CHANGE AGENTS ENGAGED IN SUSTAINABLE TRANSFORMATION IN THE FINNISH FOOD SYSTEM

Food security is a crucial topic in sustainability science. Agricultural land occupies approximately 37–38% of the Earth’s land surface, and about one third of the EU’s environmental impact is caused by the current food system. Further, feeding the world’s rapidly growing population is a mounting challenge. To achieve a sustainable food system, a holistic system transition is required. Whereas past research has primarily focused on macro-level sustainable system transformation, this paper responds to calls to look at change at a micro level, by focusing on sustainable system transformation that is initiated by individuals. Inspired by system intelligence, this paper presents the hypothesis that change agents are needed across the current food system to enable sustainable system transition. This agency is studied throughout the agricultural value chain – from the agricultural production phase, through the distribution and retailing phases to the consumption phase. The paper explores how individuals become involved with, and stay engaged in, sustainable transformation. The findings are based on a qualitative study in which 26 individuals involved in the Finnish agricultural value chain were interviewed. The findings show that individuals’ intrinsic motivation and ethical stances explain their engagement with sustainable transformation. Further, the study identifies the fact that change agency can be either active or passive. To our knowledge, this paper is among the first to bring a micro-level perspective to sustainable transformation in the context of food systems. Our findings carry important implications for the emerging study of sustainable transformation that is initiated at the micro level. When our understanding of micro-level change increases, sustainable systemic change is more likely to become institutionalised.