Dominant food systems are configured from the productivist paradigm, which focuses on producing large amounts of inexpensive and standardized foods. Although these food systems continue being supported worldwide, they are no longer considered fit-for-purpose as they have been proven unsustainable in environmental and social terms. A large body of scientific literature argues that a transition from the dominant food systems to alternative ones built around the wider principles of sustainable production and rural development is needed. Promoting such a sustainability transition would benefit from a diagnosis of food system types to identify those systems that may harbor promising characteristics for a transition to sustainable food systems. While research on food system transitions abounds, an operational approach to characterize the diversity of food systems taking a system perspective is still lacking. In this paper we review the literature on how transitions to sustainable food systems may play out and present a framework based on the Multi-Level Perspective on Socio-Technical Transitions, which builds upon conceptual developments from social and natural science disciplines. The objectives of the framework are to (i) characterize the diversity of existing food systems at a certain geographical scale based on a set of structural characteristics and (ii) classify the food systems in terms of their support by mainstream practices, i.e., dominant food systems connected to regimes; deviate radically from them, niche food systems such as those based on grassroots innovation; or share elements of dominant and niche food systems, i.e., hybrid food systems. An example is given of application of our framework to vegetable food systems with a focus on production, distribution, and consumption of low-or-no pesticide vegetables in Chile. Drawing on this illustrative example we reflect on usefulness, shortcomings, and further development and use of the diagnostic framework.

Ecological intensification has been proposed as a promising lever for a transition towards more sustainable food systems. Various food systems exist that are based on ecological intensification and may have potential for a sustainability transition. Little is known, however, about their diversity and about how they perform against dominant systems in terms of the multiple societal goals. The aim of this study is to contribute to knowledge about sustainability transitions in food systems through an empirical analysis of vegetable food systems in Chile. The study (i) characterizes the diversity of vegetable food systems in Chile (ii) evaluates the food systems in terms of multiple societal goals, and (iii) assesses their potential for supporting sustainability transition pathways from the perspective of ecological intensification. Results indicate that among the five vegetable food system types, the agroecological and the small organic have potential to foster a sustainability transition. Nevertheless, these systems are small and localized, and scaling them requires actions to remove barriers in the relations with the agri-food regime and among themselves. The broader relevance of this analysis is that there needs to be awareness in research on transitions about the diversity of food systems present in countries and how they interact.

With low adoption rates of soil conservation measures (SCM) widespread, we examine determinants of current and potential future adoption in the ‘Secano Costero’ region of Central Chile. Randomly selected farmers (N = 140) spent an equivalent of 48 000 CLP/year (∼79 US$) on SCM. Contingent valuation of a hypothesized soil conservation programme revealed a willingness‐to‐pay of 30 610 CLP/year (∼50·4 US$) for future adoption. Social‐psychology variables from Protection Motivation Theory (PMT; response efficacy, perceived barriers) were used to predict current and potential future adoption. Current spending on SCM is influenced by perceptions of (1) erosion problem severity, (2) response efficacy of SCM, (3) farming problems and (4) barriers (lack of labour and draught animals). In addition, farm size and education were significant predictors. Willingness‐to‐pay for future adoption of SCM is influenced by farmer perception of (1) response efficacy of SCM, and (2) community support to the programme as well as farm size, age and gender. Our results suggest that formal psychometric scale development for social‐psychology predictors for the adoption of SCM, e.g. based on PMT, is a promising avenue for the analysis of soil conservation decisions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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