercise of food democracy in the context of three alternative food networks (AFNs) in Brussels, Belgium. It demonstrates that food democracy can be described as a "vector of sustainability transition". The argumentation is built on the results of a 3.5-year participatory-action research project that configured and applied a sustainability assessment framework with the three local AFNs under study. Firstly, the article presents a localized understanding of food democracy. Food democracy is defined as a process aiming to transform the current food system to a more sustainable one. This transformation process starts from a specific point: the people. Indeed, the three AFNs define and implement concrete processes of power-configuration to alter the political, economic, and social relationships between consumers and producers as well as between retailers and producers. Secondly, the article assesses and discusses how the three AFNs perform these practices of food democracy and what effects these have on the actors concerned. The assessment shows that the three AFNs distinguish themselves along a gradient of their transformative potential in terms of practices. However, this variation in their interpretation of food democracy does not translate into a gradient of performance.

Connecting business with the agricultural landscape: business strategies for sustainable rural development (2019) 🗎🗎

Agribusiness enterprises link rural landscapes to global and regional markets. The nature of these business-landscape relationships is vital to the sustainability transition. Decisions by farmers and agriculture policymakers aggregate to changes in the ecology of landscapes, but the influence of food supply system businesses on rural landscape sustainability also requires scrutiny. This article uses four international cases to present a conceptual framework for investigating how different business strategies can support agricultural landscape sustainability. Insights from North America, New Zealand, The Netherlands, and Denmark inform the framework dimensions of horizontal/territorial and vertical/systemic business-landscape relationships. Three types of business model that promote rural sustainability are highlighted: provenance, cogovernance, and placemaking. These models engage strategies such as environmental management systems, certification, ecosystem and landscape services, and spatial planning. Research directions that will improve understanding about how business can engage with rural stakeholders for more sustainable rural landscapes are identified, including the need for cross disciplinary perspectives incorporating social, ecological, and business knowledge.

A review of social science on digital agriculture, smart farming and agriculture 4.0: New contributions and a future research agenda (2019) 🗎🗎

While there is a lot of literature from a natural or technical sciences perspective on different forms of digitalization in agriculture (big data, internet of things, augmented reality, robotics, sensors, 3D printing, system integration, ubiquitous connectivity, artificial intelligence, digital twins, and blockchain among others), social science researchers have recently started investigating different aspects of digital agriculture in relation to farm production systems, value chains and food systems. This has led to a burgeoning but scattered social science body of literature. There is hence lack of overview of how this field of study is developing, and what are established, emerging, and new themes and topics. This is where this article aims to make a contribution, beyond introducing this special issue which presents seventeen articles dealing with social, economic and institutional dynamics of precision farming, digital agriculture, smart farming or agriculture 4.0. An exploratory literature review shows that five thematic clusters of extant social science literature on digitalization in agriculture can be identified: 1) Adoption, uses and adaptation of digital technologies on farm; 2) Effects of digitalization on farmer identity, farmer skills, and farm work; 3) Power, ownership, privacy and ethics in digitalizing agricultural production systems and value chains; 4) Digitalization and agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS); and 5) Economics and management of digitalized agricultural production systems and value chains. The main contributions of the special issue articles are mapped against these thematic clusters, revealing new insights on the link between digital agriculture and farm diversity, new economic, business and institutional arrangements both on-farm, in the value chain and food system, and in the innovation system, and emerging ways to ethically govern digital agriculture. Emerging lines of social science enquiry within these thematic clusters are identified and new lines are suggested to create a future research agenda on digital agriculture, smart farming and agriculture 4.0. Also, four potential new thematic social science clusters are also identified, which so far seem weakly developed: 1) Digital agriculture socio-cyber-physical-ecological systems conceptualizations; 2) Digital agriculture policy processes; 3) Digitally enabled agricultural transition pathways; and 4) Global geography of digital agriculture development. This future research agenda provides ample scope for future interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary science on precision farming, digital agriculture, smart farming and agriculture 4.0.

The RIO approach: Design and anchoring of sustainable animal husbandry systems (2019) 🗎🗎

This paper discusses an approach to develop new 'integrally sustainable' animal production systems and stimulate their uptake in practice. It consists of a design approach called RIO, and a set of 'anchoring' activities to stimulate their uptake in niches and in the regime. In the period 2001-2015 we have applied the approach in various animal production sectors, and adapted and improved it while doing. The general aim of the paper is to assess the applicability of the RIO/anchoring approach to induce sustainability transitions. We conclude that RIO is especially suited for areas characterized by a 'heterogeneous' set of sustainability challenges (in our case, environmental burden, animal welfare, public acceptance, profitability). A RIO approach can then render 'integrally sustainable' alternatives that generate wide interest in the regime. Anchoring activities can successfully stimulate a variety of initial changes. This does not suffice, however, and a conducive institutional environment is key to facilitate the initial uptake of the novel systems. With relatively simple and cheap financial instruments, governments can help to create such a conducive environment. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved.

Revolutionizing Towards Sustainable Agricultural Systems: The Role of Energy (2019) 🗎🗎

Innovations play a significant role in the primary sector (i.e., agriculture, fisheries and forestry), ensuring a greater performance towards bioeconomy and sustainability. Innovation is being progressively applied to examining the organization of joint technological, social, and institutional modernizations in the primary sector. Exploring the governance of actor relations, potential policies, and support structures is crucial in the phase of innovation, e.g., during research activities, often applied at the national or sectorial scale. However, when opposing normative guidelines for alternative systems of agriculture arise (e.g., the industrial agriculture paradigm), modernizations in agricultural and forestry may contribute to outlining more sustainable systems. To date, innovations in the primary sector do not seem as advanced as in other sectors, apart from industrial agriculture, which sometimes appears to be the most encouraged. The present review aims to shed light on innovations that have been identified and promoted in recent years in the primary sector, including agriculture and forestry. The need to pursue sustainable development in this sector requires the inclusion of a fourth dimension, namely energy. In fact, energy sustainability is an issue that has been much discussed in recent years. However, the need for progressive technological progress is indispensable to ensure long-lasting energy efficiency. The aim is to understand what innovations have been implemented recently, highlighting opportunities and limitations for the primary sector.

Aligning research with policy and practice for sustainable agricultural land systems in Europe (2019) 🗎🗎

Agriculture is widely recognized as critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners have multiple, often conflicting yet poorly documented priorities on how agriculture could or should support achieving the SDGs. Here, we assess consensus and divergence in priorities for agricultural systems among research, policy, and practice perspectives and discuss the implications for research on trade-offs among competing goals. We analyzed the priorities given to 239 environmental and social drivers, management choices, and outcomes of agricultural systems from 69 research articles, the SDGs and four EU policies, and seven agricultural sustainability assessment tools aimed at farmers. We found all three perspectives recognize 32 variables as key to agricultural systems, providing a shared area of focus for agriculture's contribution to the SDGs. However, 207 variables appear in only one or two perspectives, implying that potential trade-offs may be overlooked if evaluated from only one perspective. We identified four approaches to agricultural land systems research in Europe that omit most of the variables considered important from policy and practice perspectives. We posit that the four approaches reflect prevailing paradigms of research design and data analysis and suggest future research design should consider including the 32 shared variables as a starting point for more policy- and practice-relevant research. Our identification of shared priorities from different perspectives and attention to environmental and social domains and the functional role of system components provide a concrete basis to encourage codesigned and systems-based research approaches to guide agriculture's contribution to the SDGs.

Overcoming the process-structure divide in conceptions of Social-Ecological Transformation Assessing the transformative character and impact of change processes (2019) 🗎🗎

A fundamental transformation towards sustainability in face of complex social-ecological challenges needs to initiate deep changes of those incumbent system structures that support unsustainable trajectories, while at the same time encouraging a diversity of alternative practices. A review of transformation approaches towards sustainability shows that these do not (sufficiently) link processes of change at the micro level to deep leverages of change in wider system structures. Addressing this research gap, we develop a conceptual framework for a social-ecological transformation that connects the macro and the micro level and helps to bridge process-oriented and structural approaches to transformation. At the macro level, the objectives of inter- and intragenerational justice need to be pursued by challenging the central paradigms that constitute unsustainable trajectories. To make the framework concrete and applicable in practice, we propose a preliminary set of evaluation principles for the micro and meso level that reflect these normative objectives and help to measure the transformative character and transformative impact of change processes. The example of the European Organic Breeding Network illustrates the application of the framework. An Ecological Economics research that is reflective of its transformative quality in light of the incumbent paradigms can make important contributions to transformation research.

Territorial agrifood systems: A Franco-Italian contribution to the debates over alternative food networks in rural areas (2019) 🗎🗎

The increasing diversity of food networks and initiatives has given rise to a variety of analyses and approaches among which the literature on "Alternative Food Networks" (AFN) and the "quality turn" stand out for the role of European and more specifically French and Italian contributions and the richness of the debates between authors from different horizons. These debates focus especially on the transformative power of alternative and/ or quality food networks at the scale of larger agrifood systems and the risks of territorial and social inequity that they may embody, thus raising social justice issues. However, in the AFN literature, the central focus on specific networks (mostly emanating from the civil society) often leads to overlook the effects of possible interactions between different networks and stakeholders, while in the "quality" literature, the central focus on specialty products often leads to a lack of consideration of entire food diets and agrifood systems as well as social justice issues. Based on a focused critical review of these literature, we thus argue for an intertwined approach that aims at assessing food systems as territorial constructions. In this purpose, our approach defines the research object by starting from a hypothesis of territorial assemblage instead of from specific initiatives considered in isolation. This allows taking into account various initiatives, different ambitions and their combined effects in facilitating - or not - just sustainable transitions. We do not base our argument on an optimistic vision of the potentials of hybridisation and combinations, but rather on a critical perspective focused on the effects of the alternative/ conventional confrontations (and controversies) in terms of "re-differentiation" processes. Based on two case studies in Southern France and Northern Italy, we demonstrate how this approach can be applied and contribute to wider debates over the key questions related to the AFNs' transformative power and social justice.

Multiplicity of Perspectives on Sustainable Food: Moving Beyond Discursive Path Dependency in Food Policy (2019) 🗎🗎

The idea that a sustainable transformation of the food system is urgently needed is gaining ground throughout Europe. Yet, opinions differ substantially on what a sustainable food future exactly entails, and on how this future may be achieved. This article argues that recognising this multiplicity of opinions and perspectives in policy making is productive because it creates attentiveness to innovative ideas and initiatives, and may contribute to a broad social support base for policy choices. However, food policy makers may overlook the diversity in perspectives by unreflexively adopting understandings of problems and solutions that are historically dominant in their organisations. In this article, we reveal the usefulness of triggering reflection on such discursive path dependencies amongst policy makers. We do so by presenting a three-fold case study that we conducted in the Netherlands. First, we analytically distinguish five perspectives on sustainable food that feature prominently in the Dutch public debate. Subsequently, we show that only two out of these five perspectives predominantly informed a Dutch food policydespite intentions to devise a more integrated policy approach. Finally, we discuss the findings of two focus groups in which we discussed our analyses with Dutch civil servants who have been involved in drafting the Dutch food policy. These focus groups triggered reflection among the civil servants on their own perspectival biases as well as on discursive path dependencies in Dutch food policy making. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for the understanding of the discursive politics of sustainable agro-food transformations in Europe.

Exploring cooperative place-based approaches to restorative agriculture (2019) 🗎🗎

The modernisation of agriculture has been, and continues to be, the cause of an increasing disconnection between farming, nature, and society. This has given rise to a series of social, economic, and ecological crises in the food chain. Some farmers are responding to this by adjusting their land-use and farming practices so as to make their farms more sustainable. But such changes need to be aligned with the specificities of the local bio-physical environment and the logic of the political economic environment. This article highlights how cooperative approaches allow public and private regulatory systems to support ecological transitions. Through a theoretical lens on place-based and restorative farming practices it analyses and interprets three complementary cooperative approaches as possible starting points for the transition towards a more sustainable agri-food system. The case studies show how farmers cooperatives can be either linked to the environment and to public policies (and thus extrinsic product quality), or to the market (and intrinsic product quality), or a combination of both. These links provide competitive advantages to farmers, and enable them to increase income from farming. We then discuss the effectiveness of these forms of self-governance, and how cooperative approaches, if well organised and implemented and appropriately embedded, can empower farmers to further change and adapt their farming practices so as to restore and improve their endogenous resource base. The analysis shows that while they are place-specific they are far from locally/regionally-bounded and that their success (or failure) critically depends on their alignment with national, supra-national and global actants.

Special Treatment? Flexibilities in the Politics of Regenerative Medicine's Gatekeeping Regimes in the UK (2019) 🗎🗎

Emerging flexibilities are apparent in gatekeeping regimes applicable to regenerative medicine products, raising issues about the extent to which and forms in which such flexibilities might promote emerging products as a sector warranting special treatment, in the context of recent policy developments in the UK and wider European Union. Concepts of 'gatekeeping', 'gatekeeping regimes' and 'gateways' can point to the ways in which regulatory institutions, health technology assessment organisations, and national planners and purchasers of health services together define and control entry to the medical product marketplace and the adoption of products into the public health-care system. Flexibilities in existing regimes and new gateways are a way of maintaining 'connection' between gatekeeping regimes and technoscientific innovation in order to steer innovation pathways. The gateways concept has affinity with that of Callon's 'obligatory passage points'. A wide set of recent policy documents show that the measures promoted exhibit a range of alternative gateways that are being constructed around central, legal, restrictive gatekeeping regimes. However, it would be easy to overestimate the significance of these developments as relaxations that would favour innovative producers and their products on a large scale with wide public health impacts. The concepts of gatekeeping regimes and gateways enable understanding of hybrid developments of exceptions and exemptions to dominant regimes which bridge across the arenas of market regulation, health technology assessment and health-care system planning. These arenas are being drawn closer together as a means of politically managing stakeholders' aims in the UK, EU and other innovating biomedical health systems globally.

Brexit's Shades of Green-(Missing) the Opportunity to Transform Farming in England? (2019) 🗎🗎

The UK Government's 'green Brexit' includes fundamental reform of agriculture. We use resilience thinking to examine the complex relationship between farming policy and environmental sustainability. Farming is a social ecological system that will be disturbed by leaving the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. Reforms could reinforce persistence of the status quo or shape transformation to 'better' sustainability. We argue Brexit is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the hegemony of sustainable intensification to be challenged by enhanced agroecological farming practices. The interdependency of social and ecological factors is a critical threshold for transformative change, which we explore through three key sites of struggle: farmers' cultural identity, connection to land, and security. We suggest transformative law and governance measures built upon Wild Law jurisprudence and resilience principles of diversity, scale, flexibility, relationality, education and participatory decision-making. We conclude that the Government's approach falls short of the transformation needed for a resilient, sustainable farming system.

'Fractures' in food practices: exploring transitions towards sustainable food (2019) 🗎🗎

Emissions arising from the production and consumption of food are acknowledged as a major contributor to climate change. From a consumer's perspective, however, the sustainability of food may have many meanings: it may result from eating less meat, becoming vegetarian, or choosing to buy local or organic food. To explore what food sustainability means to consumers, and what factors lead to changes in food practice, we adopt a sociotechnical approach to compare the food consumption practices in North West England with two differing consumer groups. The first, supermarket shoppers 'embedded' in the mainstream food regime; and the second, who self-identify as sustainable food practitioners, and who perform a range of sustainable food consumption practices. We examine how our two groups experience changes in food practices and identify 'fractures' stemming from lifecourse and public events that emerge as points where change might occur. We suggest that 'sharing spaces' would be one possibility for prompting and nurturing fractures that can lead to greater sustainability in food practices.

Crossing Sociological, Ecological, and Nutritional Perspectives on Agrifood Systems Transitions: Towards a Transdisciplinary Territorial Approach (2019) 🗎🗎

The need to reconnect agriculture, environment, food, and health when addressing agrifood system transitions is widely acknowledged. However, most analytical frameworks, especially in the expanding literature about "system approaches", rely on impact-based approaches and, thus, tend to overlook ecological processes as well as social ones. This article aims at demonstrating that a territorial approach to agrifood system transitions is more appropriate to tackle the reconnection between agriculture, food, environment, and health than the larger scales (global or national food systems) or the smaller ones (such as those of alternative food systems) usually addressed in the literature. Co-elaborated by a sociologist, an ecologist, and a nutritionist, this article is based on a focused analysis of the literature that has addressed agrifood system transitions in the food and health sciences and in the social sciences and on the reflexive analysis of two past projects dealing with such transitions. It shows that a territorial approach allows including in the analysis the diverse agrifood systems' components as well the ecological and social processes that may create functionalities for improving agrifood systems' sustainability. This territorial approach is based on systemic and processual thinking and on a transdisciplinary perspective combining an objectification stance and a pragmatist constructivist one. It should allow actors and researchers to build a shared understanding of the transition processes within their shared territorial agrifood system, despite possibly different and diverging views.

Inorganic Waste Management in Greenhouse Agriculture in Almeria (SE Spain): Towards a Circular System in Intensive Horticultural Production (2019) 🗎🗎

The concept of circular economy, whose model is based on three main pillars: (i) design out waste and pollution; (ii) keep products and materials in use; and (iii) regenerate natural systems, has recently been applied to different sectors. This concept is directly related to bioeconomy. Spain implemented its own strategy in bioeconomy in 2016, affecting all economic activities, agriculture included. In line with this, one of the most important agricultural sectors is the greenhouse horticulture of Almeria (SE Spain). This region has experienced deep changes in the last 40 years, and has become one of the most efficient agro-industrial complexes in the world. This rapid growth has brought sustainability problems such as pollution, water overuse, or inadequate waste management. Several studies have undertaken organic waste reuse or minimization, but an important lack of knowledge exists regarding the inorganic fraction. One of the goals of the REINWASTE project is to find solutions for this problem. Therefore, an extensive legal framework has been consulted and an in-depth study of the steps in greenhouse production with the associated residues has been carried out. Additionally, information from experts and stakeholders has been registered, resulting a list of Best Available Technologies (BATs) to prevent and minimize inorganic waste generation. This article highlights the intensive greenhouse horticulture from Almeria efforts to reach circularity by closing the loop with inorganic waste.

Technology-Driven Transition in Urban Food Production Practices: A Case Study of Shanghai (2019) 🗎🗎

The continuing decline of arable land per person and global human population growth are raising concerns about food security. Recent advances in horticultural technology (i.e., growing using light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, hydroponics, vertical farming, and controlled environments) have changed the ways in which vegetables can be produced and supplied. The emerging technology makes it possible to produce more food using fewer resources, independent of the weather and the need for land. They allow bringing agricultural practices inside urban built up spaces and making horticultural production an integrated part of the daily life of urban residents. However, the process and consequences of this technology-driven transition on urban planning and development are hardly understood. This paper uses the theory of multi-level perspective (MLP) on sustainability transitions and actor-network theory (ANT) to explore this technology-driven transition and its adoption in urban planning and development. The high-tech horticulture zone development in Shanghai was used as a case study. The results show the importance of both social (i.e., policymakers and planners) and material (i.e., technologies and policy documents) actants in the transition of the sociotechnical regime. Furthermore, the transition toward sustainable urban horticulture practices requires the simultaneous preparation of supportive and compatible spatial development, agricultural and sustainable development policies, and adequate policy implementation and evaluation tools to increase the competitive strength of innovative practices.

Urban food sharing: Emerging geographies of production, consumption and exchange (2019) 🗎🗎

The role of urban areas in shaping global futures has never been clearer. However, their complex socio-technical systems are under stress and unlikely to experience any respite as populations grow and as patterns of production and consumption resist transition to more sustainable pathways. Urban food systems are not exempt from these pressures, however they are the subject of ongoing experimentation and innovation, particularly around the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). Urban food sharing is one such arena of experimentation. It includes collective and collaborative practices around food, from shared growing, cooking and eating and the redistribution of surplus food, to the sharing of spaces and devices. This themed issue brings together cutting-edge scholarship on what it means to share food in contemporary cities around the globe. All papers contribute to debates about how things become food, whether that is in relation to the rules and governing systems that shape and discipline these becomings, or the practices of exchange and consumption that follow. Together they develop geographically-sensitive approaches to sharing that better comprehend the relations between scale, space and place. This paper maps the terrain of urban food sharing, introduces key conceptual approaches, identifies common themes, and proposes an agenda for future studies.

Rage against the regime: Niche-regime interactions in the societal embedding of plant-based milk (2019) 🗎🗎

This paper engages with the debate on niche-regime interactions in sustainability transitions, using a study of plant-based milk and its struggles against the entrenched liquid dairy-milk regime, which has various sustainability problems. Plant-based milk is under-studied, so our empirical contribution consists of an exploration of its diffusion in the UK. We make three conceptual contributions. The first calls for a bidirectional analysis that addresses niche-oriented activities by incumbent actors, in addition to the outward-oriented activities by niche advocates presented in most studies of niche-regime interaction. The second contribution nuances Smith and Raven's fit-and-conform and stretch-and-transform typology: using a societal embedding framework which distinguishes four environments, we suggest that hybrid patterns are possible in which innovations follow a ` fit' pattern in one environment but ` stretch' in another. The third contribution highlights the potential role of cultural meanings in galvanizing transitions by eroding positive associations that support the regime and stabilise consumer purchasing.

