Taking food systems transformation seriously

“Food Systems Transformation” should be understood as more than just a buzzword in contemporary debates on food systems change. This research paper argues that the term’s meaning has been watered down considerably in recent years, with the majority of voices prevalent in the ongoing discourse insufficiently responding to the convergence of multiple aggravating crises. Introducing a comparative framework that pinpoints the key characteristics of different approaches to food systems transformation, it shows that the growth-based capitalist logic pervading most of them obstructs rather than impels truly transformative change. Motivated by the question of what the transition to an agri-food systems void of the economic growth-imperative could look like, I turn to growth-critical theory to lay bare the inconsistencies and shortcomings of growth-based approaches, before exploring several concrete entry routes for post-growth thinking to shape the transition to a new food regime. Whilst indicating that there is not one single approach able to steer agri-food system in the right direction, I suggest the forging of alliances between progressive actors working on multiple pressure points to move beyond growth and enable food regime change.