Abstract

We explore the challenges and opportunities of transitioning towards sustainable food systems through the lens of democratic food governance to foster inclusive and systemic transformation. Drawing on the concepts of wicked problems and systems thinking, this paper develops a conceptual theory of change represented as a ´turtle model´ that embraces the diversity of citizens´ values, identities, and knowledge to highlight multiple avenues of transformation. This is an innovative conceptual tool originally developed to guide energy transitions, but has not been applied previously to food system transformations. We focus on urban areas, which, as quadruple helix innovation and governance hubs, can be hotspots for food system transformations. The model is applied post hoc to a conceptually aligned example from Dublin, Ireland, where local citizens´ value-based food identities were galvanized to activate ecological awareness and promote sustainable seafood consumption. The example is used heuristically rather than evaluatively, to demonstrate the explanatory and orientational potential of the model.Within our democratic food governance framework, approaches such as open science, transdisciplinarity, and citizen engagement are fit-for-purpose to engage diverse food actors from government, industry, academia, and civil society in shared dialogue and action to transform food systems. Our ambition with the food turtle model is to motivate deeper conceptual analysis and to provide practical guidance for the design and implementation of change towards more sustainable and ethical food systems.