Dysfunctional path dependence in mid-century butterfat dairy farming on eastern Australia's subtropical coastlands: case studies at Moruya and Copmanhurst (2019) 🗎🗎

The concept of path dependence is central to the current discourse on evolutionary approaches in regional transformations. Along the subtropical coastlands of eastern Australia, low-input, low-income, and labour-intensive dairy farms were subject to prolonged dysfunction. Their creation and entrenchment serve as a potent case study of path dependence and lock-in that were driven by mutually reinforcing attributes-behavioural, socio-economic, cultural, political, and infrastructural. Functional rigidification and incipient dissolution were scrutinised in farm surveys undertaken from 1952 to 1954 in the Moruya and Copmanhurst districts of coastal New South Wales. At both locales, the dairy industry comprised a core of long-term stable producers located mainly on the more accessible and productive alluvial soils, together with a fluctuating number of marginal producers motivated by a variable mix of personal, locational, and temporal influences. The demise of dairying was prolonged, in part by the industry's exceptional survival capabilities and in part by the lack of any viable alternative farming staple. The belated collapse of dairy farming in the 1960s and 1970s has facilitated the emergence and lock-in of an alternative multifunctional pathway, driven primarily by consumption with subordinate production and protection values. The two case studies reveal synergies between the closely aligned path dependence and the multifunctional trajectory/transition concepts in yielding insights into the dynamics of rural change and in offering guidelines for further research within evolutionary economic geography.

Research on agro-food sustainability transitions: where are food security and nutrition? (2019) 🗎🗎

The main outcome of sustainable agro-food systems is food and nutrition security. Nevertheless, about half of the global population is affected by food insecurity and malnutrition, asymptom of the dysfunctions of the current food system. This paper provides a review of the state of research on the sustainability ofagro-food transitions, and the extent to which and in what ways such research examines food and nutrition security. A search carried out on Scopus in January 2018 yielded 771 documents; 120 of these were included in the systematic review. Agro-food represents a small share of the sustainability transitions research field. Most of the available research focuses on crops and the production stage. In general, it is assumed that a transition to sustainability in the agro-food arena would lead to increased food availability, improved food access, better food utilisation and increased food system stability and resilience. However, scholars also point out that the quest for food security (especially through intensification) may undermine transition towards sustainable agriculture and food systems. Likewise, it is assumed that a transition towards sustainable food systems implies changes in dietary patterns and nutrition habits. Nevertheless, food security and nutrition are still marginal topics in the literature on agro-food sustainability transitions. Furthermore, transformation of food systems, which should guide agro-food sustainability transitions, is the exception rather than the rule in the research field. This systematic review represents a useful contribution to research on transitions towards sustainability in agriculture and food sectors, and provides insights into how such research can contribute to addressing the grand challenges of food insecurity and malnutrition. The paper suggests the need to move beyond silos by fostering cross-sectoral collaboration and the integration of the agro-food sustainability transitions and food security research fields.

Of Cyberliberation and Forbidden Fornication: Hidden Transcripts of Autonomous Mobility in Finland (2019) 🗎🗎

While autonomous mobility technology is developing, comparatively less is known about how a sociotechnical system of autonomous mobility may impact our urban living conditions. Using Finland as a case study, this research aims to identify the possible implications of changing power relations created by autonomous mobility technology. This study uses a theoretical and conceptual approach grounded in the planning research tradition of Aristotelian practical judgement (phronesis). Drawing from political theory of technology, it investigates the social relations that may be afforded by autonomous mobility technology. Adapting a concept drawn from geography of power, it examines how power is expressed in terms of transcripts of dominant technological agency and hidden social context. 31 interviews of extended users in the transition (intermediaries) revealed three dominant transcripts of technological agency associated with the philosophy of cyberlibertarianism (liberation of the driver, safety of the driver and customer accessibility), and four hidden transcripts of social context (restrictions on sharing street space, loss of social safety, vulnerability of passengers, and loss of privacy). The phronetic research tradition that was used in the study revealed several things. The impact of autonomous mobility technology goes beyond the purely systemic, affecting the very fabric of our connection with place and society. Failure to consider autonomous mobility technology as a sociotechnical system that will restructure society unperceptively (technological somnambulism) may bring profound societal changes.

Do pro-environmental values, beliefs and norms drive farmers' interest in novel practices fostering the Bioeconomy? (2019) 🗎🗎

A transition towards a bio-based economy is accompanied by a growing demand for biomass resources as fossil fuels need to be replaced for the more sustainable production of consumer goods, chemicals and energy. To increase the supply of renewable biomass and avoid a conflict with food production, currently underutilized by-products (i.e. leaves, stems) from horticultural production could be valorised as feedstock. The success of this approach depends on farmers' willingness to adopt novel practices like the collection and treatment of plant leaves. However, literature on factors influencing farmers' decisions to adopt novel practices aimed to foster the Bioeconomy is limited. This paper addresses this gap by exploring drivers of farmers' interest in the valorisation of by-products. To this aim, the Value-Belief-Norm theory was used and expanded by contextual factors, such as the perceived market demand for biomass and future environmental policies. A survey with German fruit and vegetable farmers (N = 96) has been carried out and data have been analysed with a Structural Equation Model. Findings suggest that the Value-Belief-Norm theory is a relevant framework for the agricultural domain to predict farmers' interest in the valorisation of horticultural by-products. Results further indicate that an internal ecological worldview is potentially relevant for farmers' perception of contextual conditions aimed to foster the Bioeconomy. These outcomes could have managerial and policy implications associated with the identification of potential lead users to trigger the diffusion of innovative sustainable practices and generally foster the Bioeconomy.

The German Permaculture Community from a Community of Practice Perspective (2019) 🗎🗎

The permaculture community is a grassroots initiative that challenges current mainstream practices. Such grassroots initiatives are seen as promising incubators of learning processes that can guide transformations. However, there is ambivalence between the wish of grassroots initiatives to reach people and reoccurring claims of insularity. We use the concept of Communities of Practice to answer important questions concerning community dynamics and learning processes: How are individual perspectives turned into a joint endeavour? How do the community and its respective relation to its members affect the interactions with external actors? Drawing on qualitative data from twelve semi-structured interviews with teachers from Germany's biggest education body on permaculture, the Permakultur Akademie, our goal was to gain insights into the community's self-organisation and learning interfaces. Findings suggest that the German permaculture community displays key characteristics of a Community of Practice with developed shared values as well as education and organisational structures, while being embedded in an international community. At the time of the research, internal challenges were the absence of a common strategy that effectively linked individuals to coordinated activities. The results led to implications for a more diverse use of the concept to inform actions and several questions for future research.

Reflections on IPES-Food: Can Power Analysis Change the World? (2019) 🗎🗎

The major way in which IPES-Food seeks to achieve change is by preparing and widely disseminating reports on different aspects of the global food system, which are rigorous in both empirical and analytical terms. These reports are heavily critical of the productionist approach, demonstrating its negative impacts on the environment and human wellbeing. They use a political economy lens to analyse how powerful actors promote both this approach and the narrative that supports it. The five major reports so far published build on the work of the first, where a number of 'lock-ins' are identified, such as path dependency, export orientation, and the expectation of cheap food - as well as the fundamental 'concentration of power'. IPES-Food is well placed to have political impact; and there is room for the power analysis to be made still more comprehensive and theoretically rigorous, while ensuring that the reports are still widely read and cited.

Advancing the research agenda on food systems governance and transformation (2019) 🗎🗎

The food systems upon which humanity depends face multiple interdependent environmental, social and economic threats in the 21st Century. Yet, the governance of these systems, which determines to a large extent the ability to adapt and transform in response to these challenges, is underresearched. This perspective piece synthesises the findings of two recent reviews of food systems governance and transformations and proposes a comprehensive research agenda for the coming years. These reviews highlight the influence of governance on food systems, methodological obstacles to explaining the effectiveness of governance in realising food sustainability, and conditions that have historically supported food system transformations. We argue that the following steps are key to improving our knowledge of the role of governance in food systems: (1) developing more comparable research designs for building generalisable explanations of the governance elements that are most effective in realising food systems goals; (2) using the lens of polycentricity to help disentangle complex governance networks; (3) giving greater attention to the conditions and pre-conditions associated with historical food system transformations; (4) identifying adaptations that strengthen or weaken path dependency; and, (5) focusing research on how transformations can be supported by institutions that facilitate collective action and stakeholder agency.

Characterizing diversity of food systems in view of sustainability transitions. A review (2019) 🗎🗎

Dominant food systems are configured from the productivist paradigm, which focuses on producing large amounts of inexpensive and standardized foods. Although these food systems continue being supported worldwide, they are no longer considered fit-for-purpose as they have been proven unsustainable in environmental and social terms. A large body of scientific literature argues that a transition from the dominant food systems to alternative ones built around the wider principles of sustainable production and rural development is needed. Promoting such a sustainability transition would benefit from a diagnosis of food system types to identify those systems that may harbor promising characteristics for a transition to sustainable food systems. While research on food system transitions abounds, an operational approach to characterize the diversity of food systems taking a system perspective is still lacking. In this paper we review the literature on how transitions to sustainable food systems may play out and present a framework based on the Multi-Level Perspective on Socio-Technical Transitions, which builds upon conceptual developments from social and natural science disciplines. The objectives of the framework are to (i) characterize the diversity of existing food systems at a certain geographical scale based on a set of structural characteristics and (ii) classify the food systems in terms of their support by mainstream practices, i.e., dominant food systems connected to regimes; deviate radically from them, niche food systems such as those based on grassroots innovation; or share elements of dominant and niche food systems, i.e., hybrid food systems. An example is given of application of our framework to vegetable food systems with a focus on production, distribution, and consumption of low-or-no pesticide vegetables in Chile. Drawing on this illustrative example we reflect on usefulness, shortcomings, and further development and use of the diagnostic framework.

Mobile Apps for Green Food Practices and the Role for Consumers: A Case Study on Dining Out Practices with Chinese and Dutch Young Consumers (2019) 🗎🗎

Mobile applications (apps) have become popular among consumers to facilitate their existing food practices like cooking, shopping, and dining out. However, the feasibility of using mobile apps to facilitate sustainability transitions in food consumption is not well researched. In this study, we, therefore, propose a conceptual framework to illustrate how mobile apps can be developed in linking everyday food practices with sustainability transitions. Through the case study of dining out and with the help of focus group discussions, we seek to illustrate that practice theory might serve as a useful starting point for understanding the dynamics of food practices, their relevant sustainability dimensions, and the ways in which mobile apps can be used for changing current food practices into more sustainable ones. Among our main results are the findings that consumers prefer the sustainability food app to be integrated with dominant or mainstream apps, which are already used by consumers in the context of dining out. Besides being simple, functional, flexible, and rewarding, the information provided by the app should be reliable and trustworthy. Moreover, both science-based and practice-based information is necessary to provide sufficient guidance to consumers on how changes in food practice can be operationalized and implemented.

Transforming Research and Innovation for Sustainable Food Systems-A Coupled-Systems Perspective (2019) 🗎🗎

Current research and innovation (R&I) systems are not equipped to fully serve as catalysts for the urgently needed transformation of food systems. Though research on food systems transformation (first order: 'what?') and transformative research (second order: 'how to') are rapidly gaining traction in academic and policy environments, current efforts fail to explicitly recognize the systemic nature of the challenges associated with performing transformative second-order research. To recognize these manifold and interlinked challenges embedded in R&I systems, there is a need for a coupled-systems perspective. Transformations are needed in food systems as well as R&I systems ('how to do the "how to"'). We set out to conceptualize an approach that aims to trigger double transformations by nurturing innovations at the boundaries of R&I systems and food systems that act upon systemic leverage points, so that their multisystem interactions can better support food system transformations. We exemplify this coupled-systems approach by introducing the FIT4FOOD2030 project with its 25 living labs as a promising multilevel boundary innovation at the cross-section of R&I and food systems. We illustrate how this approach paves the way for double systems transformations, and therefore for an R&I system that is fit for future-proofing food systems.

Transitioning towards a sustainable food city (2019) 🗎🗎

Purpose - This paper aims to provide a case study of a capacity building project and critical reflection in relation to transitioning to a sustainable food city. Design/methodology/approach - A case study research approach was adopted involving two research initiatives: first, a survey to elicit stakeholders' understanding of sustainable local food, with a view to creating a shared agenda and informing future strategic direction and second a combination of research approaches, including paired discussions, generation of pictorial outputs and a workshop, aimed to inform the future vision and mission of the Partnership. Findings - Collaboration with stakeholders through a variety of research initiatives has facilitated the development of a sustainable food city partnership, with the overarching aim of achieving a transition towards a more sustainable food system. Moreover, collaboration has contributed to the transition of the Partnership to ensure sustainability and continuity after the initial funding stage. Research limitations/implications - While universities have an important role to play in guiding direction and shaping new community initiatives for sustainability in their regions, the challenges, resources and time involved may be under-estimated; these projects take considerable time to yield fruit. Practical implications - The findings of the study will be of interest to those working in the community to promote education for sustainable development and better food systems. Originality/value - This paper addresses a gap in the literature in relation to universities and their collaboration with key stakeholders in building capacity and contributing to local sustainability transitions.

Reviewing the material and metal security of low-carbon energy transitions (2020) 🗎🗎

The global transition to a low-carbon economy will involve changes in material markets and supply chains on a hitherto unknown scale and scope. With these changes come numerous challenges and opportunities related to supply chain security and sustainability. To help support decision-making as well as future research, this study employs a problem-oriented perspective while reviewing academic publications, technical reports, legal documents, and published industry data to highlight the increasingly interconnected nature of material needs and geopolitical change. The paper considers a broad set of issues including technologies, material supplies, investment strategies, communal concerns, innovations, modeling considerations, and policy trends to help contextualize policy decisions and regulatory responses. Policy options are outlined for each topical section, as well as areas for further research. Together, these recommendations serve to help guide the complex, interdisciplinary approach to materials required for a low-carbon transition.

Bioeconomy-Spatial Requirements for Sustainable Development (2020) 🗎🗎

The implementation of the bioeconomy, i.e., the conversion of an economic system from fossil to biogenic, renewable resources, is seen as an important component of sustainable development by many bioeconomy strategies. What has hardly been taken into account and investigated are the spatial requirements for a sustainable transition to this new system. In order to clarify this, bioeconomy related strategies and policy papers were analyzed thematically. It was shown that spatially relevant issues are addressed to very different extents. Some strategies have a clear technological and economic orientation, while other documents point to the importance of the regional and local levels and the use of spatial planning measures to successfully and sustainably implement a bioeconomy. Overall, the picture emerged that many strategies are still a long way from mainstreaming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as set out by the United Nations.

Bioeconomy imaginaries: A review of forest-related social science literature (2020) 🗎🗎

This review article examines how social science literature co-produces various imaginaries of forest-based bioeconomy transformations and pathways for reaching desired ends. Based on an analysis of 59 research articles, we find that despite a growing number of social sciences studies on the forest-based bioeconomy, much of the research tends to replicate a bioeconomy imaginary articulated in EU and national bioeconomy policies and strategies. Accordingly, the research primarily reproduces a weak approach to sustainability, which prioritize economic growth and competitiveness. Expectations are largely directed at national and regional corporate interests and forest industrial renewal, while the state has a supportive rather than restricting role. We discuss the findings against the role of social sciences, and conclude that social science scholars may adopt various strategies if interested in opening up forest-based policy debates and offer alternative imaginaries of sustainable bioeconomy transformations.

Marginalized Small-Scale Farmers as Actors in Just Circular-Economy Transitions: Exploring Opportunities to Circulate Crop Residue as Raw Material in India (2020) 🗎🗎

Facing substantial sustainability challenges, sustainable transitions to circular systems are increasingly called for. The use of biomass to produce textile fibers is a niche that could contribute to a circular textile system. In this niche, farmers supplying biomass would play a crucial role. Through a literature review, we argue in this article that farmers are important actors in this context, but their agency is limited by numerous institutional factors, such as cultivation practices, labor markets, and information systems. These factors together can create an institutional void, which can hamper both the agency of farmers and their ability to participate, as well as the justness of the niche. The void's strength depends on the institutional interface a farmer is subjected to. Before just transitions to circular systems can occur, marginalized actors' agency and ability to participate in the niche, in a just way, must be improved, by decreasing the strength of the institutional void.

Transitioning to the safe and just space inside 'the doughnut' by means of agroecological niche food systems: insights from Chile and Uruguay (2020) 🗎🗎

To operate within the sate and just operating space captured by the doughnut metaphor, sustainability transitions are needed in the food system. Niche food systems with highly distinct practices and organization constitute a treasure chest of alternatives from which society can build new futures. Policy has little awareness of niche food systems and their potential contributions to sustainability transitions. Importantly, this limits society's ability to adapt. Here, we review findings from an ongoing scientific project into different components of the vegetable food systems in Chile and Uruguay. The aim of the project is to investigate options for transitioning to low- or nopticide vegetable food systems. The results show: 1. the presence of promising alternative vegetable food systems in Chile, which are, however, highly marginalized and disempowered; 2. a diversity of vertical and horizontal producer arrangements in Uruguay and the need for value-driven as well as market-driven engagement: and 3. major possibilities for improving production systems to arrive within the doughnut by taking a systems perspective at the farm scale that includes the farm families and their networks. Consequences of these findings for alternative vegetable food systems are discussed.

Endogenous regime change: Lessons from transition pathways in Dutch dairy farming (2020) 🗎🗎

Sustainability transitions are commonly considered impossible without regime change. Theoretical work on regime change has mainly focused on niches and landscapes and less on change 'from within'. Empirical analysis helps theorising endogenous regime change. Conceptualising regimes as semi-coherent entities composed of multiple 'institutional logics', we analyse the endogenous regime change in Dutch dairy farming. Practices in this sector have become more and more market-driven. This dominant logic however was increasingly challenged by institutional logics centring round cultural identity and sustainability. Tensions particularly centred round the increased indoor housing of cows. The contestation of this practice eventually led to a first 'crack' in the regime, as it weakened the dominance of the market logic and enabled opportunities for more sustainability. Our case study shows that the presence of alternative institutional logics is necessary to crack the regime, but opportunities to patch it back together are similarly crucial to enable sustainability transitions.

Politicizing African urban food systems: The contradiction of food governance in Rabat and Casablanca, Morocco (2020) 🗎🗎

The governance of urban food supply in Morocco is subject to deep contradictions. It involves actors with diversified interests that are guided by sometimes divergent rationale. One of the main contradictions sets "modernization" against conservatism. The former aims to create new "westernized" wholesale markets, "upgrade" food products for export, traceability and safety, reduce the informal food trade and support large retailers. The latter aims to prevent sociopolitical destabilization, such as the risk of increasing prices, changes in the supply of food to keep up with demand and social unrest involving merchants and informal vendors. Our analysis of this contradictory situation is divided into two parts. First, we review the evolution of Morocco's food policy since independence. Then we present the main actors involved in the governance of urban food systems. We show that urban food governance is still dominated by the Ministry of the Interior, but that the decentralization process is likely to encourage modernization. In the second part, we highlight the tension between the "conservative" central actors and the "modernizing" local actors, by analysing the current controversy over the reform of the wholesale markets, a crucial issue for African urban food systems, in Casablanca and Rabat.

Sustainable agriculture and multifunctionality in South Australia's Mid North region (2020) 🗎🗎

This paper discusses the pathways to agri-food sustainability in the context of the historical broadacre farming region of Mid North South Australia. Using notions of sustainable agriculture and multifunctional rural transitions to explore the geohistorical development trajectory of the region, it discusses the tensions and opportunities inherent to the future of farming in the Mid North and their impact on community development. We aim to contribute to a wider reflexion on the role of territoriality in the sustainable food transition debate, and its relevance in a traditionally productivist but marginal landscape. The paper proposes an extensive review of the historical, agricultural, socio-economic and institutional contexts of regional Australia before discussing the farming future(s) of the Mid North. We use a typology of 'modes of occupance' to reflect upon the compatibility between the emergence of differentiated multifunctional rural spaces in the Mid North and the realisation of agri-food sustainability transitions across its territory.

Product Qualification as a Means of Identifying Sustainability Pathways for Place-Based Agri-Food Systems: The Case of the GI Corsican Grapefruit (France) (2020) 🗎🗎

Existing frameworks offer a holistic way to evaluate a food system based on sustainability indicators but can fall short of offering clear direction. To analyze the sustainability of a geographical indication (GI) system, we adopt a product-centered approach that begins with understanding the product qualification along the value-chain. We use the case of the GI Corsican grapefruit focusing on understanding the quality criteria priorities from the orchard to the store. Our results show that certain compromises written into the Code of Practices threaten the system's sustainability. Today the GI allows the fruit to be harvested before achieving peak maturity and expectations on visual quality lead to high levels of food waste. Its primary function is to help penetrate mainstream export markets and to optimize labor and infrastructure. Analyzing the stakeholders' choices of qualification brings to light potential seeds for change in the short run such as later springtime harvests, diversification of the marketing channels, and more leniency on the fruit's aesthetics. These solutions lead us to reflect on long-term pathways to sustainable development such as reinforcing the fruit's typicality, reducing food waste, reorganizing human resources, and embedding the fruit into its territory and the local culture.

