Sustainability and preparedness: the key to food security

There is a growing need to integrate sustainability and preparedness to secure the Swedish food supply. This is according to a new research report from Jönköping University (JU) and several other universities. The research points out that these areas are often handled separately, which risks leading to ineffective solutions for major societal challenges.

“The two expert groups need to be in the same room,” says Joakim Netz, Assistant Professor in Work Organisation at Jönköping University and visiting researcher at Chalmers.

According to Joakim Netz, the fields of preparedness and sustainability have previously been two separate tracks - two ‘silos’ that have worked in parallel but not necessarily in the same direction.

The background to this is that much of the food security preparedness that previously existed was dismantled on a large scale during the 1990s. In the 2010s, the security situation changed and the need to strengthen preparedness became relevant again.

At the same time, sustainability issues have become increasingly important, as climate change affects the conditions for food production - in times of both peace and war. Both of these areas, preparedness and sustainability, have become key areas of expertise. But it remains unclear as to how they can be integrated to address the overlapping problems caused by climate change and hostile threats..

In the new research report ‘The quest for sustainable preparedness in Swedish food supply’, the researchers have studied many hundreds of reports from the 1990s onwards, published by actors in the food supply chain. The analysis shows how policy decisions and events have shaped the relationship between sustainability and preparedness over time, and how the two areas have slowly converged.

“In fact, it is only in recent years, after 2018-2019, that we see a concrete desire to address both problems in the same conversation. So it's been an emerging process, it's not something that happens in a flash,” says Joakim Netz.

Collaborating on investments

In addition to the study in the report, the researchers in the project have also organised an ‘innovation lab’ where sustainability specialists and preparedness experts from government, business and stakeholder organisations have come together to explore solutions. Over the past two years, the project has organised dozens of workshops.

“We have put these two sets of experts in the same room. Participants have discussed concrete initiatives and strategies to integrate sustainability and preparedness in practice,” says Joakim Netz.

The researchers describe an emerging competence where expertise in sustainability and preparedness are combined to create more robust and future-proof food systems.

“This is a new competence that is emerging, where we address both sustainability and preparedness issues in the same investment project, for example,” says Joakim Netz.

Recommendations from the researchers

To promote the emerging expertise in sustainable preparedness, the researchers recommend several actions. These include strengthening the knowledge of authorities and companies, for example through training programmes and seminars. Strategic management team discussions are also needed to incorporate sustainable preparedness into investment decisions, not to mention the development of business models that can create economically viable solutions for integrating sustainability and preparedness.