Exploring trust, mistrust and distrust among actors in the food system: a multi-actor, value-based approach to understanding consumer perceptions

Consumer trust in the Australian food system – The everyday erosive impact of food labelling

Food security exists when all people at all times have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food. Food security is built on four pillars: availability, access, utilization and stability. Food and nutrition security embraces meeting energy, protein and nutrient needs for healthy life. Food systems overlap with agricultural systems in the area of food production, but also comprise the diverse set of institutions, technologies and practices that govern the way food is marketed, processed, transported, accessed and consumed. The food system activities are grouped into four categories: producing food, processing and packaging food, distributing and retailing food, and consuming food. The review paper aims at highlighting the connections and linkages between food sustainability and food security. There are very strong linkages between food and nutrition security, responsible environmental stewardship and greater fairness in food management. They intersect in agricultural and food systems at the global, national and local levels. Today, the main concern for the food and agricultural sector is to provide simultaneously enough food, in quantity and quality, to meet the nutritional needs of a growing population and to conserve natural resources for future generations. A sustainable food system supports food security, makes optimal use of natural and human resources, is culturally acceptable and accessible, environmentally sound and economically fair and viable, and provides the consumer with nutritionally adequate, safe, healthy and affordable food for present and future generations. Changes in both food consumption and food production are important to ensure more sustainable food systems and to achieve food and nutrition security in the Mediterranean region. Since diets sustainability is of paramount importance for achieving food and nutrition security, there is an urgent need to design and implement appropriate policies to improve the economic, environmental and social sustainability of the current food consumption patterns.

The growing attention for food systems in policy debates has highlighted the systemic linkages between desired food system outcomes. There is an increased recognition that systemic changes are required to improve access to healthy, sustainable diets. While there is abundant academic analysis on the global need for food system transformation, regional differences in food system transformation priorities have received limited scholarly attention. This article aims to address this gap by analysing the results of a regional consultation study about respondents’ perceptions of the needs and modalities for food systems transformation. Data collection consisted of an online survey among 621 agri-food professionals and in-depth interviews among 33 food system experts from different regions across the world. The study shows how different stakeholders across the world prioritise food system drivers, food system challenges and food system transformation strategies. Region, organisational background, countries’ level of food system transformation, political and socio-economic structure are critical factors in determining such priorities. The study highlights relevant food system differences and priorities between food system actors. These differences have important policy implications for the agendas of stakeholders in their regional priorities in food systems transformation. While there is much agreement across regions on the key drivers of different food system challenges, which food system challenge is considered most urgent and which food system transformation strategy deserves most priority, differs greatly between regions. This article shows the importance of including regional and local perspectives in policy debates on the directions food system transformations should take and the need to identify such differences methodically.

In the context of intensifying threats to food systems and a growing need for resilience, Alternative Agrifood Networks (AANs) and Alternative Seafood Networks (ASNs) have emerged as notable bright spots across North America. Collectively, AANs and ASNs comprise Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) - the micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises which are important, but often overlooked, actors in food systems. However, a critical limitation for food system resilience is that agriculture and fisheries remain chronically siloed in research, legislation, regulation, and advocacy. In this field report, we explore the opportunities and challenges of linking ASNs and AANs to build more resilient food systems. To do so, we draw on our experiences as an interdisciplinary group of food systems researchers and practitioners that came together in 2022 through the Agrifish Resilience project. Based on a series of reflective collaborative conversations that we held as a team, we share our key insights for building resilience across agriculture and fisheries focusing on three main themes: the role of ASNs and AANs in food system resilience, our perspectives on what resilience in food systems means, and prospects for collaboratively building resilience. We conclude by proposing the idea of boundary objects as a way of bringing ASNs and AANs together, with some examples of what this looks like in practice, and the role for interdisciplinary teams like ours.