What are the ingredients for food systems change towards sustainability?-Insights from the literature (2020) 🗎🗎

Many detrimental effects on the environment, economy, and society are associated with the structure and practices of food systems around the world. While there is increasing agreement on the need for substantive change in food systems towards sustainability, divergent perspectives exist on what the appropriate points of intervention and strategies to achieve such change are. Change in diets and nutrition, the importance of social food movements, and sustainable farming practices are all disparately featured in the literature; yet, there is little effort to compare and integrate these perspectives. This review offers a comprehensive overview of perspectives on food systems change towards sustainability. We discern where there is convergence and assess how the literature reflects emergent theory on sustainability transformation. We analyzed more than 200 peer-reviewed articles employing an approach that combines quantitative and qualitative analysis. First, we performed a semantic hierarchical cluster analysis of the full texts to identify thematic clusters representing different perspectives on sustainability transformations and transitions of food systems. Second, we conducted a qualitative text analysis for representative articles of each cluster to examine how deep changes in the food system are conceptualized. We identified five distinct approaches to food systems change that are currently discussed, i.e.Alternative food movements, Sustainable diets, Sustainable agriculture, Healthy and diverse societies,andFood as commons. Each approach provides a nuanced perspective on identified sustainability problems, envisioned sustainable food systems, and proposed actions to change food systems towards sustainability. The findings offer guidance for researchers and practitioners working on food systems change towards sustainability.

Understanding the Impact of Historical Policy Legacies on Nutrition Policy Space: Economic Policy Agendas and Current Food Policy Paradigms in Ghana (2020) 🗎🗎

Background: The global food system is not delivering affordable, healthy, diverse diets, which are needed to address malnutrition in all its forms for sustainable development. This will require policy change across the economic sectors that govern food systems, including agriculture, trade, finance, commerce and industry - a goal that has been beset by political challenges. These sectors have been strongly influenced by entrenched policy agendas and paradigms supported by influential global actors such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Methods: This study draws on the concept of path dependency to examine how historical economic policy agendas and paradigms have influenced current food and nutrition policy and politics in Ghana. Qualitative data were collected through interviews with 29 relevant policy actors, and documentary data were collected from current policies, academic and grey literature, historical budget statements and World Bank Group Archives (1950-present). Results: Despite increased political priority for nutrition in Ghana, its integration into food policy remains limited. Food policy agendas are strongly focused on production, employment and economic returns, and existing market-based incentives do not support a nutrition-sensitive food supply. This policy focus appears to be rooted in a liberal economic approach to food policy arising from structural adjustment in the 1980s and trade liberalization in the 1990s, combined with historical experience of 'failure' of food policy intervention and an entrenched narrowly economic conception of food security. Conclusion: This study suggests that attention to policy paradigms, in addition to specific points of policy change, will be essential for improving the outcomes of food systems for nutrition. An historical perspective can provide food and health policy-makers with insights to foster the revisioning of food policy to address multiple national policy objectives, including nutrition.

On breweries and bioreactors: Probing the "present futures" of cellular agriculture (2020) 🗎🗎

Set against the attention given to animal-agricultural geographies and animal agriculture's environmental impacts, proponents of cultured meat (i.e., biomass cultured from cells) and genetic modification-based "cellular-agricultural" technologies today promise that the production of animal products could become more sustainable if animals were taken out of the equation. Though future visions for such a shift have often centred on how much land could be saved through the deployment of new biotechnologies, proponents and researchers today increasingly also foreground the future economic geographies and sites of production that these should engender. In this paper I explore such envisioned geographies, building on 24 interviews with cellular-agricultural actors and on observations during meetings. Essentially echoing an ecomodernist embrace of the Anthropocene as a great opportunity, cellular-agriculturalists frequently promise that the technologies they advocate should offer the possibility to unfetter the production of animal products from spatial constraints. (Post-)animal products can now be produced anywhere. But in assuring that products and production processes should feel familiar, they frequently also describe a world where microbrewery-like facilities and transparent production processes supplant industrialised animal agriculture's remote slaughterhouses. Hence, a kind of craft-emphasising "recombinant" ecomodernism emerges. In exploring cellular-agricultural future visions, my aim is not to determine whether, or which, particular visions might be realised. Rather, I centre on descriptions of future spaces of production and economic geographies in order to explore contemporary biotech boosterism. Engaging with these visions, as well as the often unchronicled creative destruction that they could entail, thus allows me to contribute to an emerging set of texts that scrutinise the current and intended political economy (and ecology) of cellular agriculture, as well as texts emphasising the necessity of pondering Anthropocene spatialities.

England's fresh approach to food waste: problem frames in the Resources and Waste Strategy (2020) 🗎🗎

Coexisting and eye-watering levels of food abundance, waste, overconsumption and hunger are symptomatic of a broken food system punctuated by vested interests in systematic overproduction. Against that backdrop, this paper evaluates England's 'new' approach to food waste in light of concerns that policy-makers have framed food waste as a consumer behaviour problem, rather than a structural challenge. The Resources and Waste Strategy's acknowledgement of normalised overproduction is thus remarkable, but unexpected. However, frame critical analysis reveals how an apparent departure from preoccupations with economic growth, combined with promises of government action, obscure an ongoing reluctance to intervene against powerful interests and the causes (not symptoms) of food waste. Legislative proposals, rather than reducing surplus, shift the burden of redistributing food away from the state and retailers, on to charities and farmers. With England, perhaps wrongly, seen as a world-leader on food waste, this has implications for other jurisdictions, as well as forthcoming consultations.

Understanding innovation: The development and scaling of orange-fleshed sweetpotato in major African food systems (2020) 🗎🗎

The development and scaling of orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) during the past 25 years is a case study of a disruptive innovation to address a pressing need - the high levels of vitamin A deficiency among children under five years of age in sub-Saharan Africa. When the innovation was introduced consumers strongly preferred white or yellow-fleshed sweetpotato, so it was necessary to create a demand to respond to that need. This was at odds with the breeding strategy of responding to consumers' demands. Additional elements of the innovation package include seed systems and nutrition education to create the awareness amongst consumers of the significant health benefits of OFSP. Complementary innovation is required in promotion and advocacy to ensure a supportive institutional environment. Four dimensions- technical, organizational, leadership, and institutional environment- are explored across five distinct phases of the innovation process, from the emergence of the innovative idea (1991-1996) through scaling phase in 15 countries under a major institutional innovation (2015-mid-2019), the Sweetpotato for Profit and Health Initiative (SPHI). Systematically gathering evidence of nutritional impact and ability to scale cost-effectively was requisite for obtaining support for further development and diffusion of the crop. Positive findings from a major study coincided with a major change in the institutional environment which placed agriculture and nutrition at the forefront of the development agenda, resulting in an inflection point in both research and diffusion investment. The role of committed leadership during all phases was critical for success, but particularly during the first decade of limited support in a challenging institutional environment. The most critical technical achievement underpinning scaling was moving from 2 to 13 African countries having local breeding programs. Evidence is presented that adapted, well performing varieties which consumers prefer is the foundation for successful scaling to occur. Building a cadre of within country and regional advocates was critical for getting sustained commitment and local buy-in to the concept of biofortification by regional bodies and governments, which in turn built within country ownership and the willingness of donors to invest. The SPHI united diverse organizations under a common vision with a simple metric- the number of households reached with improved varieties of sweetpotato. Since 2009, 6.2 million households were reached by July 2019 in 15 SSA countries. Much more remains to be done. Advocacy efforts led to the integration of nutritious foods into many national and regional policies, setting the stage for further investment.

UK farmers' transition pathways towards agroecological farm redesign: evaluating explanatory models (2020) 🗎🗎

Although the organic conversion process has been much studied, farm-level transitions to agroecosystems are less well understood. What transition pathways do they take? How can (or does) farmers' learning help to make such changes? What support measures can (or do) facilitate such learning? To answer such questions, a UK study identified farmers undergoing an agroecological transition and compared their practices with two prevalent models. As regards the Efficiency - Substitution - Redesign (ESR) model, our case-study farms had all three changes, but they were rarely sequential; agroecosystem redesign did not follow from Efficiency or Substitution measures, which readily provide endpoints rather than transitional stages. As regards the 'trigger events' model - Trigger, Active Assessment and Implementation - the three stages were often overlapping; triggers arose only when farmers' interpreted difficulties or opportunities as grounds to implement changes, which they had generally considered beforehand. More fundamentally, case-study farmers were unlearning conventional expectations by undergoing cognitive and affective shifts. Together those two models (ESR and trigger events) can provide heuristic devices for identifying farmers' agroecological trajectories in their diverse forms. Going further, better models of farmers' learning and action will be necessary for facilitating agroecological transitions and guiding relevant support measures.

Spatial morphology of an Australian high street: a century of retail change in Subiaco town centre (2020) 🗎🗎

This paper describes an empirical case study of the Subiaco town centre in Western Australia. The research method employs geospatial mapping of archival and contemporary data sources to explore the town centre's changing spatial structure and high street morphology at the micro-scale over the past century. Once a thriving retail and business centre, Subiaco's (and possibly the state's), premier retail high street destination is now being compromised as the disruptive influence of online retailing gains further traction in the marketplace. Retail disruption provides the paper's conceptual foundation. Agents of disruption include the processes of creative destruction and innovation diffusion, which together with macro-economic factors help to explain the centre's evolution over time and space. The paper examines changes in the town centre's morphological character including residential gentrification, a growing dominance of fast food outlets, an overabundance of comparison stores and a more gendered offering in retail and personal services establishments. The paper also refers to the potential of the town centre to regain its past residential status as a means of fostering economic growth and renewal and suggests that this will only be achieved with radical intervention at the policy and planning level.

Dealing with the game-changing technologies of Agriculture 4.0: How do we manage diversity and responsibility in food system transition pathways? (2020) 🗎🗎

Agriculture 4.0 is comprised of different already operational or developing technologies such as robotics, nanotechnology, synthetic protein, cellular agriculture, gene editing technology, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and machine learning, which may have pervasive effects on future agriculture and food systems and major transformative potential. These technologies underpin concepts such as vertical farming and food systems, digital agriculture, bioeconomy, circular agriculture, and aquaponics. In this perspective paper, we argue that more attention is needed for the inclusion and exclusion effects of Agriculture 4.0 technologies, and for reflection on how they relate to diverse transition pathways towards sustainable agricultural and food systems driven by mission-oriented innovation systems. This would require processes of responsible innovation, anticipating the potential impacts of Agriculture 4.0 through inclusive processes, and reflecting on and being responsive to emerging effects and where needed adjusting the direction and course of transition pathways.

Sustainable Agri-Food Economies: Re-Territorialising Farming Practices, Markets, Supply Chains, and Policies (2020) 🗎🗎

Today, technological global agri-food economies dominated by vertically integrated large enterprises are failing in meeting the challenge of feeding a growing global population within the limits of the "Planetary Boundaries", and are characterised by a "triple fracture" between agri-food economies and their three constitutive elements: nature, consumers, and producers. In parallel to this crisis, new eco-ethical-driven agri-food economies are built around new farming and food distribution practices to face the challenge of food system transition to sustainability. By exploring these new emerging agri-food economies in both developing and developed countries, this Special Issue aims to develop a multidisciplinary discussion on "re-territorialisation" as a strategy to face the existing global agri-food economies crisis. These new agri-food economies are built starting from the farm level, involve the construction of innovative supply chains and markets and are developed through the support of public policies.

Adaptation and development pathways for different types of farmers (2020) 🗎🗎

One of the greatest challenges humanity faces is feeding the world's human population in a sustainable, nutritious, equitable and ethical way under a changing climate. Urgent transformations are needed that allow farmers to adapt and develop while also being climate resilient and contributing minimal emissions. This paper identifies several illustrative adaptation and development pathways, recognising the variety of starting points of different types of farmers and the ways their activities intersect with global trends, such as population growth, climate change, rapid urbanisation dietary changes, competing land uses and the emergence of new technologies. The feasibility of some pathways depends on factors such as farm size and land consolidation. For other pathways, particular infrastructure, technology, access to credit and market access or collective action are required. The most viable pathway for some farmers may be to exit agriculture altogether, which itself requires careful management and planning. While technology offers hope and opportunity, as a disruptor, it also risks maladaptations and can create tradeoffs and exacerbate inequalities, especially in the context of an uncertain future. For both the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2015 Paris Agreement to be achieved, a mix of levers that combine policy, technology, education and awareness-raising, dietary shifts and financial/economic mechanisms is required, attending to multiple time dimensions, to assist farmers along different pathways. Vulnerable groups such as women and the youth must not be left behind. Overall, strong good governance is needed at multiple levels, combining top-down and bottom-up processes.

Sustainable Food Supply Chains: Is Shortening the Answer? A Literature Review for a Research and Innovation Agenda (2020) 🗎🗎

Short food supply chains (SFSCs) are increasingly garnering attention in food systems research, owing to their rising popularity among consumers, producers and policy-makers in the last few decades. Written with the aim to identify research gaps for the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, this literature review provides a state of play of the definition and characterisation of SFSCs, and of their sustainability. Drawing on hypotheses about SFSC sustainability elaborated in an expert network in France, this review summarises a wide range of papers from various disciplines in the SFSC literature, written in English or French, while specifically highlighting the empirical results derived from European projects. Though the literature tends to generally agree on the social benefits of SFSCs, their economic and environmental impacts typically elicit more heterogeneous outcomes, while their health/nutrition and governance dimensions remain under-explored. Based on this review, recommendations for a future research and innovation programme are outlined, addressing the contribution of SFSCs to agrifood system transition and resilience in the current context of the Covid-19 crisis and of the Green New Deal objectives.

Modelling food security: Bridging the gap between the micro and the macro scale (2020) 🗎🗎

Achieving food and nutrition security for all in a changing and globalized world remains a critical challenge of utmost importance. The development of solutions benefits from insights derived from modelling and simulating the complex interactions of the agri-food system, which range from global to household scales and transcend disciplinary boundaries. A wide range of models based on various methodologies (from food trade equilibrium to agent-based) seek to integrate direct and indirect drivers of change in land use, environment and socio-economic conditions at different scales. However, modelling such interaction poses fundamental challenges, especially for representing non-linear dynamics and adaptive behaviours. We identify key pieces of the fragmented landscape of food security modelling, and organize achievements and gaps into different contextual domains of food security (production, trade, and consumption) at different spatial scales. Building on in-depth reflection on three core issues of food security - volatility, technology, and transformation - we identify methodological challenges and promising strategies for advancement. We emphasize particular requirements related to the multifaceted and multiscale nature of food security. They include the explicit representation of transient dynamics to allow for path dependency and irreversible consequences, and of household heterogeneity to incorporate inequality issues. To illustrate ways forward we provide good practice examples using meta-modelling techniques, non-equilibrium approaches and behavioural-based modelling endeavours. We argue that further integration of different model types is required to better account for both multi-level agency and cross-scale feedbacks within the food system.

Innovations developed within supply chains hinder territorial ecological transition: the case of a watershed in Martinique (2020) 🗎🗎

Some chemical herbicides used by farmers in Martinique contaminate rivers. Agroecological innovations exist, some of which are known by the stakeholders but are not systematically used at the scale of the watersheds concerned. Our hypothesis is that the sociotechnical agricultural supply chain system built over the last 30 years restricts innovations for herbicide use in weed management systems, blocking the sustainable transition of territories. The sociotechnical system theory was chosen as the analysis framework to identify obstacles in supply chains. As the issue cut across the supply chains at the scale of the territory, this framework was completed, for the first time, by a study of the existing links between supply chain innovation strategies and the territory through its spatial, organisational and conceptual dimensions. Interviews with supply chain actors and a review of the grey literature were analysed using this framework. We show that the development of innovations, their type and the network of actors producing them were defined within each supply chain, according to their own objectives, with few exchanges at all levels of the territory. The efficiency of such development depended on the extent to which the supply chains are structured and, particularly, on their degree of integration and the strength of relationships between stakeholders. Indeed, watershed scale objectives are not taken into consideration in changes of practice. In this way, we identified lock-in constraining innovations design taking into account the objectives of the impact area (watershed) across supply chains for the first time.

Sustainability transitions in the agri-food sector: How ecology affects transition dynamics (2020) 🗎🗎

In this paper, we study sustainability transitions in agriculture and highlight several elements that distinguish transition dynamics in this sector from those more frequently studied in the socio-technical transitions literature. Our assumption is that ecological dimensions of agricultural systems affect transition dynamics. We illustrate this by focusing on two central characteristics related to biodiversity conservation: place-based embeddedness and the public goods' character of biodiversity. A qualitative, multiple-case study was conducted on the Dutch dairy sector by carrying out 22 in-depth interviews. We show how change in the agricultural sector is strongly geographically embedded and dependent on regime actors who need to be enabled and incentivized to partake in the transition process. Due to the public goods' character of biodiversity, there is a strong focus on the development of institutional novelty. Dynamics of change show a specific fit between ecological conditions and innovation.

Transition to sustainability in agrifood systems: Insights from Brazilian trajectories (2020) 🗎🗎

This article aims to explain the transition of the Brazilian agricultural production system towards sustainability. It uses the multilevel perspective as an analytical tool to examine Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and organic certification programs. It was found that GAP compliance programs represent an adjustment to refit modern agriculture to new expectations created at the level of the landscape and of the incumbent regime. In addition, it explains internal misalignments observed with the implementation of organic production and pressures from the incumbent regime and the landscape hampering the consolidation of organic production as a mainstream production system. Good agricultural practices; organic food; sociotechnical systems; transition to sustainability.

Learning for transitions: a niche perspective (2020) 🗎🗎

Roughly eight hundred million youth are projected to enter the African job market by 2050. This presents both an opportunity and a challenge for urgently needed sustainability transitions on the continent, because with appropriate training and skills this youth bulge could be instrumental in driving systemic change. By training the youth in new practices and approaches, they could be central to creating new systems and African futures that are more sustainable and just. We focus on the question of where the new skills and competencies needed to underpin such transitions could come from and, in turn, how youth might access these competencies. We investigate these questions by exploring an emerging sustainability niche around organic agriculture in the South African food system. We used a network and power-mapping tool, Net-Map, to map the key knowledge resources used by successful organic farmers, as well as to understand how actor learning networks develop and disseminate new skills and competencies. We found that although a substantial volume of knowledge has been generated and sophisticated informal learning networks exist within the niche we studied, knowledge is highly fragmented. The development and transfer of knowledge is impeded by the absence of teaching capacity and poor institutional alignment at a provincial and national level. Our findings suggest that state-led extension services and formal training institutions are of little help to niche pioneers and instead contribute toward the path-dependency of the current food regime. The substantial implications of these findings underscore the need for further studies to investigate whether similar patterns hold elsewhere on the continent, and for other niches. If they do, our findings imply that addressing the sustainability challenges on the African continent will require creative approaches and new models of learning that are capable of developing and transferring the knowledge and practices emerging in sustainability niches to the 90% of youth in Africa who will not progress to formal tertiary training but will be central to driving potential sustainability transitions.

The emergence of the Finnish edible insect arena: The dynamics of an 'Active Obstacle' (2020) 🗎🗎

In the current debates on sustainability of food edible insects have been suggested as one alternative source of protein that could respond to the urgent need to decrease global meat consumption. However, in many countries rearing of insects for human food has been restrained by regulatory measures, such as the EU Novel Foods Regulation. This paper analyses the emergence of the edible insect arena in Finland. In spite of the official compliance to the existing EU regulations, a lively startup scene has grown around edible insect production since 2014. The analysis is based on interviews of the central actors of the insect scene and media data. The performances of actors, such as producers, retailers, authorities, researchers, newspaper articles, insects, regulations, and technologies, constituted a network connecting different geographical locations on a common arena of development. The emergence of an innovative arena is shown to be a result of conflicts and negotiations, resumed in three strategies used by the network-builders in order to normalize a forbidden product: media promotion, trials, and consumption. These strategies gathered actors and networks around an 'active obstacle', formed by the authorities' interpretation of the EU law, which, as we argue, has influenced the dynamics of the arena in its formative stage. Implications for the debates concerning technological transitions are discussed.

Transitions in agriculture: Three frameworks highlighting coexistence between a new agroecological configuration and an old, organic and conventional configuration of vegetable production in Wallonia (Belgium) (2020) 🗎🗎

The contribution of the multi-level perspective (MLP) to study transition dynamics is widely recognized. MLP involves examining interactions between three socio-technical levels: niche, regime and landscape. Empirical analysis of niche-regime interactions when applying this framework to agricultural transitions to sustainability remains challenging, however. The diversity of historical farming systems within a region can make niches and regimes highly heterogeneous. In addition, agricultural transitions to sustainability may be driven as much by technological changes as by institutional features, including normative rules and cultural cognitive rules that are less adequately addressed by MLP. To tackle these two challenges, we combined MLP with two additional frameworks to describe transition processes: the comparative agriculture framework, drawn from agro-economic, geographic and historical analyses of agricultural crises, and the justification of practices framework, drawn from pragmatic sociology. In this paper, we apply these three frameworks to the fresh vegetable production sector in Wallonia (Belgium) and discuss visions of transition through the lens of the agroecological paradigm. This leads us to predict a situation of coexistence between two socio-technical configurations of production: an old, organic and conventional configuration reoriented toward more commercial autonomy for the producers, and a new configuration oriented toward agroecology. The study contributes to a major debate discussing the extent to which the agroecological paradigm is being co-opted by the regime or remains faithful to its original principles and opens up perspectives for public policy development in the context of increasing governmental attention to the agroecological paradigm.

