With a determined stride, Åsa Svenfelt heads towards the vegetable section. She quickly puts carrots, onions and cabbage into her basket.
“What is sustainable food differs depending on where in the world you live, but in general, vegetables are good for both the environment and your health,” she says.
Sustainable development, transition and what the future could look like beyond economic growth are at the heart of Åsa Svenfelt’s research. A docent in sustainable development, she has in recent years done a deep dive into the issue of sustainable consumption.
“The more I researched, the more I came to realise that it’s all about consumption. It drives the economy and is therefore a key entry point to sustainable development.”
Food as one of the key components of the sustainability transition
Food consumption has become one of her focuses, for both personal and societal reasons.
As a 10-year-old, Åsa’s favourite place was the kitchen. She liked cooking and early on developed an awareness of what she put on her plate. In upper secondary school, she trained to become a cook but then changed track to university studies and, after that, a research career.
Anna Nilsen
We all have to eat, but today’s food system has a major impact on the environment, people and animals. According to the UN, a transition to sustainable food consumption is necessary to address the planetary crises the world is facing and to ensure that everyone has access to nutritious food.
In the public debate on, and in initiatives to promote, sustainable food consumption, great focus has been on consumer responsibility. But in practice, consumer accessibility to sustainable food is limited. Åsa Svenfelt has followed several families’ journey towards sustainable eating habits. Supply, cost and time turned out to be common obstacles.
“In some cases, the shop where they live doesn’t stock sustainable produce and for many, the price of organic products is too high. The transition phase itself also requires knowledge and time. One person in the study said they spent three hours in the shop looking for sustainable food.”
These barriers can be likened to an invisible ceiling.
“It’s important that consumers who can shop sustainably take responsibility, but individual contributions aren’t enough to take us to where we want to be – there’s a glass ceiling.”
Structural changes are therefore necessary. We must enable sustainable food consumption, and the responsibility for this must be shared between actors at different levels of society.
Dialogue, collaboration and goals
Åsa Svenfelt works at the Centre for Local Government Studies at LiU and therefore focuses a lot on the local level. It interests her because it may have great capacity for transition. Many municipalities work with sustainable school lunches, and several also try to promote sustainable food consumption among their residents. Research shows that the municipalities’ views on their influence vary, but that they can achieve a lot through dialogue and collaboration.
Anna Nilsen
Dialogue is also key in the food supply chain. There are many stakeholders who can contribute by highlighting and informing about sustainable alternatives, but often they just pass the buck. This shows that there is a need for collaboration there too.
When asked about more initiatives that can reverse the trend, Åsa Svenfelt highlights two examples. The first is a green tax shift, which means higher taxes on unsustainable products and lower taxes on climate-smart and healthy goods. The second is setting goals.
“Environmental goals provide a clear direction and something to connect the transition initiatives to. We were on the way to achieving a national climate target for sustainable consumption, but that work has stalled.”
What kind of future do we want?
Having a direction is something that Åsa Svenfelt keeps coming back to. To get anywhere, you need a vision for the future. What kind of future do we really want?
“I want to see such visions for the future at both local and national level, but also from political parties, to clarify policy direction.”
We have a tendency to get stuck on certain ideas about what society should look like. A strong norm of economic growth is one example. In her research, Åsa Svenfelt uses futures studies to highlight different groups’ visions of a sustainable future. Imagining the future can be difficult, and some voices risk not being heard.
“We often think that we should just continue on the same track, with eternal economic growth. This however doesn’t lead to sustainable development, but instead prevents us from making a change.”
In order to include more groups in shaping the future, Åsa Svenfelt uses different methods. Together with colleagues at Linköping University, she works with large-scale role-playing games that allow people to explore different perspectives and ideas about sustainable transition. In collaboration with the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, environmental organisations worldwide have developed visions for the future and sustainable recipes that will soon be published in a cookbook.
Collaboration is a key ingredient in Åsa Svenfeldt’s research.
“The main thing for me is that research must be able to contribute to dialogue and discussion about sustainable transition.”
Anna Nilsen
