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The purpose of this study is to propose a matrix framework to understand the interdependencies of domains and scales of protein transition towards diets based on plants and alternative sources of proteins.

The abductive research approach is used in building the framework, and the proposed framework is illustrated using the regional food system in Central Finland as an example. Focus groups and interviews were used to collect qualitative data from 28 respondents.

This study provides a framework for protein transition, with five domains and five scale levels. Interactions between public and private governance activities at different scales, domains and governed niche and regime levels are discussed. The study shows how micro-level activities at individual or community levels are linked with broader governance activities.

Due to the relatively narrowed set of empirical data, further research is required to test the framework in different regional and cultural settings.

This paper presents a practical illustration of the matrix framework, and considering this, the paper discusses the possible implications of matrix interdependencies for protein transition management.

This study proposes that understanding the coevolution of domains and scales, with the help of accurate policies and business models, can lead to effective protein transition.

This study fulfils an identified need to study protein transition in a broader frame, which highlights the structural activity interdependencies between different scale levels and domains.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the logical specification, and automated verification, of high‐level robotic behaviours.

The paper uses temporal logic as a formal language for providing abstractions of foraging robot behaviour, and successively extends this to multiple robots, items of food for the robots to collect, and constraints on the real‐time behaviour of robots. For each of these scenarios, proofs of relevant properties are carried out in a fully automated way. In addition to automated deductive proofs in propositional temporal logic, the possibility of having arbitrary numbers of robots involved is considered, thus allowing representations of robot swarms. This leads towards the use of first‐order temporal logics (FOTLs).

The proofs of many properties are achieved using automatic deductive temporal provers for the propositional and FOTLs.

Many details of the problem, such as location of the robots, avoidance, etc. are abstracted away.

Large robot swarms are beyond the current capability of propositional temporal provers. Whilst representing and proving properties of arbitrarily large swarms using FOTLs is feasible, the representation of infinite numbers of pieces of food is outside of the decidable fragment of FOTL targeted, and practically, the provers struggle with even small numbers of pieces of food.

The work described in this paper is novel in that it applies automatic temporal theorem provers to proving properties of robotic behaviour.

Food systems research is typically focused on productivity and efficiency. But in the face of impending challenges of climate, investment, markets, and incomes small holders may do well to shift to diversity and sufficiency. The transition requires institutions such as Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) to play the role of intermediaries. This paper aims to understand this challenging phenomenon using a case from India.

In this article, drawing from the emerging literature of PO as a sustainability transition intermediary, this paper uses the case study of a women-owned FPO and explores its role in contributing to sustainable food systems through practices of non-pesticide management of agriculture. This paper explores, through non-participant observer methods, focus group discussions and interviews with multiple stakeholders how an FPO embeds sustainability in its purpose and the challenges faced in transforming producer and consumers towards sustainable food systems.

The study argues for early articulation of the “sustainability transition intermediary” role in the FPO’s vision and mission. Second, FPOs’ role of being a transition intermediary is impacted by the key stakeholders and the durability of relationship with them.

By studying FPOs in India, from the framework of sustainability transitions, this article adds to the limited literature that looks as POs as sustainability transition intermediaries.

Recent reviews and reports have highlighted the need for integrated, context-specific efforts to enable sustainable food transitions. This study aimed to identify pathways to promote healthier and more environmentally friendly food practices in school contexts, with a focus on increased plant-based eating.

The study used a systemic approach with data collected from relevant stakeholders in an EU country (Portugal) at diverse levels of influence in the school meals system (i.e. proximal, intermediate, distal; from end-consumers to food providers, market actors, civil society organizations, and policy and decision-makers). Data from individual interviews (N = 33) were subjected to thematic analysis.

Meat-centric cultural perceptions of a ‘proper meal’ can be a socio-emotional barrier for sustainable food transitions in schools. Main pathways identified to unlock these transitions included: (1) Levering orientations toward ethical and environmentally beneficial consumption; (2) Improving and increasing the offer of plant-based meals; and (3) Mobilizing local communities and society.

The current findings suggest that promoting healthier and more environmentally friendly food practices in schools requires systemic, integrated approaches which focus on food consumption, food provision, and the broader political and sociocultural environment.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the dynamics of food insufficiency and its determinants among farming households in Southwestern Nigeria.

A combination of cluster and systematic random sampling was used to select 40 households in each local government area of the selected two states. This gives a total of 160 households per state and 320 households in all for the first data collection. Visiting the same households during the second data collection, only 150 households’ data were useful for analysis. Panel primary data were adopted and they were collected in two periods of late and early rain, respectively, over a period of nine months. Primary data were collected with the aid of a well-structured questionnaire, administered on farming households in the area of study. The needed information was collected through the use of interview schedules/questionnaires.

The transition of food insufficiency households to food sufficiency indicated a differential of 4.25 percent, and the transition of food sufficiency to food insufficiency a differential of 9.33 percent. During the agricultural harvest season more households moved to food sufficiency status (16 percent), while off season insufficiency status was 25.3 percent. The probability of households escaping food insufficiency is 0.25, and the probability of households entering food insufficiency is 0.38. The study provides evidence of transient and high incidence of food insufficiency.