To enhance sustainability, the food system requires significant shifts in the production, processing and supply of food. Ideally, a sustainable food system should operate, not only to protect the biosphere, but also to provide nutritious, high-quality food, and to support social values, an equitable economy, and human and animal health. It should also be governed responsibly within a supportive policy environment. Implementing these shifts is a task of immense scale; but citizen participation/engagement has the potential to help make sustainability a reality through distributed learning, dynamic sensing, and knowledge generation. Technological advancements in sensing and data processing have enabled new forms of citizen participation in research. When food system research is embedded within society it can help us to understand which changes towards sustainability work and which do not. Indeed, citizen engagement in food systems research has the potential to help bring citizens on side, supporting the growth of a food culture of resilience and of sustainable practises (including dietary change). This commentary provides examples of how existing research and alternative food production systems and agroecological practises may provide possible frameworks for citizen participation in food system studies. We highlight potential future food and citizen science approaches. Widening citizen participation and encouraging the involvement of other food system actors, including those in local, national and international governance, is essential to capture the full potential of citizen science in enabling transition to a sustainable food system. For the research community citizen science offers engagement and empowerment of wider communities with science; collecting and analysing data; and creating viable solutions to food system and diet issues.

There is growing recognition that a better understanding of how food systems respond to crises is critical to build and protect the food security of local populations. But rigorous and reliable methods to measure food system resilience are still missing. In this paper, we build on the current literature to develop an analytical framework aimed at assessing the resilience of food systems at local level. The novel element of the analysis lies in the levels at which resilience is considered. Combining the individual actor level with the notion of 'emergent properties' of food systems, we argue that the overall resilience of food system results from processes that take place – and need to be measured – at both individual and system levels. The framework is structured around three components: (i) the mapping of the actors and the local food system; (ii) the assessment of the resilience of these actors and that of the food system, and (iii) the outcomes of this resilience, assessed in term of local population’s food security. For each of those components, indicators are proposed and the ways to collect them are discussed. The paper then presents the types of analyses that would be necessary to complete to gain a better understanding of the situation regarding the resilience of the local food system under consideration, including the analysis of “positive deviance” among food system actors. The paper concludes with a series of reflections about the caveats and challenges that one may face when attempting to assess food system resilience.

There is promising evidence that public food procurement from family farming (PFPF) can serve as a powerful policy instrument in transitions towards more sustainable food systems. Despite the evidence around PFPF, there is lack of systemic and actor-oriented approaches analysing the relational and interactional dynamics among the multiple and diverse sets of actors in PFPF programs. In this paper, we address this gap by presenting an integrative framework that brings together food systems research, innovation studies and social network analysis, to assess the role of actor networks in PFPF. To illustrate the usefulness of the framework, we present the case of public procurement from family farming in Uruguay. We show how the framework has potential to: highlight the composition and diversity of networks of actors in PFPF; unravel individual and network barriers faced by actors in food systems; and, identify how interactions and (intermediary and brokerage) roles of network actors stimulate innovation or block the changes that are needed for PFPF to catalyse the transition towards sustainable food systems.

Food system sustainability depends, among other aspects, on the resilience of different components of food systems. By resilience, we mean the ability of a food system to withstand stress and shocks, recover, and adapt to change. In this study, we examined the resilience of food systems, firstly, by compiling the risks perceived by different food system actors in the Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia, and the northwestern Mount Kenya Region, Kenya—two regions that are important to their respective national food supply. Secondly, we evaluated whether and under what circumstances these perceptions translate into adaptive or preventive strategies that benefit food system resilience. Among all actors, the most frequently perceived risks relate to production levels. Further, the many (sometimes contradictory) perceptions of risk and uncertainty among different actor groups do not necessarily translate into adaptation strategies. Reasons for this include structural factors as well as the “risk perception paradox”, particularly regarding preventive strategies. However, we also observed many implicit strategies illustrating how different actors develop responses within their possibilities. However, most such strategies were insufficient to mitigate, much less to adapt to, the perceived risks. To build resilience, existing innovative policies need to be enforced in both countries. These include disaster risk reduction programs and programs to reduce the vulnerability of marginalized groups who are crucial to food systems, such as smallholder farmers, pastoralists, and food workers.