Activity-based analysis of sociotechnical change (2020) 🗎🗎

In this paper, we introduce activity-based analysis (ABA) for explaining and learning about sociotechnical system change at the societal function level. The analysis is based on a novel conceptualization of sociotechnical systems as activity systems, and change as result of the resolution of contradictions that develop within and between activities carried out for the fulfilment of societal functions. We develop ABA for the specific domain and employ it in the construction of a narrative explanation of the evolution of the food/nutrition sociotechnical system from the institutionalization of processed food to the emergence of medical nutrition.

Transition heuristic frameworks in research on agro-food sustainability transitions (2020) 🗎🗎

The agro-food system needs a genuine sustainability transition to achieve sustainable food and nutrition security in the face of climate change, population growth, ecosystem degradation and increasing resource scarcity. Agro-food sustainability transitions refer to transformation processes needed to move towards sustainable agriculture and food systems. There is a broad range of theoretical and conceptual frameworks that have been used to understand and promote transition towards sustainability. These include the multi-level perspective (MLP) on socio-technical transitions, transition management (TM), strategic niche management (SNM), technological innovation system (TIS) and social practice approach (SPA). The paper analyses the use of these heuristic frameworks in research on agro-food sustainability transitions. A search carried out in March 2018 on Scopus yielded 791 documents, and 127 research articles underwent a systematic review. Results show that more than three-fifths of research papers dealing with sustainability transitions in agriculture, food processing, distribution and consumption use at least one of the five heuristic frameworks (MLP, TM, SNM, TIS and SPA). The MLP is the most prominent framework in research on agro-food sustainability transitions, followed by TM, SPA, SNM and then TIS. Nevertheless, MLP is increasingly complemented with frameworks that focus on human-related and social factors (SPA), management and governance (TM, SNM) or agency and interactions between actors (TIS) in sustainability transitions processes. Therefore, the paper makes the case for more integration of transition frameworks in order to better nurture and foster transitions towards sustainable agro-food systems.

Alternative societal solutions to pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment (2020) 🗎🗎

Environmental contamination with pharmaceuticals is widespread, inducing risks to both human health and the environment. This paper explores potential societal solutions to human and veterinary pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment. To this end, we adopt transition research's multi-level perspective framework, which allows us to understand the dynamics underlying pharmaceutical emissions and to recognize social and technical factors triggering change. Our qualitative analysis is based on data collected through literature research and interviews with actors from pharmaceutical industry, the health and agricultural sector. The research aims at identifying potential future solutions including requirements for as well as barriers to pathways leading to these solutions and describing the role of key actors involved. The three alternative societal solutions identified are: 1) accepting pharmaceuticals in the environment - substantial changes to the system are not required; 2) reconfiguring the current system by implementing various innovations that reduce pharmaceutical emissions; 3) fundamentally changing the current system to (largely) avoid pharmaceutical emissions. The paper further elicits societal, financial, organizational, regulatory and technological requirements that can facilitate implementation of these solutions. This work is novel as it constitutes a systemic view on all stages of the pharmaceutical lifecycle, comprehensively synthesizing options and measures along the entire lifecycle into societal solutions that are framed as transition pathways. Deriving societal solutions from key actor's perspectives is innovative and provides insights to reflect on choices societies are going to have to make regarding pharmaceuticals in the environment. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Bioeconomy futures: Expectation patterns of scientists and practitioners on the sustainability of bio-based transformation (2020) 🗎🗎

Economic sectors relying on the use of biological organisms, processes, and principles to create products and services are expected to experience accelerated growth due to innovation in the bioeconomy. Associated benefits and risks for sustainable development are increasingly subject to societal debate. We compiled expectation patterns from a global survey with bioeconomy experts and a systematic literature review identifying areas of consensus and controversy across dimensions of the sustainable development goals (SDG). Positive connotations dominated in both expert opinions and the scientific literature, but the level of consensus varied across sectors of the bioeconomy and in relation to applied methodological approaches (scientific literature) and type of employer (experts). In both sources, we found more differentiated views on potential impacts of bioeconomic development pathways on sustainability in more established bioeconomy-related discourses, which indicates that expectation patterns in more recent fields of bio-based innovation are subject to early "hype cycle" dynamics. Our findings suggest the need to systematically mainstream sustainability risk appraisals across relevant application contexts in technology impact assessments for the bioeconomy.

High-Tech Urban Agriculture in Amsterdam: An Actor Network Analysis (2020) 🗎🗎

The agriculture and horticulture sector in the Netherlands is one of the most productive in the world. Although the sector is one of the most advanced and intense agricultural production systems worldwide, it faces challenges, such as climate change and environmental and social unsustainability of industrial production. To overcome these challenges, alternative food production initiatives have emerged, especially in large cities such as Amsterdam. Some initiatives involve producing food in the urban environment, supported by new technologies and practices, so-called high-tech urban agriculture (HTUA). These initiatives make cultivation of plants inside and on top of buildings possible and increase green spaces in urban areas. The emerging agricultural technologies are creating new business environments that are shape d by technology developers (e.g., suppliers of horticultural light emitting diodes (LED) and control environment systems) and developers of alternative food production practices (e.g., HTUA start-ups). However, research shows that the uptake of these technological innovations in urban planning processes is problematic. Therefore, this research analyzes the barriers that local government planners and HTUA developers are facing in the embedding of HTUA in urban planning processes, using the city of Amsterdam as a case study. This study draws on actor-network theory (ANT) to analyze the interactions between planners, technologies, technology developers and developers of alternative food production practices. Several concepts of ANT are integrated into a multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions (MLP) to create a new theoretical framework that can explain how interactions between technologies and planning actors transform the incumbent social-technical regime. The configuration of interactions between social and material entities in technology development and adoption processes in Amsterdam is analyzed through the lens of this theoretical framework. The data in this study were gathered by tracing actors and their connections by using ethnographic research methods. In the course of the integration of new technologies into urban planning practices, gaps between technologies, technology developers, and planning actors have been identified. The results of this study show a lacking connection between planning actors and technology developers, although planning actors do interact with developers of alternative food production practices. These interactions are influenced by agency of artefacts such as visualizations of the future projects. The paper concludes that for the utilization of emerging technologies for sustainability transition of cities, the existing gap between technology developers and planning actors needs to be bridged through the integration of technology development visions in urban agendas and planning processes.

Going beyond definitions to understand tensions within the bioeconomy: The contribution of sociotechnical regimes to contested fields (2020) 🗎🗎

The bioeconomy is steadily becoming more important to regional, national and European public policy. As it encompasses the transformation of agricultural, marine and organic resources into food, feed, fuels, energy and materials, the bioeconomy should become a major new industry replacing oil-based products. However, policymakers take two main approaches to developing the bioeconomy. The first, biotech-oriented approach depicts the bioeconomy as a biotechnology subsector. The second, biomass-oriented approach (i) considers biomass transformation as its starting point, (ii) raises the issue of bioeconomy sustainability, and (iii) considers biotechnology as just one of many transformation technologies. The growing literature on defining the bioeconomy has not yet covered the articulation between biotechnology and bioeconomy. This paper fills this critical gap and provides policy recommendations depending on whether the goal is to develop biotechnology or to contribute to green growth and sustainability.

Perspectives on "Game Changer" Global Challenges for Sustainable 21st Century: Plant-Based Diet, Unavoidable Food Waste Biorefining, and Circular Economy (2020) 🗎🗎

Planet Earth is under severe stress from several inter-linked factors mainly associated with rising global population, linear resource consumption, security of resources, unsurmountable waste generation, and social inequality, which unabated will lead to an unsustainable 21st Century. The traditional way products are designed promotes a linear economy that discards recoverable resources and creates negative environmental and social impacts. Here, we suggest multi-disciplinary approaches encompassing chemistry, process engineering and sustainability science, and sustainable solutions in "game changer" challenges in three intersecting arenas of food: Sustainable diet, valorisation of unavoidable food supply chain wastes, and circularity of food value chain systems aligning with the United Nations' seventeen Sustainable Development Goals. In the arena of sustainable diet, comprehensive life cycle assessment using the global life cycle inventory datasets and recommended daily servings is conducted to rank food choices, covering all food groups from fresh fruits/vegetables, lentils/pulses and grains to livestock, with regard to health and the environment, to emphasise the essence of plant-based diet, especially plant-based sources of protein, for holistic systemic sustainability and stability of the earth system. In the arena of unavoidable food supply chain wastes, economically feasible and synergistically (energy and material) integrated innovative biorefinery systems are suggested to transform unavoidable food waste into functional and platform chemical productions alongside energy vectors: Fuel or combined heat and power generation. In the arena of circularity of food value chain systems, novel materials and methods for plant-based protein functionalisation for food/nutraceutical applications are investigated using regenerative bio-surfactants from unavoidable food waste. This circular economy or industrial symbiosis example thus combines the other two arenas, i.e., plant-based protein sourcing and unavoidable food waste valorisation. The multi-disciplinary analysis here will eventually impact on policies for dietary change, but also contribute knowledge needed by industry and policy makers and raise awareness amongst the population at large for making a better approach to the circular economy of food.

How to integrate nutritional recommendations and environmental policy targets at the meal level: A university canteen example (2020) 🗎🗎

Nurturing the global population without exceeding the carrying capacity of the earth is a challenge. Linking nutritional quality and environmental objectives is of high importance in a sustainable food context. Meals are not usually evaluated and classified based on their contribution to health and, especially, to environmental sustainability. Therefore, we propose a methodology for the classification of meals based on environmental policy targets and nutritional recommendations. As a case study, we analyzed 100 hot meals served in a university canteen in Belgium. Every meal contained three meal components (protein, vegetable, and carbohydrate). A life cycle assessment and a nutritional assessment, based on the Weighted Nutrient Density Score, were performed to evaluate the environmental impact and the nutritional value, respectively. To classify the meals, we introduced three reference values for both the environmental impact and the nutritional value. This corresponded to four environmental and four nutritional classes which results in 16 classes in total. The environmental reference values were based on the 2020 and 2030 European Commission targets on greenhouse gas emission reduction. The nutritional reference values were based on food recommendations from national public health authorities. Meals with fish had the best overall score and meals with ruminant meat had the worst score. Vegetarian meals had the best environmental score and, similarly to ruminant meat meals, the worst nutritional score. Further studies are needed to test the classification methodology for other meals and food items. Future research may focus on further optimization of the combined environmental and nutritional assessment, especially for the classification of reference values. To conclude, we developed a novel nutritional and environmental classification for meals based on environmental policy targets and nutritional recommendations. (C) 2019 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Constructing the Public in Roadmapping the Transition to a Bioeconomy: A Case Study from the Netherlands (2020) 🗎🗎

In recent years there has been increasing attention to the transition toward a bioeconomy. From comparable transitions toward sustainability, we know that transitions require integral, inclusive approaches toward developing a long-term strategy, focusing not only on technological innovation, but also on involving the public. This is not easy. Public engagement encompasses diverse forms of public and civil society participation, and it is crucial to understand the specificities of these interactions and their effects on potential transition pathways. We present a conceptual-analytical paper where the focus lies on understanding sense-making practices in the construction of publics in the bioeconomy. Using a case-study approach, this article describes five partialities of the constructed public in the bioeconomy and analyzes the orchestration, productive dimensions and effects of these constructions. Our analysis offers a new perspective on, and appreciation of, the partiality of different forms of public participation, and varying degrees in which possibilities of system change in the bioeconomy transition are inclusive or exclusive toward differentially constructed publics. This offers an alternative, constructive way of exploring actor dynamics and politics in system change. We aim to contribute to a more nuanced and integral interpretation of public engagement in sustainability transitions, which is relevant to actors from academia, policy, industry and other spheres relevant to the bioeconomy transition.

Sustainability transition pathways through ecological intensification: an assessment of vegetable food systems in Chile (2020) 🗎🗎

Ecological intensification has been proposed as a promising lever for a transition towards more sustainable food systems. Various food systems exist that are based on ecological intensification and may have potential for a sustainability transition. Little is known, however, about their diversity and about how they perform against dominant systems in terms of the multiple societal goals. The aim of this study is to contribute to knowledge about sustainability transitions in food systems through an empirical analysis of vegetable food systems in Chile. The study (i) characterizes the diversity of vegetable food systems in Chile (ii) evaluates the food systems in terms of multiple societal goals, and (iii) assesses their potential for supporting sustainability transition pathways from the perspective of ecological intensification. Results indicate that among the five vegetable food system types, the agroecological and the small organic have potential to foster a sustainability transition. Nevertheless, these systems are small and localized, and scaling them requires actions to remove barriers in the relations with the agri-food regime and among themselves. The broader relevance of this analysis is that there needs to be awareness in research on transitions about the diversity of food systems present in countries and how they interact.

Barriers to the adoption of waste-reducing eco-innovations in the packaged food sector: A study in the UK and the Netherlands (2020) 🗎🗎

The food processing sector has a considerable environmental impact, due to large volumes of food and packaging waste. Eco-innovations present an important opportunity to reduce this impact. Yet, initial insights suggest that new technologies face considerable challenges to their adoption. The eco-innovation adoption literature has overlooked the food processing sector. The purpose of this paper is to examine the barriers inhibiting the adoption of waste reducing eco-innovations in the food processing sector. We present four detailed case studies of new technologies at different stages of adoption in the UK and Netherlands. The findings reveal ten barriers to the adoption of waste reducing technologies in the food processing sector. The barriers identified include concerns over the influence of technologies on the product's characteristics, its retailing, and a perceived lack of consumer demand. These barriers arise from the powerful influence of retailers within the food supply chain, the influence of technologies on instore point of sale displays, and the need for distribution trials. We conclude that the adoption of new technologies requires simultaneous acceptance by both food processor and retailers. The paper provides recommendations for policy makers and innovation managers to increase the adoption and diffusion of waste reducing technologies in the food processing sector, as well as implications for future research. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Place-Based Pathways to Sustainability: Exploring Alignment between Geographical Indications and the Concept of Agroecology Territories in Wales (2020) 🗎🗎

Geographical Indications (GIs) are regarded as important endogenous rural development mechanisms by the European Union. GIs have proven successful for some producers in some regions, delivering higher added value and safeguarding a product's identity and heritage through the notion of terroir. Within the context of a gradual "greening" of GIs, this paper opens up questions about what potential they might have for transitions to agroecology territories, which are spaces engaged in a transition process towards sustainable agri-food systems. Using the Food and Agricultural Organization's 10 elements of agroecology as a lens, we discuss whether GIs can serve as levers in delivering sustainable agri-food transitions, drawing on the case of the devolved nation of Wales. We base our narrative on a content analysis of GI product specification documents and data from interviews with GI stakeholders. Our case study illustrates that the discourse within the regulatory framework of some Welsh GIs has shifted from one of technicality towards the integration of some agroecology elements in more recent GI product specifications. In this respect, we argue that there is evidence of a "first generation" and "second generation" assortment of GIs in Wales. However, any potential for levering an overall transition within this scheme towards an agroecology territory remains constrained by the piecemeal embedding of agroecology. The incorporation of agroecology is emerging primarily from the ground-up-driven by independent organizational and place-based collective action, but unaccompanied, as yet, by any parallel shift amongst supporting administrative and regulatory authorities. We also discuss the importance of reflexive governance if GIs are to be viable pathways for sustainability transitions. As such, the capacity for GIs to facilitate quality-led place-based food systems that enhance increasingly threatened environmental resources is contingent upon stakeholders adopting a territorial, reflexive governance approach.

Capturing Waste or Capturing Innovation? Comparing Self-Organising Potentials of Surplus Food Redistribution Initiatives to Prevent Food Waste (2020) 🗎🗎

The context for this article is the rapid international growth of (surplus) food redistribution initiatives. These are frequently reliant on networks of volunteer labour, often coordinated by digital means. Movements with these characteristics are increasingly viewed by researchers, policymakers and practitioners as cases of self-organisation. The article explores the nature and extent of self-organisation in food redistribution initiatives. Two contrasting UK initiatives were studied using ethnographic methods during a period of rapid expansion. The concept of self-organisation was operationalised using three dimensions-autonomy, expansion and governance. One initiative established food banks in close cooperation with corporate food actors. Its franchise charity model involved standardised safety protocols and significant centralised control. The other initiative deliberately pursued autonomy, rapid recruitment and de-centralised governance; nevertheless, collaboration with industry actors and a degree of centralised control became a (contested) part of the approach. We highlight the interplay of organisational agency and institutional structures affecting the self-organisation of surplus food redistribution, including ways in which movement dynamism can involve capture by dominant interests but also the seeds of transformative practices that challenge root causes of food waste, particularly food's commodification. Our analysis provides a way to compare the potentials of food charity vs mutual aid in effecting systemic change.

Collaboration in the Making-Towards a Practice-Based Approach to University Innovation Intermediary Organisations (2020) 🗎🗎

The study aims to understand and explore situations of collaboration between various actors in connection with a university-driven innovation intermediary organisation, and how the intermediary organisation facilitates collaboration in the making. To this end, we employ a case of a university-driven long-lasting intermediary organisation within the agricultural and forestry sectors. We examine three collaborative situations, using practice-based research and process theories as theoretical perspectives. A narrative approach is adopted as the method of investigation. The findings are presented in a conceptual model where the structures of the intermediary organisation are translated into practices, against which individuals can develop their collaboration processes. It is concluded that collaboration in the making is formed in the interplay between structures, practices and processes in relations between people. This implies that the organising of collaboration should focus its attention not only on structures but also on the practices and processes formed between people. The study contributes to the understanding of the organising of university innovation intermediary organisations by untangling the relations between structures, practices and processes in situations of collaboration between people.

Cultural models of and for urban sustainability: assessing beliefs about Green-Win (2020) 🗎🗎

Green-Win is the proposal where that government, society, and business can all reap benefits while at the same time playing a vital role in the transition to sustainable development and lower carbon futures. We argue that, while the Green-Win proposition is central to many state and expert models of sustainability transitions, as a construction, it belies more complex trade-offs and cognitive models of sustainability and societal transitions. Cultural models are cognitive representations shared by a community which provide both models of the world, which aid in interpreting what is in the world, how it works, what is possible (or not) and why, and models for the world, which suggest how to act in it to bring about desired outcomes (cf. Geertz 1973). We surveyed 225 respondents in Shanghai, China, Istanbul, Turkey, and Beirut, Lebanon to assess their basic beliefs about sustainability, specifically whether it is possible to implement concrete practices that realize environmental sustainability goals in conjunction with economic development-the Green-Win proposition. We found important similarities and differences among urban stakeholders' cultural models of sustainable development. For example, Chinese and Lebanese respondents displayed a strong belief that economic growth and environmental sustainability are compatible, while Turkish respondents showed significant disagreement with this proposition. We argue that such basic notions about the possibility of Green-Win opportunities between environmental sustainability and economic development are important to understand in the context of mitigating and adapting to climate change in critical urban environments. Cultural models of and for green development may either enable or inhibit transformations in urban systems according to local conditions. Finally, we discuss the potential implications of cultural models' research for targeting communications and engendering collaborations among diverse stakeholders in order to align perspectives and overcome barriers that may otherwise limit successful visioning, planning, and implementation for transformation towards sustainable development.

Supporting food systems transformation: The what, why, who, where and how of mission-oriented agricultural innovation systems (2020) 🗎🗎

Agricultural innovation systems has become a popular approach to understand and facilitate agricultural innovation. However, there is often no explicit reflection on the role of agricultural innovation systems in food systems transformation and how they relate to transformative concepts and visions (e.g. agroecology, digital agriculture, Agriculture 4.0, AgTech and FoodTech, vertical agriculture, protein transitions). To support such reflection we elaborate on the importance of a mission-oriented perspective on agricultural innovation systems. We review pertinent literature from innovation, transition and policy sciences, and argue that a mission-oriented agricultural innovation systems (MAIS) approach can help understand how agricultural innovation systems at different geographical scales develop to enable food systems transformation, in terms of forces, catalysts, and barriers in transformative food systems change. Focus points can be in the mapping of missions and sub-missions of MAIS within and across countries, or understanding the drivers, networks, governance, theories of change, evolution and impacts of MAIS. Future work is needed on further conceptual and empirical development of MAIS and its connections with existing food systems transformation frameworks. Also, we argue that agricultural systems scholars and practitioners need to reflect on how the technologies and concepts they work on relate to MAIS, how these represent a particular directionality in innovation, and whether these also may support exnovation.

