22. Developing principles and criteria for just transition in food systems: a transdisciplinary endeavour

Abstract

Modern industrialised food systems around the world suffer from well-documented shortcomings including damaging impacts on the environment, biodiversity, and climate, indefensible conditions of workers, as well as unhealthy dietary patterns. Significant system-level transitions to less harmful food systems in these respects are needed. Justice questions stand at the core of these issues and it is crucial to analyse who bears the costs and who enjoys the benefits of different solutions to these problems. But how can we decide if a solution is just and for whom? In this paper, we present the development of a framework with a preliminary set of principles and criteria for evaluating whether a transition towards more sustainable food systems is just and for whom and for improving the justness of the process. We establish the framework in a transdisciplinary approach suitable to capture normative components of food systems such as justice perspectives of different actors and contexts. Methodologically, we base our results on mid-level principles of social, food, and environmental justice, and sustainability criteria through literature review, interdisciplinary discussions with food system researchers and food system actors from Finland. We first present the preliminary set of principles and criteria for just transition, which is work in progress. We then reflect on the different purposes the framework serves: it can be used to assess and evaluate ongoing developments in food systems; to support future decision and policy making; to steer scenario work on acceptable future developments and desirable transition pathways; or to structure discussions about solutions in food system transition and to make trade-offs visible. We conclude by discussing some of the challenges faced during this work and give an outlook for the next steps.