The dependence on the global food system both in the Global North and Global South, has a profound impact on people’s dietary pattern and health – and creates immediate vulnerability and unpredictability related to food security. With growing insight into the consequences of the global food system for the environment, many cities in the Global North have implemented local/regional food strategies, food charters and other food system-related policies in an attempt to improve urban food security and encourage sustainable food system activities. Such activities include, for example, climate and ecosystem-friendly production methods, minimising the transportation of commodities in favour of food production located closer to consumers, and food systems driven by local participation and community actions. There seems to be connection between several of the proposed food system activities and Transition Movement actions (IPBES, 2018). Could the development of a sustainable food system catalyse transitions towards sustainability? In order to explore this question, the aim of this chapter is to analyse the link between sustainable food systems and pathways towards sustainability transitions. The chapter elaborates on how the sustainable food system relates to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and identifies eight aspects for such systems. Those dimensions/aspects agree well with the activities characteristic of the Transition Movements pathway towards a sustainable future.

Remarkable successes and new challenges to cope with requirements for food and water are analyzed. Trends in demography, food preferences and consumer habits are scrutinized together with their implications for human well-being and natural resources. Making best use of variable and limited water resources presumes proper management and efficient technologies, but also a worthwhile use of goods and services produced, for example, food. Reduction of food losses and waste, and reversing trends in overweight and obesity promise significant water savings. Transformations of food systems in this direction provide opportunities to meet human nutrient and food requirements in a resource-effective manner. In line with the principle of the Sustainable Development Goals, ‘no-one should be left behind’, governments, producers and consumers must be involved in efforts to ensure food security and nutrition. Naturally, farmers are major actors in food systems. The business community is showing a commitment to contribute to food security and nutrition and to reduce water risks. Consumers are dynamic drivers as well as beneficiaries, victims and culprits in water and food systems and need to internalize resource-use efficiency in their behavior, for example, by reducing food waste and aiming for better nutrition and sustainable diets.

Situated within the context of concerns about sustainability and the over production and consumption of foods from animals the paper extends the emerging social science research field that addresses the ‘de-animalisation’ of the food system to explore societal debate around the substitution of foods from animals. Non-dairy milks (NDMs), made from legumes, nuts, seeds and grains provide a novel empirical case. NDMs are a substitute for dairy milk, a totemic food within national diets across the global North but one that to date has received limited attention within investigation of food system de-animalisation. A frame analysis is employed to explore how different food system actors make sense of the relationship between NDMs, dairy milk and food system sustainability. Identification of frames is undertaken through a qualitative methodology in which thematic analysis is conducted of exploratory primary data (seven semi-structured interviews) and secondary textual data from a wide range of sources. Two ‘pro NDM’ and one ‘pro dairy’ frames are identified, each associated with distinct groups of food system actors and emphasising different dimensions of sustainability. The paper concludes by reflecting on what the analysis reveals about substitution as a strategy within food system de-animalisation and the politics and governance of this process, and also offers suggestions for social science research into these issues.

For over half a century, industrial agricultural and food systems have developed to the detriment of rural spaces. Alongside modernization and growth, many local communities have experienced not only economic loss, but a loss of purpose and identity as well. As one response to these changes, sustainable local food systems (SLFS) initiatives are being pursued by a growing number of communities. Their belief is that an alternative paradigm based on SLFSs is needed to support vibrant rural livelihoods: by challenging unequal power relationships between food system actors, by repairing the rift between human and natural environments, or simply by breathing new socio-economic life into their declining communities. This dissertation explores the governance mechanisms being developed between civil society, the state, and private sector actors to support SLFS initiatives. It aims to show not only what initiatives are developed, but how these alternatives are introduced and sustained. Building on governance theory and drawing from critical political economy approaches, this work argues that collaborative and reflexive governance approaches are best positioned to enable SLFS development. To support this claim, I describe and analyze cases of SLFS initiatives pursued within four rural communities: Todmorden, UK, Wolfville, Nova Scotia and North Saanich, British Columbia in Canada, and Correns, France. These case studies highlight six categories of governance that ultimately demonstrate low to highly collaborative and I never understood adding such lengthy acknowledgements to a PhD dissertation, until I realized the confidence and determination required to complete one. I feel such a great depth of gratitude towards those who helped me through this 6+ year process. Thank you, to my family for your endless support. Papa, for your boundless optimism and for instilling in me the belief in the power of democratic engagement. Mom, for telling me to align my work with my passions and interests. To my sister for always cheering me on, for picking up my late night post-thesis writing calls, and (subconsciously) motivating me to take on research that has real-world application. And thank you to each of you for altering your food habits based on all the things I have learned! Thank you to Andrew for always believing in me and telling me so frequently, for just making sure I could function, like reminding me to eat or sleep, and for always being there. Thank you to my friends and my thesis writing group (you are life savers!) for your encouragement, for always showing interest in what I was doing, and for