Technocratic and deliberative governance for sustainability: rethinking the roles of experts, consumers, and producers (2020) 🗎🗎

While there is general consensus regarding the urgent need for sustainability transitions in food and agriculture, tensions exist regarding how to best stimulate and manage them. Generally, there are two competing agrifood governance models for advancing sustainability: technocratic and deliberative democratic procedures. Taking up Fischer's (Citizens, experts, and the environment: The politics of local knowledge, Duke University Press, Durham, 2000) call to develop new ways of bringing citizens and experts together in governance, this paper examines an integrative sustainability governance system that uses both technocratic and deliberative procedures. Drawing on a case study of a Japanese consumer cooperative, Seikatsu Club Consumer Cooperative, this paper analyzes the ways that technocratic and deliberative governance procedures use different forms of knowledge, measure and assess sustainability differently, and produce different outcomes. The analysis finds that whereas technocratic forms of governance are most effective at monitoring, verification, and compliance assurance, deliberative processes facilitate relationships, mutual understanding, and commitment among stakeholders. For sustainability governance to address not only the technical but also social dimensions of sustainability, the findings on Seikatsu Club Consumer Cooperative's integrative governance system support the need for deliberative procedures.

Analyzing Evidence of Sustainable Urban Water Management Systems: A Review through the Lenses of Sociotechnical Transitions (2020) 🗎🗎

Sustainability concerns and multiple socio-environmental pressures have necessitated a shift towards Sustainable Urban Water Management (SUWM) systems. Viewing SUWM systems as sociotechnical, this paper departs from eight factors previously identified by transition research: Pressures, Context, Purposes, Actors, Instruments, Processes, Outputs, and Outcomes as a methodological framework for a structured review of 100 articles. The study seeks to analyze empirical cases of planning and implementing SUWM systems worldwide. A wide range of public actors-driven by social and environmental factors rather than by economic pressures-have initiated SUWM projects so as to locally fulfill defined social and environmental purposes. We provide evidence on the emergence of new actors, such as experts, users, and private developers, as well as on the diverse and innovative technical and societal instruments used to promote and implement SUWM systems. We also explore their contexts and institutional capacity to deal with pressures and to mobilize significant financial and human resources, which is in itself vital for the transition to SUWM. Planned or implemented SUWM outputs are divided into green (wet ponds, raingardens, and green roofs) and gray (rain barrels and porous pavements) measures. The outcomes of SUWM projects-in terms of societal and technical learning, and their institutional uptakes-are often implicit or lacking, which seemingly reduces the rate of desirable change.

Social dilemmas, policy instruments, and climate adaptation measures: the case of green roofs (2020) 🗎🗎

Green roofs contribute to both climate change adaptation and mitigation. Promoting green roofs is thus a key element in urban strategies to address climate change. How to actually promote green roofs, however, has so far proven elusive: attempts to link specific policy instruments to a more or less successful diffusion of green roofs have been few and far between. The present paper relies on institutional economics to advance the present understanding of the link between policy instruments and green roofs. It argues that different green roofs are confronted with different social dilemmas, and thus require different policy instruments. Specifically, small green roofs face a free-rider problem, which is best addressed through regulations and incentives. Large green roofs face instead a collective action problem, which is best addressed through communications and network-building. This perspective is tested empirically through a comparative analysis of 18 global cities on the forefront in the promotion of green roofs. The policy instruments observed in these cities match with the theoretical expectations laid down in the paper. Implications emerge for both policy and research.

Exploring farmers' adoption of VietGAP from systemic perspective: implication for developing agri-food systems (2020) 🗎🗎

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that influence farmers' adoption of Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices (VietGAP) in Vietnam. Design/methodology/approach A case study design was employed. A purposive and snowball sampling strategy was used to select 54 participants for semi-structured interviews. Qualitative data analysis techniques were applied to analyse the data. Findings This study found that the social, cultural and institutional dimensions that define the dominant traditional agri-food system determined farmers' adoption of VietGAP and this was expressed in: (1) there was a lack of concern about food safety amongst value chain (VC) actors, particularly consumers and this limited demand for VietGAP-certified vegetables; (2) subjective rather than objective measures were used to assess vegetable quality by actors throughout the domestic vegetable VC and (3) the coordination of this vegetable VC was dominated by informal, trust-based relationships between VC actors rather than through formal written contracts. Research limitations/implications This study employed a case study approach and focussed on a local VC for fresh vegetables. The findings of this research may therefore differ to those concerning other produce. Practical implications This study highlights that farmers' uptake of VietGAP requires changes to the socio-technical regime of the traditional agri-food system. Originality/value This research provides a systemic view of the determinants of GAP adoption by farmers and highlights areas that need to be considered when designing policies to enhance the uptake of public GAP programmes and introduce agri-food systems in developing countries.

Religions going nuts? Faith-based veganism and transformative learning in the context of sustainability transitions (case 1: The Hare Krishna movement) (2020) 🗎🗎

Purpose This paper is based on several years of ethnographic and desk-based research studying the Hare Krishna movement. The work is the first in a series exploring how segments of specific faith communities embrace dietary veganism and how this relates to the concept of transformational learning/change in the context of sustainability transitions. The focus is on how these communities embrace a plant-based diet representing different rationales and attitudes of learning in the process of organisational change. Design/methodology/approach I investigated Krishna practices extensively by visiting and volunteering in several of its farm communities in Europe. I used the mixed method of qualitative observations, participation, in-depth interviews and email interviews during a period of ten weeks spent in the communities altogether. I had not been in contact with Hare Krishna believers before the fieldwork. Findings Krishna veganism is analysed in the context of sustainability transitions by drawing on the concept of transformative (third-order) learning/change. Findings reveal an unexpected tendency to veganism despite the movement's worldview and radical commitment to dairy consumption. By calling into question their own collective dietary paradigm, the Hare Krishna community provides an exemplary case of third-order learning and change in an organisational context. Originality/value The paper invites scholars to include third-order learning into sustainability transitions frameworks while aiming to address the shortcomings of theorising levels of learning. The connection between Krishna veganism, third-order learning and sustainability transitions has not been put forward before.

Change as a permanent condition: A history of transition processes in Dutch North Sea fisheries (2020) 🗎🗎

Centre of debate on food production in the Netherlands today focusses on the issue of realising a cyclical mode of production and operating in a climate neutral way. This transition is envisaged not only for agriculture, but also for fisheries. Dutch fisheries face a multitude of challenges in addition to, as well as related to this circularity transition. These include loss of operating space for fishing activities in the North Sea (windfarms, nature conservation areas, Brexit) and the need for further development of sustainable fishing methods and vessels (innovations to reduce ecological and environmental impacts). Whilst the Dutch fisheries face these challenges now and in the future, it has already gone through significant changes over the past 70 years. Since the dawn of fisheries policy in Europe in the 1970s, change and development have been part of the fishing industry, indicating that transitions and change are a permanent aspect of fisheries. From past transitions lessons can be learnt to take on current and future challenges. Past transitions in Dutch fisheries were analysed from the perspective of transition and governance. Based on literature and reports produced in recent decades and pooled knowledge gained from the fishing industry, government and environmental organisations, this paper shows that the roles of the different actors involved changed during past transitions, with a shift in playing field occurring from a regional to a European scale and that joint problem definition, collective sensemaking and a long term vision are essential in navigating transition waters.

Exploring emergent practices in Alternative Food Networks: Voedselteams in Belgium (2020) 🗎🗎

Current sustainability challenges in agro-food networks highlight the need for sustainability transitions in agrofood practices. This paper aims to contribute by analysing how emergent agro-food practices form and develop over time. Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) provide a locus to study how emergent agro-food practices are shaped and to understand the factors that influence how they develop over time. We take a social practices approach to study Voedselteams - a network of food buying groups in Belgium. We go beyond studying single practices, by analysing AFNs as consisting of bundles of practices. We use a mix of methods (desk-top study, structured and semi-structured interviews, participant observation and workshops). Our results show that becoming involved in an AFN may also mean getting involved in other 'alternative' practices. As such, engaging in an AFN may require more effort than gaining access to or provisioning food through more strongly routinised practices. Our results suggest that whether, and the extent to which, participants get involved in emergent practice-bundles depends on an interplay between their motivations and the ways in which the emergent practice-bundles are embedded in existing bundles of practices. The routinisation and professionalisation of alternative practices - more in line with existing practice bundles may facilitate the participation of members willing to invest less time and effort in gaining access to food through an AFN. This suggests that the routinisation and alignment with the bundles of practices that shape daily lives are crucial for emergent practices to appeal to a wider public.

Transition Pathways Toward the Prudent Use of Antimicrobials: The Case of Free-Range Broiler Farmers in France (2020) 🗎🗎

Reducing antimicrobial use (AMU) on farms is key for controlling the rise of resistant bacteria that have the potential capacity to infect humans via direct animal contact or via the food chain or the environment. To reduce AMU, antimicrobials must be used in a prudent and rational manner. Extensive efforts have been made recently to identify the cognitive and behavioral barriers to the appropriate use of antimicrobials by various livestock sector stakeholders. However, most studies carried out thus far have only partly captured the dynamic and systemic dimension of the processes involved in changes of practices related to AMU on farms. To shed light on the transition pathways implemented to reduce AMU, a qualitative study was conducted in France based on 28 semi-structured interviews with farmers, technicians and veterinarians from the free-range broiler production sector. Based on the thematic analysis of verbatims, we identified technical improvements which are key contributors to reduced AMU. We also highlighted some gaps in knowledge regarding AMU and antimicrobial resistance. We found that, rather than individual motivations alone, the extent to which farmers are embedded in collective organizations is decisive for changes in practices, and downstream operators (distributors and slaughterers) play a key role in the beginning of AMU transition pathways. As a result, we show that change in AMU requires a global rethinking of the overall socio-technical system rather than modifications of a single element in a farming system. Our results also highlight that transition pathways toward reduced AMU cannot just rely on trigger events, but also involves medium or long-term processes, with actors' experiences and practices being modified on an incremental basis over time. Our study sheds light on the need for multi and trans-disciplinary research involving the social sciences to analyze interactions between stakeholders and the collective actions implemented to tackle the challenge of AMU reduction.

Sustainability transitions in agri-food systems: insights from South Korea's universal free, eco-friendly school lunch program (2020) 🗎🗎

Government-sponsored school lunch programs have garnered attention from activists and policymakers for their potential to promote public health, sustainable diets, and food sovereignty. However, across country contexts, these programs often fall far short of their transformative potential. It is vital, then, to identify policies and organizing strategies that enable school lunch programs to be redesigned at the national scale. In this article, we use document analysis of historical newspapers and government data to examine the motivating factors and underlying conditions that allowed South Korea's universal free, eco-friendly (UFEF) school lunch program to become a tool for advancing social justice and ecological goals at the national scale. We analyze the socio-historical evolution and current status of the Korean school lunch program, combining the multi-level perspective with insights from environmental sociology and critical food studies, in order to shed light on the factors that enabled the program to become an innovative niche and articulate the opportunities and challenges it now faces. We identify the state-sponsored creation of what we call "precautionary infrastructure" as a key anchoring mechanism between the school food niche and agri-food regime. Precautionary infrastructure includes new supply chains, certification standards, and sourcing policies that provide a stable market for eco-friendly farms and small-scale producers, while minimizing the environmental health risks of school lunch by delivering organic and pesticide-free ingredients to on-site kitchens that serve free lunches to all students. This analysis offers insight into how public school-lunch programs can become protected niches that help drive sustainability transitions within agri-food systems.

Sustainability transitions in the context of pandemic: an introduction to the focused issue on social innovation and systemic impact (2020) 🗎🗎

For society to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the agri-food industry needs a substantialsustainability transitiontoward food systems capable of delivering greater volumes of nutritious food, while simultaneously lowering the environmental footprint. This issue of AHV focuses on the big picture-on mechanisms of sustainability transition, from social innovation, to models of finance and institutional systems, and calls for business and agricultural researchers to transform the sector together. Contributors to this issue embrace a transdisciplinary outlook, including scientific, technical, social and political dimensions of agroecology. This issue is a call to action: to encourage the community of social entrepreneurs, ecosystem players and researchers to contribute analytical methods, experiences and scientific insights on emerging social innovations related to food, agriculture and rural-urban transformation.

A scoping review of policies promoting and supporting sustainable food systems in the university setting (2020) 🗎🗎

Background Transitioning towards sustainable food systems for the health of the population and planet will require governments and institutions to develop effective governance to support the adoption of sustainable food practices. The aim of the paper is to describe current governance within Australian and New Zealand universities designed to support sustainable food systems. Methods A systematic search of governance documents to support sustainable food systems within Australian and New Zealand universities was conducted. Data were obtained from 1) targeted websites 2) internet search engines and 3) expert consultations. Inclusion criteria consisted of university governance documents including by-laws, policies, guidelines, frameworks, and procedures that support sustainable food systems. Results Twenty-nine governance documents across nineteen Australian and New Zealand universities were included for synthesis, including waste management policies (n = 3), fair-trade/procurement policies (n = 6), catering and or event guidelines (n = 7) and catering policies (n = 2), and environmental management plans (n = 11). The main strategies adopted by universities were sustainable waste management and prevention (e.g. reducing landfill, reducing wasted food, (27%)), ethical procurement practices (i.e. fair-trade (27%)) and environmentally sustainable food consumption (e.g. local, seasonal, organic, vegetarian food supply (14.5%)). Only 12.5% of universities addressed all three of the main strategies identified. Conclusions This study indicates that while sustainable food systems are considered in some university governance documents, efforts are predominantly focused on aspects such as waste management or procurement of fair-trade items which as stand-alone practices are likely to have minimal impact. This review highlights the scope of universities to provide strong leadership in promoting and supporting sustainable food systems through holistic institutional policies and governance mechanisms.

How a Transformation towards Sustainable Community Catering Can Succeed (2020) 🗎🗎

Community catering or to use another common term especially in the American literature institutional foodservice plays a central role in changing our food system towards sustainability. Community catering establishments can bring about changes in this context at various levels. Hence, in the context of menu planning, they have a direct influence on the level of meat consumption. Indirectly, however, they can also support changes in eating habits by offering the guest an equally attractive alternative, thus giving him or her a sense of how tasty a low-meat cuisine can be. On the basis of this experience, the consumer may possibly change in turn his or her own purchasing behavior and menu planning at home. With the increasing importance of catering for day-care centers and schools, community catering also has a considerable influence on the nutritional status as well as on the development of people's individual diet and the later eating habits of young people. By understanding socio-technical systems as embedded in ecological systems this paper takes a systemic view on innovations in transformation domains as the objects of desire for governance towards sustainability. The framework developed in the context of the BMBF-funded research project "Governance model for socio-ecological transformation processes in practice: development and testing in three areas of application" known by its acronym TRAFO 3.0 was applied to examine innovative approaches and actors in community catering and their contributions to more sustainable food systems. A number of studies show that a very large environmental relief potential can be achieved by reducing the quantity of meat and other animal products offered. However, the concrete implementation of this goal is associated with a multitude of challenges, since meat-containing meals are an important part of German food culture. How the transformation towards meals with fewer animal products in German community catering can succeed is an important question in the context of the transformation to sustainable food systems. To answer this question, we analyzed the status quo of the socio-technical system of German community catering using a developed governance model. One of the central results was that community catering stakeholders who have successfully reduced their offer of animal products died fundamental changes in meal planning. Cooks had to "reinvent" meals completely to be successful.

Agroecological principles and elements and their implications for transitioning to sustainable food systems. A review (2020) 🗎🗎

There is consensus that the global food system is not delivering good nutrition for all and is causing environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity, such that a profound transformation is needed to meet the challenges of persistent malnutrition and rural poverty, aggravated by the growing consequences of climate change. Agroecological approaches have gained prominence in scientific, agricultural and political discourse in recent years, suggesting pathways to transform agricultural and food systems that address these issues. Here we present an extensive literature review of concepts, definitions and principles of agroecology, and their historical evolution, considering the three manifestations of agroecology as a science, a set of practices and a social movement; and relate them to the recent dialogue establishing a set of ten iconic elements of agroecology that have emerged from a global multi-stakeholder consultation and synthesis process. Based on this, a consolidated list of principles is developed and discussed in the context of presenting transition pathways to more sustainable food systems. The major outcomes of this paper are as follows. (1) Definition of 13 consolidated agroecological principles: recycling; input reduction; soil health; animal health; biodiversity; synergy; economic diversification; co-creation of knowledge; social values and diets; fairness; connectivity; land and natural resource governance; participation. (2) Confirmation that these principles are well aligned and complementary to the 10 elements of agroecology developed by FAO but articulate requirements of soil and animal health more explicitly and distinguish between biodiversity and economic diversification. (3) Clarification that application of these generic principles can generate diverse pathways for incremental and transformational change towards more sustainable farming and food systems. (4) Identification of four key entry points associated with the elements: diversity; circular and solidarity economy; co-creation and sharing of knowledge; and, responsible governance to enable plausible pathways of transformative change towards sustainable agriculture and food systems.

Sociotechnical Context and Agroecological Transition for Smallholder Farms in Benin and Burkina Faso (2020) 🗎🗎

West Africa is facing the challenge of its population's food insecurity in a context of accelerated degradation of natural resources. In order to efficiently face this double bottleneck, agroecological interventions were implemented as a way to promote best agricultural practices. Agroecology is a mode of production that nowadays questions our food system which, despite technological progress, still struggles to feed the world's population. This systematic review is part of the vision of a deep agroecology and aims at analyzing the institutional, political, organizational, and social obstacles and levers for an agroecological transition and its amplification in Burkina Faso and Benin. For this purpose, a structured literature review was conducted using grey and published literature. It appears that despite the mitigated results of the implementation of the Green Revolution model of agricultural production in West Africa, African public authorities seem to have placed once again their faith in conventional production practices to respond to the challenges facing agriculture in the region. This situation goes beyond the regional framework to take root at the national level, (e.g., Burkina Faso, Benin), with the corollary of an apparent lack of institutional interest in sustainable modes of production. However, there is a network of stakeholders who are developing promising initiatives for scaling up agroecological practices.

A Natural Capital Lens for a Sustainable Bioeconomy: Determining the Unrealised and Unrecognised Services from Nature (2020) 🗎🗎

Human activity has led to degradation of the natural environment, with far-reaching impacts for society and the economy, sparking new conceptual framings for how people interact with, and depend upon, the environment. The bioeconomy and natural capital concepts both blend economics and natural sciences and propose new interdisciplinary, environmental sustainability framings. Despite this similarity, the two concepts are rarely applied together. This paper applies a natural capital lens to the bioeconomy at three different levels: environmental sustainability framings; experts' principles for a sustainable bioeconomy; and a case study of EU policy. We first construct an integrated cascade model that combines the unrealised potential of bioresources alongside unrecognised environmental services that tend to be systematically undervalued or ignored. Subsequently, we present five cornerstones identified from the sustainable bioeconomy-related literature from a natural capital perspective and highlight avenues of complementarity. The paper concludes with a policy case study of the EU Bioeconomy Strategy through a natural capital lens. There is evidence that the EU strategy has become increasingly aligned with the natural capital concept, but there is scope for further integration. The natural capital concept and related toolbox is an asset for the future bioeconomy to ensure it meets its environmentally sound and ecologically conscious objectives.

Change Agents' Perspectives on Spatial-Relational Proximities and Urban Food Niches (2020) 🗎🗎

Cities are breeding spaces for innovations in the agro-food sector with the potential to foster the development of local niche networks and a food sustainability transition. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework for the context-related development of urban food niche organizations and their networks of change agents. With a qualitative analysis of three niche-establishing organizations and their networks, we address the lack of knowledge on spatial-relational dynamics shaping the development of niche organizations and their networks. The identified dynamics are structured along the connotations of geographic, cognitive, social and institutional proximity within the niche networks, to the to the dominant actors, rules, and practices of the urban food system's regime and to society. For each niche network, we defined a strategic orientation that might lead to a specific development path. Finally, we propose strategies on how cities may foster the development of niche organizations and their networks to highlight local opportunities of supporting a food system sustainability transition, i.e., increasing food literacy, enabling access to space, and engaging in networking.

Agri-Food Markets towards Sustainable Patterns (2020) 🗎🗎

In recent decades, the confluence of different global and domestic drivers has led to progressive and unpredictable changes in the functioning and structure of agri-food markets worldwide. Given the unsustainability of the current agri-food production, processing, distribution and consumption patterns, and the inadequate governance of the whole food system, the transition to sustainable agriculture and food systems has become crucial to effectively manage a global agri-food market able in supporting expected population growth and ensuring universal access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food for all. Based on a critical review of the existing international literature, the paper seeks to understand the evolutionary paths of sustainability issues within agri-food markets by analyzing their drivers and trends. An extensive analysis was conducted highlighting the development and importance of the body of knowledge on the most important sustainability transition frameworks, focusing mainly on the relationship between markets, trade, food and nutrition security, and other emerging issues within agri-food markets. Finally, the study makes suggestions to extend the research in order to improve basic knowledge and to identify opportunities to design meaningful actions that can shape agri-food markets and foster their transition to sustainability.

