The existing sustainability transition research has focused on examining the means, not impacts, of the transition. This creates a risk that the sustainability transition in the food system solves some problems but creates or amplifies many others, such as social inequalities, health disparities, or outsourced environmental harms.
The food system transition must be assessed as a whole, because everything in the system affects everything. © Just food/SYKE
Research data to support discussion
Just food addresses this challenge by introducing the concept of just transition and deploying it in the research conducted on the food system. Just food will produce definitions and criteria for the just food transition by integrating theoretical and empirical work. In this way, societal discussion and decision-making are supported through research.
We are building a framework and vocabulary for the just food transition through interaction between the work packages of the project and by involving the food system actors in the joint development and testing of definitions and criteria.