Past studies of this nature only captured the food insufficiency status of households using a snapshot study. Hence, this study brought in innovation by examining the dynamics of food sufficiency/insufficiency in two periods. Therefore the question this study asks is: can a farm-household be food sufficient over a particular period of time and food insufficient in other time?

This paper aims to provide a case study of a capacity building project and critical reflection in relation to transitioning to a sustainable food city.

A case study research approach was adopted involving two research initiatives: first, a survey to elicit stakeholders’ understanding of sustainable local food, with a view to creating a shared agenda and informing future strategic direction and second a combination of research approaches, including paired discussions, generation of pictorial outputs and a workshop, aimed to inform the future vision and mission of the Partnership.

Collaboration with stakeholders through a variety of research initiatives has facilitated the development of a sustainable food city partnership, with the overarching aim of achieving a transition towards a more sustainable food system. Moreover, collaboration has contributed to the transition of the Partnership to ensure sustainability and continuity after the initial funding stage.

While universities have an important role to play in guiding direction and shaping new community initiatives for sustainability in their regions, the challenges, resources and time involved may be under-estimated; these projects take considerable time to yield fruit.

The findings of the study will be of interest to those working in the community to promote education for sustainable development and better food systems.

This paper addresses a gap in the literature in relation to universities and their collaboration with key stakeholders in building capacity and contributing to local sustainability transitions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship of dietary restriction and food well-being (FWB) in an under-researched population using a novel but growing approach to transition to healthier eating patterns.

This study uses individual interviews of African-American participants in a food detoxification program, a specific form of food restriction used to transition to healthier eating.

Results identify how food socialization and food literacy enable individuals to transform their relationship with food and enhance their FWB. Unlike prior research that focuses on food as the source of pleasure, this study finds that food is deployed as fuel, and this transition results in pleasure.

This research explains how a voluntary transition to healthier eating enables people to pursue FWB and extends the understanding of FWB (Block et al., 2011). In addition, this research contributes novel insights related to transformative consumer research efforts to motivate change. Findings have implications for marketing theory and practice, including the development of social marketing campaigns to support healthy eating patterns, especially for at-risk populations.

Food system channels are proposed to be major components of the larger food system which influence health and illness.

Food system channels are defined, discussed in relationship to other food system components, considered in terms of historical food system changes, examined in relationship to wellbeing and disease, and proposed to have useful applications.

Food system channels are broad, organized, and integrated pathways through which foods and nutrients pass. Channels are larger in scale and scope than previously described food system structures like chains, stages, sectors, networks, and others. Four major types of contemporary Western food system channels differ in their underlying values and health impacts. (1) Industrialized food channels are based on profit as an economic value, which contributes to a diversity of inexpensive foods and chronic diseases. (2) Emergency food channels are based on altruism as a moral value, and try to overcome gaps in industrialized channels to prevent diseases of poverty. (3) Alternative food channels are based on justice and environmentalism as ethical values, and seek to promote wellness and sustainability. (4) Subsistence food channels are based on self-sufficiency as a traditional value, and seek self-reliance to avoid hunger and illness. Historical socioeconomic development of agricultural and industrial transitions led to shifts in food system channels that shaped dietary, nutritional, epidemiological, and mortality transitions.

Food system channels provide varying amounts of calories and types of nutrients that shape wellbeing and diseases. Sociologists and others may benefit from examining food system channels and considering their role in health and illness.

Agricultural and food systems in the Mekong Region are undergoing transformations because of increasing engagement in international trade, alongside economic growth, dietary change and urbanisation. Food systems approaches are often used to understand these kinds of transformation processes, with particular strengths in linking social, economic and environmental dimensions of food at multiple scales. We argue that while the food systems approach strives to provide a comprehensive understanding of food production, consumption and environmental drivers, it is less well equipped to shed light on the role of actors, knowledge and power in transformation processes and on the divergent impacts and outcomes of these processes for different actors. We suggest that an approach that uses food systems as heuristics but complements it with attention to actors, knowledge and power improves our understanding of transformations such as those underway in the Mekong Region. The key transformations in the region include the emergence of regional food markets and vertically integrated supply chains that control increasing share of the market, increase in contract farming particularly in the peripheries of the region, replacement of crops cultivated for human consumption with corn grown for animal feed. These transformations are increasingly marginalising small-scale farmers, while at the same time, many other farmers increasingly pursue non-agricultural livelihoods. Food consumption is also changing, with integrated supply chains controlling substantial part of the mass market. Our analysis highlights that theoretical innovations grounded in political economy, agrarian change, development studies and rural livelihoods can help to increase theoretical depth of inquiries to accommodate the increasingly global dimensions of food. As a result, we map out a future research agenda to unpack the dynamic food system interactions and to unveil the social, economic and environmental impacts of these rapid transformations. We identify policy and managerial implications coupled with sustainable pathways for change.