Considering climate and conflict conditions together to improve interventions that prevent child acute malnutrition (2021) 🗎🗎

Despite early warning signs about threats to food security, humanitarian interventions often lag behind these warning signs. Climate and conflict conditions are among the most important factors preceding food system failures and malnutrition crises around the world. Research shows how conflict and climate conditions can upend functional food and economic systems, but this research does not address the severe health impacts of these conditions on infants and young children. Translating quantitative research findings into humanitarian interventions requires geographical detail, resulting in location-specific alerts of risks of food insecurity. We describe how the use of readily available, spatially referenced quantitative data can support targeted interventions for nutrition resiliency. Effective humanitarian programmes for targeted nutrition interventions require real-time datasets on food security drivers and models that can provide actionable guidance to mitigate negative impacts of conflict and climate conditions on the people most susceptible to food insecurity. Although treatment of acute malnutrition is important, treating existing malnutrition is not enough. Instead, action to prevent acute malnutrition should be taken to minimise suffering and to maximise wellbeing, particularly in contexts prone to worsening climate and conflict conditions.

Urban Food Strategy in the Making: Context, Conventions and Contestations (2021) 🗎🗎

Contemporary food systems face several paradoxes regarding equity and sustainability. Considering food production-an issue that simultaneously affects both the supply (production) and demand (consumption) sides-several cities have begun to implement new strategies, called Urban Food Policies. These approaches aim to address the various challenges presented by food system failures, while also involving the existing network of grassroot initiatives. For this reason, these have established Food Policy Councils, arenas where institutions can engage with supply chain actors and food activists, deciding through the processes of participatory democracy their Urban Food Strategies. This article investigates the evolution of a new Urban Food Strategy in a middle-sized Italian town, Trento. Despite a growing number of case studies discussing the promises and problematic aspects of UFS, empirical research and analysis tend to overlook the role of the context in which these processes are embedded and how the system of political, economic, cultural, and environmental opportunities weigh upon the success of these policies. The paper draws upon a multi-method qualitative approach combining in-depth interviews, document analysis, and direct observations of the construction process of an Urban Food Strategy for the city of Trento.

Understanding the Transformation to a Knowledge-Based Health Bioeconomy: Exploring Dynamics Linked to Preventive Medicine in Kenya (2021) 🗎🗎

The bioeconomy transition is seen as a means to achieving industrial competitiveness. Targeted actions on leverage points can have specific effects on transitional changes in system dynamics; these actions have yet to be identified in the context of the knowledge-based health bioeconomy in Kenya. This paper employs system dynamics and grounded theory to identify causations linked to the feedback mechanisms in a complex adaptive system specific to preventive medicine in Kenya. The causal relations identified will allow for extended empirical interrogations. We conducted sixteen semi-structured interviews with key informants using purposive and theoretical sampling. Through these interviews, we obtained detailed information on trends for leverage points for a transition to a bioeconomy in Kenya. We developed three qualitative themes along the structure of information flows, rules, and goals of the system. In addition, we determined the overall perception of the health bioeconomy and elaborated stakeholder-specific applications. We identified a dissociation as a general perception that knowledge generation is the preservation of the public sector. Government effectiveness was found to affect public-service turnaround time, transparency, and regulatory interventions. Finally, we identified weak network failures as the key system failures whose functional deficiencies can be exploited for future policy legitimation.

How food systems change (or not): governance implications for system transformation processes (2021) 🗎🗎

This paper argues that supporting food system transformation requires more than obtaining science-based understanding and analysis of how components in the system interact. We argue that changing the emergent properties of food systems (what we call food system synthesis) is a socio-political challenge that is affected by competing views regarding system boundaries and purposes, and limited possibilities for central steering and control. We point to different traditions of 'systems thinking' that each emphasize particular types of interventions for achieving system change, and argue that food systems are best looked at as complex multi-dimensional systems. This implies that we need to move beyond rational engineering approaches to system change, and look for approaches that anticipate and accommodate inherent social tensions and struggles in processes of changing food system dynamics and outcomes. Through a case study on the persistence of an undesired emergent property of food systems (i.e. poverty) we demonstrate that a multi-level perspective (MLP) on system transformation is useful in understanding both how food system transformation has happened in the past, and how desirable transformations is prevented from happening today. Based on such insights we point to key governance strategies and principles that may be used to influence food system transformation as a non-linear and long-term process of competition, negotiation and reconfiguration. Such strategies include the creation and nurturing of diversity in the system, as well as process interventions aimed at visioning, destabilization and formation of discourse coalitions. Such governance interventions imply a considerable re-orientation of investments in food system transformation as well as a rethinking of the role that policy-makers may play in either altering or reproducing undesirable system outcomes.

Towards environmentally sustainable food systems: decision-making factors in sustainable food production and consumption (2021) 🗎🗎

A transformation of the food system will require action and changes in decision making from individuals across the entire food system. This paper synthesises the literature and develops a framework for analysing the factors which influence decision making for sustainable food practices, with a focus on two key actors: primary producers and consumers. We draw on 66 review papers, which represent more than 5000 underlying studies, to derive those factors. The findings indicate that the inextricably intertwined factors in decision making are influenced by the characteristics of the person, in interaction with the characteristics of the more sustainable practice or product, which interacts with a particular context that includes the immediate environment (e.g., household, farm), the indirect environment (e.g., community) and macro-environment factors (e.g., political, financial and economic contexts). To influence people's decision making for sustainable food production or consumption, a wider perspective is needed on decisions and behaviour change, in which individuals are not targeted in isolation, but in interaction with this wider systemic environment. The paper ends by discussing what such a systematic perspective can look like and its potential policy and governance implications. (C) 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Regenerative food systems and the conservation of change (2021) 🗎🗎

In recent years, interest has increased in regenerative practices as a strategy for transforming food systems and solving major environmental problems such as biodiversity loss and climate change. However, debates persist regarding these practices and how they ought to be defined. This paper presents a framework for exploring the regenerative potential of food systems, focusing on how food systems activities and technologies are organized rather than the specific technologies or practices being employed. The paper begins with a brief review of debates over sustainable food systems and the varying ways that regenerative food systems have been defined and theorized. Then, it provides the theoretical backing of the framework-the conservation of change principle-which is an interpretation of the laws of thermodynamics and theories of adaptive change as relevant to the regenerative capacity of living systems. Next, the paper introduces the framework itself, which comprises two independent but intersecting dimensions of food systems organization: resource diversity and livelihood flexibility. These two dimensions result in four archetypical regimes for food systems: degenerative, regenerative, impoverished, and coerced. The paper defines each and offers real-world examples. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of pathways for transforming food systems and opportunities for additional research.

The role of the Brazilian Unified Health System in combating the global syndemic and in the development sustainable food systems (2021) 🗎🗎

The undernutrition and obesity pandemics associated with climate change are a global syndemic. They have a point of convergence, which is the unsustainable current food systems. This paper aims to discuss the role of public health policies, particularly the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) in the context of Primary Health Care, in combating the global syndemic and in the development of sustainable food systems. In this scenario, the National Food and Nutrition Policy is a leading intersectoral tool for an adequate and healthy diet and food and nutrition security. Also, the Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian population is a strategic tool to support food and nutrition education. We highlight the need to articulate health, agriculture, and environmental policies to achieve sustainable development. Thus, SUS can be the arena to promote the main discussions on this topic, potentiating individual, group, and institutional actions to provide a fairer, healthy, and sustainable food system.

Transformative change and policy-making: the case of bioeconomy policies in the EU frontrunners and lessons for latecomers (2021) 🗎🗎

European Union (EU) policies and initiatives have played an increasingly crucial role in the strategic development of bioeconomy across Europe, albeit in a widely uneven manner. This paper provides an overview of the system and policy changes that allowed some countries to become bioeconomy frontrunners in the EU and derives potential lessons for latecomers from the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region. Theoretically, we rely on the conceptual ideas of sustainability transitions and transformative innovation policy to highlight the nature and challenges of a transition towards bioeconomy. Our results show that the requirements of systemic and policy-supported transitions towards bioeconomy are threefold: stable and long timeframes in policy-making and dynamic change agents (fitting particular systems); participatory processes in policy co-design to co-develop visions; and the societal legitimacy of and commitment to bioeconomy.

Food Security and Transition towards Sustainability (2021) 🗎🗎

In the light of linkages in various scales and targets, the complex and nuanced design of the sustainable development goals (SDG) raises more challenges in their implementation on the ground. This paper reviewed 25 food security indicators, proposed improvements to facilitate operationalization, and illustrated practical implementation. The research focused on three essential blind spots that arise from the potential interactions between sustainable food production, consumption, and domestic material consumption (DMC). Projection of latent structure regression was applied to link food security and sustainable development goals. Findings revealed that the key target in reducing trade-offs was the integration of DMC with sustainable food production and consumption. DMC was positively correlated with the creation of coherent SDG strategies and sustainable food security. Practical implications were discussed by highlighting how to achieve food security across contrasting development contexts and the challenges of addressing the links between targets and indicators within and beyond SDGs 2 and 12. The results are useful for setting a proper strategy for sustainable production and consumption that can improve the efficient use of resources in the eight Central European countries.

Articulating the effect of food systems innovation on the Sustainable Development Goals (2021) 🗎🗎

Food system innovations will be instrumental to achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, major innovation breakthroughs can trigger profound and disruptive changes, leading to simultaneous and interlinked reconfigurations of multiple parts of the global food system. The emergence of new technologies or social solutions, therefore, have very different impact profiles, with favourable consequences for some SDGs and unintended adverse side-effects for others. Stand-alone innovations seldom achieve positive outcomes over multiple sustainability dimensions. Instead, they should be embedded as part of systemic changes that facilitate the implementation of the SDGs. Emerging trade-offs need to be intentionally addressed to achieve true sustainability, particularly those involving social aspects like inequality in its many forms, social justice, and strong institutions, which remain challenging. Trade-offs with undesirable consequences are manageable through the development of well planned transition pathways, careful monitoring of key indicators, and through the implementation of transparent science targets at the local level.

From surplus-to-waste: A study of systemic overproduction, surplus and food waste in horticultural supply chains (2021) 🗎🗎

Until recently, food waste prevention intervention has largely offered 'end of pipe solutions' that focus on causes of food waste at specific points in supply chains and on dealing with the physical waste material itself. Recent research has taken a different approach by emphasizing the systemic nature of the food waste problem and the need for its in-depth exploration. This paper offers a systems-based understanding of food waste, which allows for an account of the interconnected processes that underpin waste creation along the whole supply chain. Through a qualitative inquiry on practices and processes of surplus and waste creation in the Australian horticulture industry, the research findings precisely delineate 'surplus-to-waste lock-ins'. That is, the institutional, cultural, and material factors that enable the creation of food waste through the related categories of over-production and surplus formation. The article's identification and analysis of surplus-to-waste lock-ins is grounded in a socio-technical transitions perspective and extends transition studies to agrifood systems and horticultural food waste. This research positions systemic food waste theoretically as a symptom of 'system-lock-in', which may thwart efforts to prevent food waste, and thus bridges micro and macro levels of analysis. These findings translate into three key recommendations for industry, policy and research: that approaches addressing systemic processes of waste creation are essential to unlocking food waste prevention, that food waste prevention should target the identified system processes contributing to food chain lock-ins, and that transparent monitoring and disclosure of food surplus is a prerequisite for systemic food waste prevention across the whole supply chain. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fostering responsible food consumption: A framework combining practice theories and pragmatism applied to an institutional experimental tool (2021) 🗎🗎

Consumer demand is considered a major driver in the food systems transitions and food policies have become characterized by a variety of attempts to steer food consumption by increasing consumer responsibility. However, there is a gap between the way to deal with sustainable consumption goals, and related forms of responsibility, in the institutional sphere and at the household scale. This gap reflects the disjunction between the normative aim of these policies and the cognitive and practical resistances in changing habits. This paper addresses the responsibility concerns pursued by an institutional experimental tool implemented by local institutions and based on collective experimentation. It draws on an in-depth study and ethnographic survey of two editions of the program implemented in two sites in south-eastern France. Combining practice theories and pragmatist sociology, we propose an analytical framework based on the key phases of habit change (disruption, problematisation, experimenting) and components of social practices (meanings, competences, artefacts). Our results suggest that this experimental tool, through cognitive and practical activities, allows for collective problematisation and experimentation which, in turn, allows for a greater reflexivity about one's own habits and stimulates the integration of new practices. In spite of the fact that the responsibilisation processes fostered remain at the household level, collective questioning and experimentation can both highlight what inhibits habit change and enable transformative change at this level. However, changes at a broader level would require the involvement not only of consumers but of much more diverse food system actors.

Exploring alternative pathways toward more sustainable regional food systems by foodshed assessment-City region examples from Vienna and Bristol (2021) 🗎🗎

The resilience of the food supply system has become a vital issue for many countries especially under substantial international supply disturbances (e.g. the effects of COVID-19 restrictions). Regionalizing diets and increasing food self-sufficiency contribute greatly to shortening food supply chains and, therefore, to increasing the resilience of the food system. Simultaneously, food supply disturbances can offer a chance for food system transition toward implementing sustainable management practices in agriculture (e.g. organic farming), increasing the sustainability of food production. In this study, we have proposed a foodshed for the cities of Vienna and Bristol, delineating the spatial extent for such a regionalization and self-sufficiency discussion. We used the Metropolitan Foodshed and Self-sufficiency Scenario model to assess the potential self-sufficiency of these areas under different pathways involving more sustainable and resilient food system scenarios by distinguishing: i) The regionalization, ii) production system, iii) food losses and wastage, and iv) population growth until 2050. Furthermore, we have found the main local food policies and studies involving both cities, linking them to the current self-sufficiency levels and proposing pathways to increase them. Our results suggest that the foodsheds proposed are suitable to achieve a high degree of potential self-sufficiency when shifting consumers' behavior toward sustainably produced regional products, and reducing food wastes in households and food losses in agriculture. This should be accompanied in parallel by an increase in the diversification of regional crop production managed sustainably. We call for the adoption of the foodshed approach - based on the concept of sustainable city region food systems - so that it can be integrated into the food policies to increase food selfsufficiency sustainably.

Review of ecosystem services in a bio-based circular economy and governance mechanisms (2021) 🗎🗎

This paper reviews the literature relating to a type of local bio-based circular economy (BCE) where food waste (FW) is effectively recycled to advanced bio-refineries to produce multiple ecosystem services (ES) including energy, biofertilizer and other value-added products and services. The biofertilizer is applied within urban and peri-urban farms to close the bioresource loop. Such BCE concept has been proposed in several EU countries with varying degree of success in long-term operations. We systematically review the ES of BCE and identify the ES, which are not properly compensated by the market. On this basis, we further review the potential regulatory and supporting mechanisms, which could incentivize the successful implementation of BCE and overcome the market/policy failures. We find that single regulatory instrument at the government and authority level could be compromised by poor governance and practices at other levels, and therefore may not reach its full potential. Instead, we propose a multi-level regulatory and supporting system, which combines the strengths of top-down and bottom-up governances and motivates the self-governance of industry and citizens. We conclude by highlighting a need for multi-level governance research supporting urban sustainable transitions, with a focus on constructing 'policy portfolios' from a systems perspective to better engage government, firms, citizens and other stakeholders.

Alternative Food Networks in Food System Transition-Values, Motivation, and Capacity Building among Young Swedish Market Gardeners (2021) 🗎🗎

This study sheds light on a new generation of Swedish food producers, market gardeners, who are attracting attention in terms of food system sustainability, prompted by increasing consumer awareness about the value of healthy and locally produced food. Market gardening is part of a global agroecological movement opposed to industrialized agriculture and its negative impacts on the environment and rural communities. These food producers challenge the incumbent agri-food regime through the building of alternative food networks. This case-based study involving 14 young vegetable producers showed that young people who engage in market gardening are strongly motivated by dual incentives, namely entrepreneurship and transformation to sustainability. Six main competences were identified as important for market gardeners: practical skills related to growing vegetables, business management, innovation and continuous learning, systems thinking, pioneering, and networking. Individuals develop their skills through continuous experiential learning and gain knowledge through peer-to-peer learning using social media. However, they need to acquire certain skills relating to their daily work in the field and to managing a business. Market gardeners currently face a number of barriers erected by the sociopolitical environment, in particular regarding access to research-based knowledge, extension services, and business support.

Just wheat transitions?: working toward constructive structural changes in wheat production (2021) 🗎🗎

How do we make agricultural practice more sustainable? One way to examine the drivers and barriers to transitions within agriculture is through the sustainability transitions framework. However, this approach has been criticised for not adequately engaging with the lessons of food justice. To correct this deficiency, we suggest the concept, "just transitions." Our argument is informed by honing in on the lived experiences of organic and conventional wheat farmers, especially their challenges and opportunities in transitioning to organic wheat production. Our findings reflect tensions, contradictions, and opportunities in environmental ethics, policies, infrastructure, and socio-economic perspectives and positions. The approach taken reflects a structural-constructivist perspective. Examining structural level proposals, such as the Green New Deal and the Good Food Purchasing Program, our findings suggest more work needs to be done to adequately include rural farmer perspectives, particularly when it comes to the construction of frames around what "good" farming looks like. Specifically, by not including the lived experiences of farmers into these transitions, policymakers and other advocates may struggle to adequately integrate plans that adequately reflect 1) varying regional biophysical characteristics, farmer practices, and sustainability goals; 2) interactions that contribute to tradeoffs within and between both policies and advocacy; 3) the infrastructural path-dependency of farm operations; 4) and the economic and social beliefs, norms, and values which shape what "good" farming looks and feels like. Until this accomplished, it will be hard to envision a transition considered "just" by all stakeholders.

Transitions to sustainability as open-ended processes: Local Agroecological Dynamization with conventional, vegetable farmers in l'Horta de Valencia, Spain (2021) 🗎🗎

In recent years, scientific research on sustainability transitions in the agri-food system has been receiving growing attention, shaping differentiated proposals for different contexts and territorial scales. However, the possible transition trajectories undertaken from conventional situations and actors have been less studied. This article analyzes three case studies, in which the Local Agroecological Dynamization methodology has been applied to promote transitions towards sustainability in groups of conventional, water-fed vegetable farmers in the municipality of Valencia. The discussion provides relevant empirical reflections on aspects poorly developed until now, such as the dialectics between deterministic and open-ended visions regarding the trajectories and specific contents of each transition process; the nature and features of the subject of the transitions; or the role of the agroecological approach in the conceptualization of transitions towards food systems sustainability. The article points out the importance of non-deterministic approaches for addressing complex situations, the need to deepen the analysis of the subjects of the transitions towards agri-food sustainability, and the development of methodological frameworks adapted to each specific profile.

Exploring transitions towards sustainable farming practices through participatory research ? The case of Danish farmers ? use of species mixtures (2021) 🗎🗎

CONTEXT: There is a widespread acknowledgement that research should be supporting farmers' transition processes towards more sustainable farming systems by applying participatory research approaches. However, scientific papers dealing with participatory research on farming systems seldom include a reflection on the outcome of these processes or the methodological implications of such an aim. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the research process presented in this paper was together with a group of Danish farmers to explore the potential use of species mixtures in their own farming contexts by following several participatory research principles. METHODS: 16 farmers volunteered to participate in the joint research process initiated by on-farm experimentation with a diverse catch crop mixture. The paper presents seven activities of the research process carried out using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods such as an applied game, farm visits, on-farm experimentation, common evaluations and discussions. The authors have analysed the process as a case study using three levels of empirical observations and descriptive narratives. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The authors found that the farmers were involved throughout the two-and-a-half year study period and experimented with species mixtures using different strategies. With the researchers, they identified and challenged structural, agronomic, technical and social barriers, and investigated the potential of species mixtures adapted to local conditions. The case study revealed that both farmers and researchers need to take on new roles, with farmers needing to invest their resources and time to come up with valuable data and knowledge. Similarly, researchers need to facilitate the explorative research process by meeting farmers' needs while being able to draw valuable scientific conclusions. This requires new skills that have not traditionally been valued in agricultural sciences. SIGNIFICANCE: This study demonstrates that the barriers to changing farmers' cropping practices are not necessarily due solely to technical challenges or a lack of knowledge. Instead, researchers need to look beyond the farm gate and involve other actors in unlocking the potential of an increased use of species mixtures.

Toward Collaborative Cross-Sector Business Models for Sustainability (2021) 🗎🗎

Sustainability challenges typically occur across sectoral boundaries, calling the state, market, and civil society to action. Although consensus exists on the merits of cross-sector collaboration, our understanding of whether and how it can create value for various, collaborating stakeholders is still limited. This special issue focuses on how new combined knowledge on cross-sector collaboration and business models for sustainability can inform the academic and practitioner debates about sustainability challenges and solutions. We discuss how cross-sector collaboration can play an important role for the transition to new and potentially sustainability-driven business models given that value creation, delivery, and capture of organizations are intimately related to the collaborative ties with their stakeholders. Sustainable alternatives to conventional business models tend to adopt a more holistic perspective of business by broadening the spectrum of solutions and stakeholders and, when aligned with cross-sector collaboration, can contribute new ways of addressing the wicked sustainability problems humanity faces.

