Mission and Vision

The Mistra Food Futures research program is a groundbreaking initiative aimed at promoting sustainability and innovation within the food system. Through collaboration between academia, industry, and public authorities, we are dedicated to addressing the complex challenges facing the food system and developing solutions for a more resilient and sustainable future.

Mistra Food Futures aims to lead the way by working intensively towards a knowledge-based transformation of food systems—results that can be adopted by decision-makers and businesses, and translated into action plans, political decisions, policy instruments, and bold new business ideas.

The food issue must be viewed from a systemic perspective that includes primary production, processing, distribution, trade, and consumption. Many factors must be considered and weighed against one another, such as sustainable farming, biodiversity, animal welfare, profitability, food security, nutrition, public health, and planetary health.

A fundamental and central insight when discussing sustainability is that it involves complex challenges. Understanding this complexity is crucial for finding effective and workable solutions. Decision-makers, industries, and citizens, among others, need to be challenged to think holistically, recognize conflicts between goals, and identify synergies. Simplified messages create oversimplified problem descriptions, which in turn lead to poorly designed solutions. Research has a vital role to play in ensuring this is avoided.

Mistra Food Futures is an established, scientifically-based knowledge platform actively working to contribute to the transformation of the Swedish food system, with a global perspective, into one that is economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable, resilient, and capable of delivering healthy food.

Transforming food systems is central to the transition towards a more sustainable society. Today, food systems are estimated to account for 20–30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. One-third of all cultivated food is estimated to become food waste, while unequal access and inefficient management force 800 million people to live in hunger.

The world needs to solve the food issue in order to meet the goals of Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement. That’s how crucial it is. As researchers and partners in Mistra Food Futures, we contribute by working intensively towards a knowledge-based transformation of food systems.