Exploring the position of farmers within the European green transition: transformation for whom?

Abstract

Food systems have been framed as a “wicked problem” due to the complex socio-ecological impacts they foster, ranging from contributing nearly a quarter of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to a myriad of social impacts (e.g., health, food safety, and food security). In the European green transition for food systems, multiple actors are involved. However, farmers play a unique and critical role as agricultural land managers and navigators of social, political, and environmental factors. Using cover cropping and intercropping as examples, we illustrate the complexities arising when decision-making and governance at multiple levels lead to tradeoffs and unexpected consequences at the farm scale. Amid complexity, we propose a conceptual model to address the question: how is an agricultural green transition best fostered? We find that changes are incremental, transformative or both depending on the level of analysis. Additionally, incoherence in agronomic recommendations across academic disciplines and policy agendas creates challenges at the farm scale that trickle up and can thwart sustainable agricultural land use. Although transdisciplinarity and knowledge production with farmers through co-creation are essential for food system transformation and can be part of the solution, it is crucial to examine the nature of change processes and to consider how knowledge and innovation are adopted. By balancing top-down and bottom-up approaches and distributing burden from the farm scale to governance and food systems, a more transformative green transition for European food systems with coherence across multiple agroecological objectives could be achieved.