Amanda Wood

To reduce environmental impacts from the food system, demand-side changes, especially reductions in the consumption of animal products in high-consuming populations, are needed. This will require policies promoting red meat reductions, since dietary patterns are difficult to change, but such policies will likely meet opposition from certain food industry actors. An example is provided by the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (NNR), the evidence base underpinning all food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) in the Nordic countries. The updated version recommends that individuals restrict red and processed meat consumption to a maximum of 350 grams per week for health reasons, and advises ‘considerably less’ is consumed for environmental reasons. During the revision of the NNR, Nordic red meat industry actors and farmers’ associations were quick to respond to indications that lower amounts of red meat would be recommended. We conducted a frame analysis of responses relating to red meat consumption made by these actors in the public consultations on the NNR. Our analytical framework built on literature-based frames commonly used by the meat industry in countries with high meat consumption. The results showed that actors supporting the red meat industry generally opposed reductions to red meat consumption (and production) by framing red meat consumption as healthy and red meat production as providing social, economic and environmental benefits. Red meat actors also questioned the science (or scientists) supporting reductions in red meat consumption. For any national authority tasked with developing dietary recommendations, it is crucial to identify how these actors frame red meat consumption and use these frames to influence the formulation of sustainable dietary guidelines.

Food production and consumption need to substantially change to meet global environmental and public health goals. Increasing grain legume consumption in most countries is key to providing nourishing food for all while contributing to cropping system sustainability with relatively low environmental impact. But what actions have the potential to increase such consumption? The wide knowledge of how to cultivate grain legumes among Swedish farmers, low current consumption in most of the population, and prior shifts in dietary patterns make Sweden an interesting context for studying the potential increase of grain legumes in diets. We identify system-level actions in peer-reviewed and grey literature with the potential to increase grain legume consumption and apply the leverage points framework to evaluate the transformative potential of these actions for the food system in Sweden. Our findings show that most actions suggested in the literature so far focus on increased production, while fewer suggestions integrate production and consumption. Few actions address the deeper leverage points with most transformative potential compared with those with less transformative potential. We qualitatively analyze the actions and develop a chain of leverage illustrating how several actions together could be combined to support change at the deepest leverage point, creating social norms for the consumption of healthy foods. The chain includes developing new tools, facilities and products; changing standards; building feedback loops; changing the food environment; building new information flows between actors; and reforming the value chain. To implement the actions identified in this analysis, a range of value chain actors and supportive policies at the national and European Union levels will be needed.

Plant-based alternatives (PBAs) are increasingly becoming part of diets. Here, we investigate the environmental, nutritional, and economic implications of replacing animal-source foods (ASFs) with PBAs or whole foods (WFs) in the Swedish diet. Utilising two functional units (mass and energy), we model vegan, vegetarian, and flexitarian scenarios, each based on PBAs or WFs. Our results demonstrate that PBA-rich diets substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions (30–52%), land use (20–45%), and freshwater use (14–27%), with the vegan diet showing the highest reduction potential. We observe comparable environmental benefits when ASFs are replaced with WFs, underscoring the need to reduce ASF consumption. PBA scenarios meet most Nordic Nutrition Recommendations, except for vitamin B12, vitamin D and selenium, while enhancing iron, magnesium, folate, and fibre supply and decreasing saturated fat. Daily food expenditure slightly increases in the PBA scenarios (3–5%) and decreases in the WF scenarios (4–17%), with PBA diets being 10–20% more expensive than WF diets. Here we show, that replacing ASFs with PBAs can reduce the environmental impact of current Swedish diets while meeting most nutritional recommendations, but slightly increases food expenditure. We recommend prioritising ASF reduction and diversifying WFs and healthier PBAs to accommodate diverse consumer preferences during dietary transitions.

Despite the growing knowledge that food system solutions should account for interactions and drivers across scales, broader societal debate on how to solve food system challenges is often focused on two dichotomous perspectives and associated solutions: either more localized food systems or greater global coordination of food systems. The debate has found problematic expressions in contemporary challenges, prompting us to revisit the role that resilience thinking can play when faced with complex crises that increase uncertainty. Here we identify four ‘aching points’ facing food systems that are central points of tension in the local–global debate. We apply the seven principles of resilience to these aching points to reframe the solution space to one that embeds resilience into food systems’ management and governance at all scales, supporting transformative change towards sustainable food systems.

Food system technologies (FSTs) are being developed to accelerate the transformation towards sustainable food systems. Here we conducted a systematic scoping review that accounts for multiple dimensions of sustainability to describe the extent, range and nature of peer-reviewed literature that assesses the sustainability performance of four FSTs: plant-based alternatives, vertical farming, food deliveries and blockchain technology. Included literature had a dominant focus on environmental sustainability and less on public health and socio-economic sustainability. Gaps in the literature include empirical assessments on the sustainability of blockchain technology, plant-based seafood alternatives, public health consequences of food deliveries and socio-economic consequences of vertical farming. The development of a holistic sustainability assessment framework that demonstrates the impact of deploying FSTs is needed to guide investments in and the development of sustainable food innovation.

Food system technologies (FSTs) are being developed at an unprecedented rate to accelerate the transformation towards sustainable food systems. Sustainability is a multi-faceted concept and innovations may inadvertently promote one facet while compromising another. Yet, limited empirical evidence on the sustainability performance and trade-offs of novel FSTs exist. We conducted a systematic scoping review that accounts for multiple dimensions of sustainability to synthesize peer-reviewed research assessing the sustainability performance of four novel FSTs: plant-based alternatives, vertical farming, food delivery and blockchain technology. Included literature assessed a wide range of sustainability indicators, with a dominant focus on environmental sustainability. Significant research gaps on the public health and socio-economic implications of these FSTs remain. Additional research is explicitly required to understand the general sustainability implications of plant-based seafood alternatives and blockchain technology, public health consequences of food deliveries, and socio-economic consequences of vertical farming. The sustainability performance of FSTs varied across the literature and for sustainability indicators. The development of a holistic sustainability assessment framework that illustrates the implications of deploying and scaling FSTs is needed. This can guide investments in and the development of sustainable food innovation.

Urban food is a key lever for transformative change towards sustainability. While research reporting on the urban food practices (UFPs) in support of sustainability is increasing, the link towards transformative potential is lacking. This is because research on urban food is often place-based and contextual. This limits the applicability of insights to large-scale sustainability transformations. This paper describes UFPs that aim to contribute to transformative change. We present signposts for potential change based on the types of intended transformative changes as described in the reviewed literature based on the processes and outcomes of the urban food policies and programmes. Secondly, we classify diverse UFPs to elevate them beyond their local, place-based contexts. We find that UFPs carry a lot of potential to facilitate sustainability transformations. Based on that analysis, we provide insights on how urban food research can further contribute to harnessing the transformative potential of UFPs for actionable purposes.