Lock-ins to the dissemination of genetically improved fish seeds (2021) 🗎🗎

Well-functioning fish seed systems are crucial for human nutrition and improved livelihoods. Yet fish seed systems have received considerably little attention in the diffusion process for genetically improved strains. This study examined how seed systems of genetically improved fish strains function, assessed constraints faced, and explored entry-points to increased diffusion. To address these objectives, the study combined the seed systems performance assessment framework with innovation systems thinking. Data came from participatory multi-stakeholder workshops and interviews with tilapia hatchery operators and grow-out farmers in Bangladesh. We found that tilapia seed production and dissemination was profitable and cost-effective indicating a business case for supply chain actors. However, there were several binding constraints including low adoption of elite broodstock, vulnerability to weather shocks and diseases, poor quality of complementary inputs, intermittent electricity supply, hidden costs of seed transportation, and limited market access. These constraints and their causes interacted, creating systemic lock-ins through blocking mechanisms related to incomplete enforcement of regulatory frameworks to control hatchery practices and quality of inputs; limited knowledge about broodstock management, quality seed production, and disease management; weak adaptive capacity to weather shocks; and limited access to credit. Projects, programs, and policies targeted at accelerating adoption of good quality fish seed should focus on the following important aspects. First, strengthening institutional capacity to monitor and enforce quality control. Second, increasing advocacy and knowledge transfer about benefits and sources of elite broodstock. Third, promoting adoption of better management practices by hatcheries and farmers including adaptation to weather shocks. Fourth, leveraging partnerships with local service providers as intermediaries. Fifth, using social networks for information diffusion among farmers.

Social Acceptance of Forest-Based Bioeconomy-Swedish Consumers' Perspectives on a Low Carbon Transition (2021) 🗎🗎

The concept of the bioeconomy is associated with sustainable development changes and involves transitions in both production and consumption within systems. Many of these transitions relate to using renewable resources, like forest biomass, to meet basic needs, such as food, energy and housing. However, consumers must become aware of the forest-based bioeconomy so that they can contribute to the transition. This study aims to contribute to an understanding of this matter that may lead to social acceptance of the forest-based bioeconomy and, in particular, to Swedish consumer awareness of the concept and of a particular product (wooden multi-story buildings) representing the forest-based bioeconomy. The results show consumer awareness of forest sequestration capacity but less awareness of the connection to the forest-based bioeconomy and the role of wooden multi-story buildings. The results indicate a slow transition that is hindered by path dependence and limited comprehension among consumers of the effects of their choices for a forest-based bioeconomy. This study provides valuable insights for future studies of how consumer awareness and social acceptance of the forest-based bioeconomy are interconnected.

Food Plastic Packaging Transition towards Circular Bioeconomy: A Systematic Review of Literature (2021) 🗎🗎

Advancement in packaging technology has played an essential role in reducing food waste and losses; however, most of this technology relies mostly on the use of plastics. Thus, there is an imminent need to think seriously about the transition towards a circular bioeconomy of innovative biobased materials with biodegradability potentials. This paper examines the driving forces behind the changes in food plastic packaging regimes and specifically seeks to understand how socio-technical configurations may influence niches to transition to a circular bioeconomy, particularly biobased biodegradable plastic materials. By employing a systematic review of the literature, we find that coordination with other back-end socio-technical systems that provide valorization of packaging waste is crucial to enable the transition. The literature indicates that one possible transition path is that the biobased biodegradable materials serve as "carriers of food waste". The paper contributes to the discussion on the dynamics of food packaging in the transition to a bioeconomy viewed through the lenses of a socio-technical system (niche-regime-landscape), which continues to reinforce future actions, leading to better management of packaging end-of-life.

Innovative approaches to healthy nutrition and sustainable food matters by concerned parties: Insights from the INPROFOOD project (case study: Turkey) Turkey's outputs from INPROFOOD (2021) 🗎🗎

Objectives: Food-related issues, which directly concern all societies and are closely related to the management of limited resources, are always high up on the world agenda. In this context, we addressed healthy nutrition and sustainable food matters using different methods within the scope of Towards Inclusive Research Programming for Sustainable Food Innovations, one of the projects of the 7th Framework Programme. This study presents the opinions of representatives from different sectors towards innovative approaches to healthy nutrition and sustainable food in Turkey. Methods: Three European Awareness Scenario Workshops were organised to apply the qualitative research method to group activities like brainstorming and the study of scenarios. This study considers and descriptively analyses the subjects that came into focus among the results of the workshops. Results: Considering the topics discussed in the workshops, it is clear that food policies, food and nutrition themed research, healthy nutrition, rational distribution and use of resources, and food safety practices were the most prominent approaches to creating food sustainability. Conclusions: As a result of the activities organised during this project, participants found that most food sustainability problems are widespread and commonly encountered. Thus, the relevant sectors must work together to eliminate visible and invisible obstacles between the consumer and healthy food and to ensure the performance of duties and responsibilities by relevant parties in food manufacturing, transportation, etc.

Pathways to a forest-based bioeconomy in 2060 within policy targets on climate change mitigation and biodiversity protection (2021) 🗎🗎

While climate change and biodiversity loss have exposed humanity to major systemic risks, policymakers in more than 40 countries have proposed the transition from a fossil-based to a bio-based economy as a solution to curb the risks. In the boreal region, forests have a prominent role in contributing to bioeconomy development; however, forest-based bioeconomy transition pathways towards sustainability and the required actions have not yet been identified. Participatory backcasting was employed in this study to 'negotiate' such pathways among Finnish stakeholders by 2060 in three forest-based value networks: forest biorefineries, fibre-based packaging and wooden multistorey construction. There are many alternative pathways, ranging from incremental to more radical, to a forest-based bioeconomy within a framework of ambitious climate and biodiversity targets. Path dependence can support incremental development on bioeconomy transition pathways, and this should be considered when planning transition towards sustainability. Orchestration of the more radical changes requires actions from legislators, raw material producers, consumers and researchers, because the possibilities for business development vary between different companies and value networks. The envisioned actions between the pathways in and across the networks, such as forest diversification and diverse wood utilisation, can offer cobenefits in climate change mitigation and biodiversity protection.

Driving Green Investments by Measuring Innovation Impacts. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Regional Bioeconomy Growth (2021) 🗎🗎

Regional policies play a pivotal role in green transition and pursuing the European Green Deal decarbonization targets. Despite the general recognition of the strategic value of the bioeconomy in realizing this challenge, regional roadmaps for its growth are not yet a widespread tool in local innovation policy. Conversely, driving green investments by measuring the innovation potential of the bioeconomy could shape a low-carbon economy by leveraging the full potential of local resources. In order to validate a replicable decision-making model driving 2021-2027 ERDF funds towards this mission, this paper measures the economic, social and technological impact of the Lombard bioeconomy through five applications and eight criteria. The methodology allows quantification of the local bioeconomy value and, through a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), identifies the bio-based applications with the highest innovation potential. By measuring the current and prospective impact of the bioeconomy, Bio-chemicals, Agri-foods, and Biopolymers emerges as the applications with the highest innovation potential rate for Lombardy. Five recommendations to drive green investments and shape the regional roadmap for the bioeconomy are finally defined, providing a tool for industrial applications with a greater impact on local competitiveness.

Agro-Food Innovation and Sustainability Transition: A Conceptual Synthesis (2021) 🗎🗎

The global community faces the challenge of feeding a growing population with declining resources, making transformation to sustainable agriculture and food systems all the more imperative and 'innovation' all the more crucial. In this study, agro-food system innovation (re)defines sustainability transition with a complexity construct of cross-scale interaction and an adaptive cycle of system change. By taking a panarchical view, top-down and bottom-up pathways to innovation can be reconciled and are not contradictory, enabling and constraining innovation at every level. This study breaks down the structure of the agricultural innovation system into four components based on multi-level perspectives of sustainability transition, namely: actors and communities, interaction and intermediaries, coherence and connectedness and regimes rules and landscape. Meanwhile, this research frames the functional construct of system innovation for food and agriculture with five perspectives drawing on broad inputs from different schools of thought, namely: knowledge management, user sophistication, entrepreneurial activities' directionality and reflexive evaluation. This research advocates for an ecosystem approach to agricultural innovation that gives full play to niche-regime interactions using social-technical perspectives.

Participating in food waste transitions: exploring surplus food redistribution in Singapore through the ecologies of participation framework (2021) 🗎🗎

Food waste is a global societal meta-challenge requiring a sustainability transition involving everyone, including publics. However, to date, much transitions research has been silent on the role of public participation and overly narrow in its geographical reach. In response, this paper examines whether the ecologies of participation (EOP) approach provides a conceptual framing for understanding the role of publics within food waste transitions in Singapore. First the specificities of Singapore's socio-political context and its food waste management system is reviewed, before discussing dominant, diverse and emergent forms of public engagement with food waste issues. This is followed by in-depth consideration of how participation is being orchestrated by two surplus food redistribution initiatives. Our analysis finds the EOP beneficial in its elevation of participation within the transitions field. It also provides a useful means to deconstruct elements that comprise participation practices and discuss culture-specific motivations, organisational realities and visceral experiences.

Social finance for sustainable food systems: opportunities, tensions and ambiguities (2021) 🗎🗎

In recent years social financiers have been increasingly investing in alternative food systems to improve sustainability outcomes. However, social finance for alternative food systems remains small and marginalized. This article seeks to understand why this approach is not yet making a larger impact towards food system transformation. It does so by investigating a specific application of social finance through the case of Slow Money to get answers as to why social finance occupies a niche role in food system transformation. These answers provide helpful lessons for Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) seeking to transform food systems towards greater sustainability. This study tracks the intended impacts of these initiatives and provides insights about the potential role of social finance for promoting AFNs. Key themes emerged regarding the ability of social financing initiatives to support AFNs and transform the food system for greater sustainability. These themes resonate with the literature on AFNs in meaningful ways, but also highlight an important contradiction between systemic change and individual action. The findings show that the Slow Money model contains some useful elements for radical transformation but is ultimately limited in its ability to support deeper, transformative change. The conclusion advances recommendations for ways of enhancing the transformative potential of community financing initiatives in light of the findings, emphasizing the role of public investments.

Actor motivations to engage with collaborative agri-environmental policy: An assemblage based exploration (2021) 🗎🗎

Governments around the world are seeking to achieve socially just transitions to environmentally sustainable modes of agricultural production. Policy makers have increasingly sought to engage an array of societal actors in the collaborative design and implementation of associated policies, which we refer to as Agri-Environmental Policy (AEP) initiatives. Yet, the existing literature includes little context specific exploration of the motivations of those who engage with such initiatives. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the motivations of a small group of actors who established and coordinated a collaborative group to apply to one AEP initiative in Ireland - the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability (EIP-AGRI). This group included three farmers, an agri-environmental policy advocate, and a research scientist. Drawing on assemblage literature, we illustrate how each of these actors' motivations emerged 1) based on the specific relationships in which they operated and 2) based on their imagining of potential future scenarios, which they sought to actualise through EIP-AGRI. This paper thus provides a qualitative account of how motivations emerge as different actors creatively navigate complex sets of relationships. We illustrate the utility of an assemblage approach to explore such motivations in ways that account for specific contexts and the capacity of each actor to engage with possible futures. We conclude that the capacity of collaborative approaches to AEP to appeal to actors from different backgrounds relies heavily on such actors' ability to envisage and anticipate new possibilities. This line of exploration helps us to better understand the extent to which collaborative AEP may align the multiple goals associated with transitioning to environmentally sustainable and socially just food production systems.

Governing Transitions towards Sustainable Agriculture-Taking Stock of an Emerging Field of Research (2021) 🗎🗎

The need for fundamental changes in the way humans interact with nature is now widely acknowledged in order to achieve sustainable development. Agriculture figures prominently in this quest, being both a major driver and a major threat to global sustainability. Agricultural systems typically have co-evolved with other societal structures-retailers, land management, technology, consumer habits, and environmental and agricultural law-and can therefore well be described as socio-technical regimes in the sense of the sustainability transitions literature. This paper aims to give an overview of the emerging field of governing transitions to sustainability agriculture and the topics and trends covered, focusing on how agricultural transitions are being governed through a variety of actors and at a variety of levels. We conduct a systematic review of 153 articles published before the year 2019. We identify two main perspectives: papers that analyse the status quo in farming practices and reasons for lock-in, and papers that explore potential transition pathways and their governance. Predominantly, papers study (local) niche developments and discuss governance options for upscaling, rather than actual regime change. Seven distinct perspectives emerge from our reading of the selected articles: application of theoretical perspectives from the literature on socio-technical transitions; governance and regulation; knowledge and learning; concrete approaches to reduce the environmental impact of agricultural systems; urbanisation, urban agriculture, and local food networks; the role of agri-food businesses; as well as the role of gender. While a variety of local case studies shows potential for small-scale changes that might be transferable to other regions and higher levels of governance, it generally appears that more integrative, comparative work and perhaps more coherence in conceptual approaches would benefit the currently highly fragmented field.

Critical Food Safety Issues Facing the Food Industry: A Delphi Analysis (2021) 🗎🗎

The topic of food safety continues to receive increased attention and has ramifications on various human, environmental, policy, and economic levels worldwide. By garnering feedback from 30 food industry experts, this study was undertaken to identify the most critical issues facing the food industry in relation to food safety. According to expert opinion and after three rounds of Delphi inquiry, food contamination detection, outbreaks, and prevention along with governmental oversight, education for and communication with consumers and employees, and globalization were identified as the main areas at the forefront of food safety. Delphi and constant comparative research methods are explained, and suggestions on how to make meaning from the results to progress in this area are discussed.

A transdisciplinary study of agroecological niches: understanding sustainability transitions in vineyards (2021) 🗎🗎

Despite a widely agreed necessity for agroecological transition, there are various substantial constraints that hinder the adoption of alternative, more sustainable, practices. We employ the niche management concept to examine the initial phases of transition in the local wine-growing niche in Israel, or specifically, the replacement of herbicides with the use of cover-crops combined with the practice of mowing of herbaceous growth using specialized trimming machines. Our goal is to uncover the triggers, drivers and agents of change in farming practices within the agroecological system in which it happened, despite entrenched, widely recognized risk perceptions among farmers. The problem-oriented research design revolved around a transdiciplinary team that included ecologists and social scientists. We identified three groups of frontrunners who initiated, developed and sustained the adoption of the more sustainable agricultural practices. The two-year study focused on interviewing vineyard farmers who were transitioning to cover crops, and this qualitative research was paralleled with continuous ecological monitoring. The farmers believed that the risks inherent in the new practice, if any, were preventable and manageable. The transdisciplinary research design, which integrated farmers into the social and ecological research process, further assisted in facilitating a transition by creating a forum for stimulating communication between diverse stakeholders during the transition, increasing trust between actors from the various sectors and identifying key issues of concern (e.g., risk and associated costs) to better align the motives of farmers, wine-makers, and ecologists. The research design may have also contributed to the adoption of a more holistic view of the agroecological system by various stakeholders and the belief that one cultivation method clearly benefits the system, particularly in the long-term. We therefore conclude with key-insights on the role of the research itself in agroecological transition processes.

COVID-19 as an Opportunity for a Healthy-Sustainable Food Transition. An Analysis of Dietary Transformations during the First Italian Lockdown (2021) 🗎🗎

The COVID-19 emergency and the consequent social distancing requirements have caused major disruptions in daily food-related practices at the household level. In this paper, we evaluate the transformations that occurred in the daily nutritional choices and behaviors of a convenience sample (n = 2288) of Italian residents during the first nation-wide lockdown (March-May 2020) to assess the impact on the health and socio-environmental sustainability of their diets. Results portray a scenario of wide-spread change, especially in relation to the quantity of daily food consumed, the composition of diets and the time and commitment devoted to home-cooking, with young individuals emerging as the most impacted generational cohort. Through the construction of an indicator for healthy-sustainable transition (HST index), we demonstrate that such changes unfold on a gradient, revealing that while for many respondents lockdown nutrition implied overeating and weight gain, a substantial segment of the population conversely improved the healthiness and sustainability of their daily nutritional patterns. In this sense, improvements are associated with young age, socio-economic status, frequency and enjoyment of cooking-from-scratch and, more generally, an attentive attitude towards the quality, provenance and materiality of food that, in turn, the COVID-19 crisis appears to have re-kindled. We conclude by highlighting five areas of institutional intervention (i.e., young people, time, tools, food supply at work, and local food chains) on which to focus in order to ensure the current crisis does not represent a missed opportunity for creating the necessary conditions for sustainable food production and consumption to take hold as the 'new' normal in the post-pandemic era.

Sustainability Transitions in University Food Service-A Living Lab Approach of Locavore Meal Planning and Procurement (2021) 🗎🗎

Due to its purchasing power, the public food service sector is viewed as a potential transformative driver towards sustainable food systems. Organic meal planning and regional procurement may be a vital implementation strategy towards Planetary Health Diets in the communal catering arena. Capable of unleashing desirable synergies within local foodsheds, this transition pathway can potentially benefit all stages of the value chain, while also positively influencing consumer dietary behavior. Transformation, however, poses complex challenges to caterers, as it demands a shift in mindset regarding the philosophy, organization, and management of cafeteria systems as well as the need for affordable and aggregated supplies of source-identified local organic foods. This action research case study engaged the public caterer of a German University, undergraduate students, and additional stakeholders in a Living Lab to develop a weekly farm-to-table cafeteria menu, including its actual preparation, based on a conceptual sustainability standard. Hence, through an iterative process, involving two feedback cycles, an ambitious set of nutritional and procurement criteria were devised, inspired by the external input from exemplary practitioners in the field of green cuisine and procurement. The resulting meal plan was then subjected to an evaluation vis-a-vis its compliance with (1) dietary recommendations, (2) seasonality, (3) organic certification, (4) a defined foodshed boundary, (5) budget neutrality, and (6) life cycle assessment.

Transition Pathways of Agroecological Innovation in Portugal's Douro Wine Region. A Multi-Level Perspective (2021) 🗎🗎

The Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) is an analytical framework developed to explain transitions towards sustainability. This article aims to contribute to enhancing the use of the MLP to understand the transitions towards sustainability in agriculture. We propose that MLP is an insightful framework to capture particular micro-level trajectories of adopting innovations. The Douro wine region in Northern Portugal, known worldwide for the wines that are produced there, was the study area of our empirical research. This region has become the stage for developing a complex agroecological innovation, the Ecological Infrastructures (EIs). These consist of a combination of techniques that aim to expand the ecosystem services of the vineyards. The uniqueness of its development at the farm level originates a multiplicity of innovation trajectories, which are the focus of this study. Content analysis of 20 interviews with winegrowers was performed, and the results were analysed through the MLP framework. This allowed us to conclude that a process of transition towards the sustainability of region-level winegrowing is underway, and that it can be explained by the overlapping of different paths of adopting innovation. Our research shows that in-depth analysis of qualitative data, done through content analysis, can be used to amplify the insightfulness of MLP by enabling it to uncover the microscale transition pathways that shape uneven region-level transitions.

Retailing local food through supermarkets: Cases from Belgium and the Netherlands (2021) 🗎🗎

The (re)localization of food systems is often presented as an alternative to the 'globalized' food system and its presumed unsustainabilities. Studies on sustainability transitions and food systems (re)localization predominantly address the role of Alternative Food Networks whereas the role that conventional supermarket based retail can play has not been as thoroughly studied. Supermarkets, however, take a central position as a main access point for food. Conventional retailing practices are increasingly guided by corporate sustainability principles and therein also increasingly offering locally sourced foods. Supermarkets thus cannot be ignored in discussions on food systems (re)localization and agro-food sustainability transitions. In this paper we assess how food system (re)localization is translated within conventional globalized supermarket-based food retailing in Belgium and the Netherlands taking a practice theory informed approach. First, we discuss the tensions and reinforcing mechanisms between local and conventional food retailing. We demonstrate that to overcome tensions between local and conventional retailing there is a need for increased flexibility (i) in deviating from conventional retailing practices for individual stores; and (ii) within the definition of locality e the definition of 'local' determines what local practices look like. Second, we assess how local retailing relates to corporate sustainability. Conventional and local retailing practices are motivated by corporate sustainability strategies. Local retailing is predominantly motivated by social-economic sustainability considerations, whereas the environmental sustainability of local food is implicitly assumed. However, our results suggest that local food retailing may be ineffective and even counterproductive to corporate environmental sustainability objectives. Finally, we address how regional policies pushing food system localization influence local food retailing within supermarkets. Regional policies may drive supermarkets to retail local foods. Nevertheless, in the absence of a centralized strategy, store managers may find themselves stuck between their regional context and their corporate retailing practices. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Potential of Bioeconomic Innovations to Contribute to a Social-Ecological Transformation: A Case Study in the Livestock System (2021) 🗎🗎

Environmental crises, which are consequences of resource-intensive lifestyles and are characterized to a large extent by both a changing climate and a loss of biodiversity, stress the urgent need for a global social-ecological transformation of the agro-food system. In this regard, the bioeconomy and bioeconomic innovations have frequently been seen as instrumental in addressing these grand challenges and contributing to more sustainable land use. To date, the question of how much bioeconomic innovations contribute to sustainability objectives remains unanswered. Against this background, we study four bioeconomic innovations using the case study of animal production and manure utilization in relation to their potential contributions to a social-ecological transformation. The analysis is based on the application of analytical categories derived from the literature that assess the normativity of these innovations and their implicit cultural changes. The results show that the innovations examined manifest existing thought styles and the incumbent socio-technical regime rather than contribute to a more fundamental transition. In this respect, we stress the importance of evolving alterative ideas in innovation design, applying more integrative approaches, such as embedding innovation processes into transdisciplinary processes, and developing adaptive and reflective governance approaches. In return, bioeconomic innovations should adjust towards the design mission of a social-ecological transformation and include a multitude of actors to discuss and harmonize contesting imaginaries and ethical concerns.

