Visioning a food system for equitable transition towards sustainable diets

Area of Science:

• Sustainability Science
• Systems Thinking
• Social-Ecological Systems

Background:

• Global Goals to end hunger necessitate multi-domain problem interpretation and change.
• Stakeholder perspectives on sustainable diet transitions (SDT) for marginalized groups require in-depth analysis.
• Understanding the complexities of food systems is crucial for effective intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To understand how stakeholders problematise sustainable diet transitions (SDT) within a previously marginalized social group.
• To identify key forces and leverage points for facilitating SDT using a systems thinking approach.
• To explore the integration of local interventions with national strategies for coherent goal achievement.

Main Methods:

• Facilitated a workshop engaging stakeholders to explore SDT challenges.
• Applied a systems thinking approach to analyze sub-systems: access to dietary diversity, sustainable natural capital beneficiation, and food choice for well-being.
• Utilized the multi-level perspective to identify micro-level leverage points within co-evolving processes.

Main Results:

• Identified three critical sub-systems governing the current context and future interventions for SDT.
• Highlighted micro-level leverage points including multi-faceted literacy, youth empowerment, deliberative policy-making, and promotion of sustainable diet aspirations.
• Demonstrated how these micro-level points can be integrated with existing national macro-level strategies.

Conclusions:

• Transformational SDT can be achieved by reconsidering knowledge use, restructuring socio-technical sectors, and reconnecting people with nature-based solutions.
• The proposed approach is applicable to countries with complex socio-political legacies.
• This framework can effectively bridge local and global goals for coherent outcomes in sustainability and hunger eradication.