The shift from an industrial to a post-industrial economic system encourages an alternative to the globalized food chains—short food supply chain initiatives, which come alongside the servitization concept and are often discussed in the context of sustainability. However, short food supply chain literature is mainly focused on the aspects typical of the industrial economic system and neglects new important business drivers arising in the post-industrial era. This research aims to discuss the evolution of short food supply chain theory and practice in the context of three paradigm innovations that emerged in the post-industrial economic system and suggest new paths for sustainable agri-food system building. All three paradigm innovations are closely related to each other, but each changes a certain dimension of the mental model concerning the food production and delivery system. The article examines the organizational model of the alternative local food market in Lithuania that has been designed according to the “new rules of game” suggested by the post-industrial economic system.

Green transformation at the beginning of the 21st century occupies the top positions in modern society’s sustainability transition research and policy debates due to its multiple propositions of various innovations, addressing the still unsolved issues of rapidly on-going societal and technological changes. Rooting from the general climate change concerns, recently, sustainability transformation has become a special focus in the EU, which is facing new and very concrete demands—to elucidate the evidence-based pathways towards the green transformation with European Green Deal and European Climate Law targets ahead. The main aim of this research is to disclose the pathway towards the green transformation in Lithuania in one of the fast-growing research fields of circular bioeconomy—biogas production from manure and waste. To reach this aim, a hybrid methodology approach was used. Analysis and synthesis of scientific literature, document analysis and structuring, stakeholder mapping, interviews, and statistical analysis methods had been applied. Research results gave evidence for one of the five proposed possible ways for green transformation in Lithuania—the regime transformation. Interviewed stakeholders repeatedly defined this as the most probable pathway for green transformation in Lithuania in the field of biogas production from manure and waste, considering the best suitability of the current development state in the field: adjustments of existing industries, skills, regulations, and institutions.

The examination of “smart” growth in various economic and societal development areas and contexts has spread around the globe, in both scientific and policy discourse, with a recent focus on transformations concerning “smart” green growth, “smart” regional development, and green transformation, including “smart” villages. However, until recently, much confusion has existed regarding different understandings of “smartness” for different communities in different contexts. The main aims of this research are to emphasize the proliferation of perceptions of the term “smart” in different contexts of growth and development paradigms and policy agendas and to illustrate the theoretical findings with a case study concerning Lithuanian perceptions of “smart” development of rural areas. We applied a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods in this study. The research results and the suggested policy recommendations propose that, currently, “smartness” is perceived more broadly than as a simple application of the word “smart”; i.e., it involves intelligent digital equipment or mechanisms in a particular setting. In the context of economic and political processes—at all levels, supranational, regional, and local—“smart” growth includes “green” growth, increasingly emphasizing the ambition to create holistic intelligent [eco]systems to provide better services—i.e., “smarter” and “greener” services—to the quality of life for human beings.

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