Transition to a Sustainable Bioeconomy (2021) 🗎🗎

Exceeding planetary boundaries, and especially climate change, requires economies worldwide to decarbonize and to incorporate principles of sustainable development. Transforming a traditional economy into a sustainable bioeconomy by replacing fossil resources through renewable biogenic resources offers a solution to this end. However, seemingly opposing transition perspectives (i.e., technology-based vs. socio-ecological) lead to fragmented efforts, and the exact form of the transition pathway to the goal of a bioeconomy remains unclear. We examine the issue by involving an international expert sample in a Delphi survey and subsequent cross-impact analysis. Based on the experts' views, we present a list of events necessary to achieve the transformation ranked by the experts to reflect their urgency. The cross-impact analysis facilitates combining the eight most urgent events to create an integrated model of the transition to a sustainable bioeconomy. Our findings suggest that, rather than bioeconomy strategies, investment in the relevant sectors currently constitutes the main bottleneck hindering such a transition.

The impact of COVID-19 on alternative and local food systems and the potential for the sustainability transition: Insights from 13 countries (2021) 🗎🗎

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major stress test for the agri-food system. While most research has analysed the impact of the pandemic on mainstream food systems, this article examines how alternative and local food systems (ALFS) in 13 countries responded in the first months of the crisis. Using primary and secondary data and combining the Multi-Level Perspective with social innovation approaches, we highlight the innovations and adaptations that emerged in ALFS, and how these changes have created or supported the sustainability transition in production and consumption systems. In particular, we show how the combination of social and technological innovation, greater citizen involvement, and the increased interest of policy-makers and retailers have enabled ALFS to extend their scope and engage new actors in more sustainable practices. Finally, we make recommendations concerning how to support ALFS' upscaling to embrace the opportunities arising from the crisis and strengthen the sustainability transition. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers.

Entrepreneurial Talent Building for 21st Century Agricultural Innovation (2021) 🗎🗎

Agricultural innovation is a key component of the global economy and enhances food security, health, and nutrition. Current innovation efforts focus mainly on supporting the transition to sustainable food systems, which is expected to harness technological advances across a range of fields. In this Nano Focus, we discuss how such efforts would benefit from not only supporting farmer participation in deciding transition pathways but also in fostering the interdisciplinary training and development of entrepreneurial-minded farmers, whom we term "AgTech Pioneers", to participate in cross-sector agricultural innovation ecosystems as cocreators and informed users of developing and future technologies. Toward this goal, we discuss possible strategies based on talent development, cross-disciplinary educational and training programs, and innovation clusters to build an AgTech Pioneer ecosystem, which can help to reinvigorate interest in farming careers and to identify and address challenges and opportunities in agriculture by accelerating and applying advances in nanoscience, nanotechnology, and related fields.

Data-Driven Sustainability: Metrics, Digital Technologies, and Governance in Food and Agriculture* (2021) 🗎🗎

In recent years, performance metrics and digital technologies have gained substantial support to advance on-farm sustainability. The combined use of metrics and digital technologies represents a potentially important shift in agricultural sustainability governance, which has largely been dominated by the use of standards and certification. Focusing on the U.S. context, this paper examines the operationalization of the emerging metrics and data (M&D) approach to sustainability governance in food and agriculture. Specifically, we analyze the factors undergirding the growing usage of an M&D approach to sustainability, the structure, and practices of such an approach as well as the roles and implications for key actors in agrifood systems. Our analysis indicates that although an M&D approach to an agricultural sustainability transition potentially addresses some of the critiques and limitations associated with the use of standards and certification and has the growing support of a range of stakeholders, it also faces numerous challenges. These include a lack of incentives and insufficient value for growers, concerns over data ownership and access, and barriers to the translation of data into changes in grower management and practices.

Transformative potential from the ground up: Sustainable innovation journeys, soft change and alignment of interests in urban food initiatives (2021) 🗎🗎

This paper utilises the 'sustainable innovation journeys' concept to trace how people organise and design urban food initiatives and influence city-region food policy. We evaluate whether designs succeed or fail and monitor the exchange of ideas that takes place between stakeholders. Tracing these interactions reveals the transformative potential of innovative projects, particularly if the food system changes they bring to the fore are aligned with policy interests. Three case studies provide on-the-ground insights to assess how small and medium-sized enterprises at the micro-level induce sustainability shifts. The case studies are businesses in the city-regions of Rotterdam, The Netherlands (urban farm and circular food economy); Vigo, Spain (food, forest and multi-functional land use); and Zurich, Switzerland (organic food and short supply chains). Each initiative was studied in-depth over a two-year period, with follow-up analysis for a further four years to monitor change over time (2013-2018). The cases promote the adoption of micro-level innovation practices: locally designed transition pathways that bring the benefits of change to the city-region (i.e. from the micro-level initiative to meso-level policy). The analysis highlights the importance of 'soft change'. This can be something as simple as visiting an inspiring urban food initiative and meeting with stakeholders to generate mutual understanding, from where interests align to influence food chain practices and policy. Soft changes act as 'seeds of transition' for a shift towards more sustainable urban food systems, but we observe too potentially negative impacts due to lack of alignment at the micro- (initiative) or meso- (city-region) levels.

Resisting the vineyard invasion: Anti-pesticide movements as a vehicle for territorial food democracy and just sustainability transitions (2021) 🗎🗎

Academic literature has so far explored food democracy and citizen participation in agri-food system governance mainly in relation to the 'food' end of agri-food systems, and primarily in urban contexts. We argue that this focus can be usefully extended to agricultural production and to wider territorial processes occurring in rural areas. In this study, we examine the development of a grassroots movement demanding stricter municipal regulation of agricultural pesticide use and support for a more sustainable and localised agri-food system. The study site, located in the north-eastern Italian Alps, has in recent years been characterized by the spread of intensive agriculture, particularly due to the expansion of vineyards. Our conceptual framework brings together the literature on food democracy and just sustainability transitions, seen from a territorial perspective. We use this framework to examine the role played by civil society organisations and alternative food networks in municipal and territorial agri-food system governance. The results show how the grassroots anti-pesticide mobilisation played a key role in reforming municipal pesticide regulations and in slowing down the spread of intensive agriculture in the province. We also draw attention to the framings used by activists to gain the support of public opinion and local administrators. Finally, we discuss the role played by different forms of food democracy processes in facilitating the emergence of a territorial vision of just sustainability transitions.

Digital fooding, cashless marketplaces and reconnection in intermediated third places: Conceptualizing metropolitan food provision in the age of prosumption (2021) 🗎🗎

This article adopts the concept of prosumption in order to better understand the array of contemporary food sustainability transition initiatives that often come under the umbrella term of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). AFNs have developed in parallel to prosumption, which is significant because AFNs are oriented towards localized and direct relationships between producers and consumers, while prosumption explains the hybridization of the consumer into a more complex and productive actor. Scholars argue that producer-consumer reconnections enable greater transparency and information exchange between the two types of actors. In addition, digitalization has recently brought new perspectives for both prosumption and AFN research. We explain the digital food prosumption phenomenon by drawing upon several years of research on an alternative food network with strong digital focus ? La Ruche qui dit Oui!. As a decentralized network of local food operations that converge around a digital platform, it provides innovative virtual-material mediations between producers and consumers. This suggests that increasingly, consumers may be getting more deeply engaged in the (co-) production of commodities across different sectors and activities. Thus, while the prosumption and AFN literatures have mostly existed in parallel, future efforts should be made to intersect these two areas of sociological research. This is particularly pertinent today, as both prosumption and AFN phenomena are now increasingly mediated by powerful digital technologies. In the digital age, the alternative food prosumer phenomenon may well contribute to reconfiguring global food flows and industrial cultures towards sustainability.

Regional policy mobilities: Shaping and reshaping bioeconomy policies in Varmland and Vasterbotten, Sweden (2021) 🗎🗎

Interest has grown over recent years in policy programs targeting a green, bio-based economy. In the European Union, the European Commission promotes the development of bioeconomy policy and encourages the use of biomass and waste for industrial purposes. Alongside these technical dimensions, European bioeconomy policy also promotes knowledge sharing, learning from others, and so-called 'best practice'. Consequently, many European places and policymakers that have committed to developing a bio-based economy are now sharing their positive policy experiences. However, sharing 'best practice' for green economy policy programs has sometimes been described as producing oversimplified views of complex climate issues. Despite such criticisms, policymakers continue to search for and share bioeconomy policy 'best practice'. This paper explores the development of bioeconomy policy with a focus on shareability and dissemination of `best practice' in two Swedish regions, Varmland and Vasterbotten. Herein, we adopt the conceptual underpinnings of urban policy mobilities to explain green policymaking, and more specifically bioeconomy policy development on a regional scale. So far, policy mobilities research has had a primarily urban focus, whereas this paper provides valuable insights into how these processes take place within regional and more peripheral settings. Thus, we seek to understand the role of 'best practice' in the development of regional bioeconomy policies and which elements of these policies are promoted as transferable elsewhere.

Opening the organisational black box to grasp the difficulties of agroecological transition. An empirical analysis of tensions in agroecological production cooperatives (2021) 🗎🗎

Whereas many studies adopting a broad perspective on sustainability have highlighted the differences and interactions between alternative and conventional models of agricultural production, very few have investigated the contradictions internal to farm organizations engaged in agroecological transition. In order to understand the difficulties faced by farmers in combining multiple aspirations, we study agroecological production cooperatives (APCs) through the tensions between their different institutional logics. We use a qualitative analysis to address these tensions, and the responses to them, related to their territorial, self-management, and agroecological logics. Various local actors have different conceptions of agroecology, based on diverse levels of knowledge of agricultural practices and on dissimilar interests. This entails various preferences regarding technical choices and farm management. Agroecology?s emphasis on diversity, local resources, experimentation, labour intensity and the long run may contradict financial considerations and the quality of working conditions of farmers. Setting up deliberation arenas is key to elaborating agreed compromises regarding the agroecological conception, as well as the governance of farm organizations.

Alternative proteins and EU food law (2021) 🗎🗎

We ask how European food law impacts the transformative potential of alternative proteins, including single-cell proteins, plant-based novel proteins, cultured meat,macroalgae, and insects. The Novel Food Regulation may prove insurmountable for small companies, and it is demanding and time-consuming even for larger companies, dampening the transformative potential of all novel foods and traditional foods from third countries. Several microalgae and macroalgae are non-novel in the EU, which eases their way into the markets. The unclear novel food status of some potential green macroalgae species is a hindrance. All insects are novel, and none has EU-level authorization yet, although some Member States allow insect food. The GM Food Regulation is proce-durally and scientifically demanding, and it forces GM labelling. The Regulation dampens the transformative potential of food GM technology. In addition to crops and fruit, GM Food Regulation applies to genetically modified or edited microbes,microalgae, cultured meat, and insects. The naming and labelling rules of plant -based products have caused controversy. From the business perspective, the health claims process is similarly challenging as the novel food process. EU food law must guarantee food safety and consumer rights while applying the principles of nondiscrimination and proportionality.

Exchanges among farmers? collectives in support of sustainable agriculture: From review to reconceptualization (2021) 🗎🗎

Successful sustainable transitions require an understanding of the drivers and resources needed to support the required changes. While the importance of farmers? collectives in these transitions is underlined by various scientific studies and public policies, we lack an overview of how scholars are dealing with this topic. This paper has two main objectives: i) a review of the studies that explore the interplay between exchanges among collectives and the farmers? transition pathways to sustainable agriculture, and ii) a conceptual framework to analyze this interplay. Drawing on a review of 43 scientific articles, it highlights a variety of possible theoretical and methodological approaches and interpretations to inform our understanding. Based on the literature, we have distinguished four perspectives in this field: i) the way farmers rely on collectives during their transition process; ii) the collectives as complex organizations; iii) the collectives as loci for knowing; and iv) learning processes among collectives. We also show that these studies fail to provide insights on the interplay between the farmers? dynamics of transitioning towards sustainable agriculture and those of the collectives, and the way it contributes to supporting professional transition. To illuminate this interplay, we introduce a conceptual framework based on Deweyian pragmatism and developmental approaches that allows us to analyze the transition process as one of farmer empowerment. We focus on the farmers? experience, on the way they are affected by their working situations, and on how support for inquiry can help them rebuild meaning and continuity in their transitions. This work should contribute to informing the circulation of agroecological knowledge issues and enable stakeholders who support these processes to find the most appropriate levers for a diversity of farmers and farming systems.

Social-ecological traps link food systems to nutritional outcomes (2021) 🗎🗎

Recognized as an emerging global crisis in the mid-1990s, the "nutrition transition" is marked by a shift to Western diets, dominated by highly processed, sugar-sweetened, and high caloric foods. Occurring in parallel to these health transitions are dramatic shifts in the natural systems that underlie food availability and access. Traditionally, environmental degradation and ecosystem change, and processes of nutritional transition, though often collinear and potentially causally linked, have been addressed in isolation. Food systems represent an emblematic social-ecological system, as both cultivated and wild foods are directly reliant on natural ecosystems and their processes. While healthy ecosystems are a necessary precondition of food production, they are not themselves sufficient to ensure continued benefits from local food systems. Mediating between food production and nutritional security are myriad governance and market institutions that shape differential access to food resources. Moreover, globalization and urbanization may shift communities from non-market to market-based economies, with profound implications for local environments and food systems. Specifically, we argue that it is this feedback between coupled socioeconomic and natural dynamics within food systems that reinforces specific nutritional outcomes, and may result in a social-ecological trap. Here, we use the case of reef-based food systems globally, paying particular attention to the Pacific to showcase social-ecological traps present in global food systems, and to illustrate how such traps lead to the acceleration of the nutrition transition. Improving both nutritional and environmental outcomes of food systems requires understanding the underlying drivers of each, and how they interact and reinforce each other. Only in recognizing these interactions and coupled dynamics will economic, governance, and environmental policies be positioned to address these food system challenges in an integrated fashion.

To what extent do brands contribute to sustainability transition in agricultural production practices? Lessons from three European case studies (2021) 🗎🗎

Brands hold a promising contribution to align the food system with sustainable farm development. The food system consists of a myriad of, generally small-scale, producers and consumers and retail chains provide the link between the two. As such, their brands determine to a large extend what is understood by sustainability. This article focuses on brands' sustainability definitions and their requirements from a producer's perspective. Theoretical exploration of interlinkages between the heterogeneity in farming practices, transition processes in the food system, and brands' general isomorphic character provide a lens for an empirical analysis of their contribution to change farm production towards more sustainability practices. Case studies from three European regions illuminate how institutional settings determine whether family farms and rural livelihoods benefit from the brands' sustainability claims or are restricted and endangered by the new rules and regulations imposed upon them. This way, the paper provides theoretical understanding how brand development provides the institutional conditions for farmers to reconcile economic goals with sustainability claims, but obstructs a more profound transition to agroecological practices. This asks for political intervention to create the conditions and means for capacity building at community level that will allow for a more far-reaching transition to sustainability.

Overcoming the Barriers to Entry of Newcomer Sustainable Farmers: Insights from the Emergence of Organic Clusters in Japan (2021) 🗎🗎

The growing concern for sustainability in agri-food systems and the parallel decrease in the number of people engaged in agriculture, especially in the Global North, is starting to draw attention to new entrant farmers from non-farming backgrounds ("newcomer" farmers). Newcomers, however, especially if interested in sustainable agriculture, face considerable barriers to entry, and their support needs are often not adequately met by conventional agricultural institutions and support structures. Several studies have highlighted the importance of formal and informal farmer-to-farmer networks and communities of practice for newcomers to receive support, but such networks are usually geographically dispersed. Dynamics of spatial clustering of sustainable farmers, on the other hand, have so far received less attention, particularly in relation to their role in supporting the establishment of newcomers. This study examines the barriers to entry faced by newcomer organic farmers in Japan and the relevance of geographically proximate "clusters" of organic farmers to address such barriers. The results highlight the environmental and social factors that can facilitate the formation of organic clusters in the first place, and how spatial proximity facilitates different forms of cooperation among newcomers. The paper concludes by discussing the potential role of clusters in scaling sustainable agri-food practices.

Development of a forest-based bioeconomy in Finland: Insights on three value networks through expert views (2021) 🗎🗎

It is uncertain how the traditional forest sector can respond to the changing political environment, evolving markets, and global environmental problems. This study focuses on the development of forest-based bioeconomy (BE) in Finland from the perspective of three forest-based value networks (wooden multistory construction, fiber-based packaging, and biorefining) and thus breaks the tendency of siloed discussions. The study of expert opinions applies a collaborative interdisciplinary research method that combines group discussions and follow-up survey data. The results indicate that transformational regulation, proper incentives, and ways of increasing interaction at the business-consumer interface are required to support the creation of new practices and the destruction of old practices in the industry renewal. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The vegan trend and the microfoundations of institutional change: A commentary on food producers' sustainable innovation journeys in Europe (2021) 🗎🗎

Background: Today's meat and dairy industry has a vast environmental footprint. To reach the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) of ending hunger globally (SDG #2) and achieving sustainable consumption and production (SDG #12), this food production system needs to change. Recent years have seen the rise in popularity of the vegan or plant-based diet among consumers, which can go some way to reducing the environmental burden. This trend has motivated pioneering food producers to develop innovative vegan food products for niche markets, thus driving the sustainability transition of the food sector. Scope and approach: This commentary tracks how three pioneering food companies have responded to the vegan trend in Europe. From the analysis of the sustainable innovation journeys of these innovative food producers, we propose a framework that presents a multi-level perspective on the socio-technical transition of the food production and consumption system. Key findings and conclusions: The findings show how food producers, incumbents, and new entrants progress through an early phase of planning a direction and establishing a goal, followed by pivoting and experimenting in response to changes in the business environment. This innovation journey concludes as the company moves from experimentation and learning activities onto innovation implementation. The paper postulates a model that describes how regime level changes arise from the microfoundations of the food production and consumption system, as the innovation journeys of companies drive institutional change towards sustainability. The paper identifies future research avenues to explore the sustainable development of vegan food production in more depth.

Modelling the bioeconomy: Emerging approaches to address policy needs (2022) 🗎🗎

With its update of the Bioeconomy Strategy and the Green Deal, the European Commission committed itself to a transformation towards a sustainable and climate-neutral European Union. This process is characterised with an enormous complexity, which policymaking needs to acknowledge for designing transition pathways. Modelling can support policymaking in dealing with uncertainty and complexity. This article reviews emerging and new developments and approaches to model the development of the bioeconomy. We focused our review on how bioeconomy modelling addresses key enabling factors related to (i) climate change, (ii) biodiversity, (iii) circular use of biomass, (iv) consumer behaviour related to biomass and bioproducts use, and (v) innovation and technological change. We find that existing modelling frameworks offer large possibilities for extensions and considerations for analysing short-run impacts related to climate change and circularity, and to lesser degree for biodiversity, and we identify possibilities for developing further the existing bioeconomy models. However, addressing key processes related to societal and technological changes is more challenging with existing/conventional modelling approaches, as they specifically relate to how innovations transform economic structures and how consumers learn and change their preferences and what kind of dynamics are to be expected. We indicate how emerging modelling techniques such as Agent-Based Modelling could improve and complement existing bioeconomy modelling efforts by allowing for the consideration of structural change and, more generally, transformation of the economic metabolism. This modelling approach eclecticism asks for a better description of modelling targets, a sound reflection on the meaning of time horizons and a closer cooperation between the different research communities. Furthermore, it will benefit from the developments in big data and artificial intelligence from which we expect valuable guideposts for designing future modelling strategies.

Ontological struggle over new product category: Transition potential of meat alternatives (2022) 🗎🗎

In recent sustainability transitions research, more attention has been called to dynamic relations between regimes and niches in complex processes of systemic change. In this paper, we provide the case of meat alternative markets, which have been expanding rapidly in Europe and in Northern America. During this expansion, animal-free alternatives are in a contradictory situation. In aiming to carve out market space for these products the aim is to be as similar to meat as possible. In this paper we study how, in Finland, the niche actors have situated themselves within the regime by detaching from the first generation of plant-based foods and attaching to shared rules, materialities and cultural meanings in the meat regime. We discuss how the concepts of detachment and attachment can help in understanding further the transitional pathways created as niches aim to fit-and-transform the rules of the market, and the regime.