Identifying leverage points for a sustainable niche of farmed animals in a food system

WP1 identifies and analyses the leverage points for sustainable livestock production and consumption.

WP1 identifies and analyses the leverage points for sustainable livestock production and consumption. Digging into the deepest leverage point for system transformation, WP1 uncovers the paradigms of the Finnish livestock system: the normative intents, structural designs, and power configurations that shape the operations of the current food system and the conditions for its sustainability transformation.

WP1 informs the assessment of sustainable production systems and dietary designs in WPs 2-3, and supports the whole project in re-imagining alternative food system futures that fit within the planetary boundaries. We examine how to apply the understanding paradigms to transformative policy solutions that extend beyond incremental changes.


People

Dr Annika Lonkila
Prof Minna Kaljonen
Dr Irina Herzon
Master student Eveliina Sapattinen
Master student Salla Haavisto
Linda Holvas

Research aims

The goal of WP1 is to understand system paradigms and the leverage points for shifting them. This includes:

  • examining the paradigms that currently underpin Finnish livestock production and consumption, with specific focus on the cognitive and normative barriers to sustainability transformations
     
  • develop tools for empirical understanding of system paradigms and explore how recognizing paradigms could trigger the development of transformative solutions
     
  • supporting the design of alternative livestock production systems and dietary designs that recognize the current system paradigms and trigger key leverage points for changing them 

 

Why it matters

System paradigms are characterized by inertia and resistance to change. Paradigms contribute to cognitive and normative barriers that limit the scope of solutions designed for food system transitions. It is therefore critical to understand and recognize system paradigms to design and implement truly transformative policy interventions and to destabilize relations of power and institutional configurations that uphold the existing system. Re-imagining alternative food system futures is only made possible by the realization that systems are underpinned not by laws of nature but by material-discursive paradigms that can be transformed.  

 

Key objectives

  • Identify paradigms of existing livestock system and the key leverage points for shifting them, together with stakeholders
  • Inform assessment of alternative production systems and dietary designs in WPs 2-3 to deliberate on the sustainable niche for farmed animals in future food systems 
  • Create suggestions for public policy and other decision-making that extend sustainability solutions beyond incremental changes and shift current system paradigms 

 

Reasearch methods

To tease out the existing paradigms of the Finnish food system, we have conducted qualitative content analysis of agricultural and food policy documents from 1950s onwards, reviewed key literature, and interviewed a wide range of food system actors. Our analytical framework combines discourse analysis with a detailed evaluation of the material characteristics of the Finnish food system attending to its specific ecological, geographical, historical, and political context. In addition, we have held four stakeholder workshops where key food system actors have verified and enriched the understanding of paradigms and leverage points for shifting them, and deliberated alternative futures for livestock production and consumption. 

Outcomes and impact

We have identified four paradigms for Finnish livestock production and consumption, related to efficiency, exceptionalism, individualism, and eating animals. Stakeholder workshops point to critical tensions within the paradigms related to sustainability transformations, such as anthropocentric worldviews or the ideals of maximal individual freedom, overconsumption, and unlimited growth. WP1 results will provide recommendations for transformative policy solutions triggering the key leverage points shifting unsustainable paradigms. 

Publications, news and talks

 

Lonkila, A et al. 2023. Vipupisteitä kestävämpään eläintuotantoon. Kehittyvä elintarvike 2/2023 https://kehittyvaelintarvike.fi/artikkelit/uutisia/vipupisteita-kestavampaan-elaintuotantoon/ 5.5.2023. 

Lonkila, A. (2024). Food system paradigms: roadblocks or catalysts for sustainability transitions?  The 15th International Sustainability Transitions Conference, Oslo, Norway, 16.6.-19.6, 2024. Conference presentation. 

 Lonkila, A. (2024). Eläintuotannon paradigmat kestävyysmurroksen esteenä? Turun yhteiskunnallisen ja kulttuurisen eläintutkimuksen seura. Invited keynote speech 29.11.2024.

Kaljonen, M. & Lonkila, A. (forthcoming). Leveraging effective changes in meat production and consumption: Why system design matters. In Efstathitou, S. (ed.). Rethinking Sustainable meat: recognise, replace and refine. Routledge.