A paradigm shift is required to transform food systems, so they are more equitable, environmentally friendly, and healthy. This requires acknowledging which factors change or maintain the status quo. In this commentary, we reflect upon the Cervantes et al study findings and discuss the role of power dynamics in transforming food systems. This is directly relevant to Mexico in terms of (i) relationships between food system actors; (ii) the role of socio-economic political context; and (iii) opportunities for policy coherence and transformative food systems approaches. We suggest that the power dynamics that drive the food produced, sold, and consumed should be recognised in all (inter)national governance decision-making. The 2021 United Nations Food System Summit - when interest groups were perceived to overly influence the summit proceedings - is an example of how neglecting the role of power dynamics can undermine and slow food system transformation.

Are there limits to our ability to adapt food systems to climate change? This overview paper for the special issue highlights results of research on potential limits and responses by food system actors. Responses are shaped by the critical interactions among the physical, chemical, biological, and social impacts in food systems arising from climate change. Food grains, temperate perennials, livestock, and oceanic capture fisheries and farming are covered. Climate change impacts on the biology of plants, animals, and humans, as well as the options for societal responses are explored. The results show where and how possible adaptations will be limited.

PurposeThere are many studies investigating people’s eating habits during the COVID-19 period, and people have been encouraged to eat healthier. Healthy nutrition is made possible by making healthy food choices and food labels are one of the tools that help consumers make healthy food choices. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumers’ food label reading behaviours and their level of trust in food labels.Design/methodology/approachThis cross-sectional study was conducted on 1,012 adults aged 18–65 years from seven different regions of Turkey. Participants’ food label reading behaviours and their trust in food label information were assessed using an online questionnaire, and COVID-19 fear scores were determined using the fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S).FindingsAlthough not statistically significant, participants’ rate of reading food labels increased during the pandemic (65.6% vs 68.7%, p = 0.078). On the contrary, trust in label information decreased significantly (52.1% vs 43.9%, p < 0.001). In addition, increased COVID-19 fear was associated with an increased rate of food label reading and decreased trust in the label information (p < 0.001).Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the study’s cross-sectional nature, the authors cannot provide a causal link between COVID-19 fear and food label reading behaviours and trust in food label information. However, it is difficult to investigate this causal link due to difficulties in studies of consumer behaviour and food choice (e.g. multifactorial effects and complexity). Second, because the present study’s findings were based on self-report data, there may be a risk of resource bias. Nevertheless, the authors think that this study will shed light on future studies as it is the first time that the COVID-19 pandemic has investigated consumers’ food label reading habits and their trust in food labels.Practical implicationsConsidering the pandemic as an opportunity to change consumer behaviour, it may be useful to provide food label reading education to consumers, especially during this period. In addition, the information given on the label should be clear and understandable for a better understanding of the food label information. Furthermore, it may be beneficial to conduct food inspections more frequently and share the results with the public to increase consumers’ trust in food labels. Moreover, as the food system shifts towards a “new normal”, it is critical for policymakers to understand the changes in consumer perceptions, preferences and trust in foods.Originality/valueCOVID-19 fear affected consumers’ food label reading behaviours. As far as the authors know, there is no study about the effects of COVID-19 on consumers’ food label reading behaviours.