Sustainability changes in food systems : Opportunities for rural enterprises and rural revival through change agency

Abstract

This chapter discusses sustainability changes in food systems and the role of rural enterprises in that transformation. The concept of sustainability change in food systems focuses on processes that aim to minimise negative environmental, social and economic externalities of those systems. Studies on rural enterprise development focus on the use of local resources and also local embeddedness and non-local networks of enterprises, among other aspects. We argue that research on sustainable food systems would benefit from a stronger agency perspective and rural enterprise studies from a broader perspective on contextualising the sustainability challenge. The two strands of literature would be served by a closer connection, and therefore, we apply theories of development paths and agency to link them. The notion of development paths refers to different levels of changes progressing the sustainability of food systems, and the notion of change agency refers to the role of rural enterprises in advancing sustainability. As a synthesis, we provide a typology on three levels of sustainability change: incremental change, extending the development path of food systems; transition, upgrading the development path; and transformation, diversifying the development path or creating a new development path by destabilising a dominant one. Rural enterprises are important firm-level agents introducing small innovations and new ideas and solutions for sustainability challenges, but they can also act as system-level agents reorienting or renewing the food system and the rural enterprise economy. The changes in food systems and the rural enterprise economy are reflected in rural development.