The WP leaders of Mistra Food Futures

Line Gordon
WP: Pathways

Line Gordon, professor in sustainable development with a focus on sustainable food systems, is an internationally recognized researcher in the sustainability of water, food, and the biosphere. She conducts innovative research that combines working with small-scale farmers in Africa, global models for the interaction between land use and rainfall, and culinary innovators.

Line works interdisciplinarily with agriculture, food, water resources, and ecosystem services. One of her research tracks involves scenario work, examining how different development paths in Sweden, the Nordic region, and globally can lead to more sustainable and resilient food systems. Another track focuses on so-called “gastronomic landscapes,” with a special emphasis on how food quality and craftsmanship can make us better stewards of the planet.

Line is a popular speaker at Swedish and international events, particularly on topics related to transforming food systems, managing water resources, and broader aspects of sustainable development.

Learn more about Line Gordon’s research here:
Gordon – Stockholm Resilience Centre

Helena Hansson
WP: Coordination, Indicators, Organisations 

Helena Hansson, professor of agricultural economics since 2018. She is also the program director for Mistra Food Futures and vice dean at the Faculty of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences at SLU, where she has a special focus on multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research.

Helena’s research includes the transition of agriculture and food systems to more sustainable production methods, decision-making, and the economic consequences of, for example, the choice of production orientation. She also works with production economic analyses of agriculture. Helena often uses interdisciplinary approaches, such as employing behavioral models to explain decision-making or economic behavior and outcomes, and integrating knowledge from the natural sciences into her analyses.

Learn more about Helena Hansson´s research here:
Helena Hansson | Externwebben (slu.se)

Per-Anders Hansson
WP: Coordination, Systems, Measures 

Per-Anders Hansson, professor at the Department of Energy and Technology; Agricultural Engineering and Systems, and deputy program director for Mistra Food Futures. Per-Anders has a background in agricultural and biosystems engineering, and his doctoral thesis focused on modeling, optimization, and adaptive control of active suspension systems. His interest and experience in modeling, control theory, and systems analysis then became the foundation for his continued research.

Per-Anders leads a fairly large research group (around 40 people) that is particularly strong in environmental systems analysis of food, biomaterials, and energy systems. The primary method used is LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), and one of the research goals is to further develop the method to make it better suited for evaluating bio-based production systems. Another key goal of Per-Anders’ research is to design sustainable systems that make agriculture fossil-free and self-sufficient in electricity and fuel. Mistra Food Futures advances this approach further, aiming to design systems that can make agriculture climate-neutral (net-zero) while also being sustainable in other aspects.

Learn more about Per-Anders Hansson´s research here:
Per-Anders Hansson | Externwebben (slu.se)

Malin Jonell
WP: Indicators

Dr. Malin Jonell, systems ecologist and researcher in sustainable food systems with a particular focus on the private sector’s role in driving positive change. Jonell has a background in ecology and has recently incorporated theory and methods from sustainability science, environmental psychology, and industrial ecology into her work.

Jonell has been involved in several initiatives and programs that promote collaborations between science and industry to support the transition towards sustainability, including the ReSus project, which she leads. She is passionate about science communication and regularly speaks at industry events and participates in media appearances to share insights with practitioners and the public.

Learn more about Malin Jonell´s research here:
Jonell – Stockholm Resilience Centre

Hanna Karlsson Potter
WP: Measures

Dr. Hanna Karlsson Potter är forskare vid Institutionen för energi och teknik; Lantbrukets teknik och system samt kursansvarig för Energi- och livscykelanalys och Livscykelanalys för miljö- och vattenteknik. Hennes forskning fokuserar på hållbarhetsbedömningar av mat och bioenergiproduktion.

Projekt som Hanna är involverad i:
Inom Mistra Food Futures arbetar Hanna med miljösystemanalyser av dagen system samt framtidsscenarier för det svenska livsmedels systemet.

Inom projektet “Odling av hållbar energi och ett stärkt svensk jordbruk genom en ny oljegröda” arbetar Hanna med miljöutvärdering av fältkrassingen, en ny oljegröda. Miljöeffekter av produktion och distribution av vegetariska proteinkällor i olika former, frukt och grönt, spannmål, rotfrukter med mera.

Learn more about Hanna Karlsson Potter’s research here:
Hanna Karlsson Potter | Externwebben (slu.se)

Johan Karlsson
WP: Systems

Dr. Johan Karlsson is a researcher at the Department of Energy and Technology; Agricultural Engineering and Systems. His research focuses on sustainable food production and land use from a systems perspective. He is particularly interested in issues concerning the competition for arable land between growing animal feed and producing food directly for humans, as well as how animal production impacts the agricultural landscape and whether it can provide values beyond food production. Can animal-based foods be part of sustainable food systems? And if so, how?

In his research, Johan uses methods such as mass flow models, life cycle assessment (LCA), and quantitative indicators for ecosystem services to try to answer these questions.

Learn more about Johan Karlsson´s research here:
Johan Karlsson | Externwebben (slu.se)

Therese Lindahl
WP: Policy

Dr. Therese Lindahl’s research broadly focuses on human behavior in relation to sustainability. This includes, for example, research on how local resource users perceive and respond to increasingly challenging resource conditions they face.

Her research also aims to understand the drivers behind behaviors that may be more or less sustainable, such as food consumption and transport behaviors, and how these behaviors can be changed, for example, through governance and policy, as well as the implications this may have at an aggregate level. She employs empirical, experimental, and theoretical methods in her work, combining theories and insights from multiple disciplines and research areas, such as environmental economics, behavioral economics, sustainability science, and psychology.

Learn more about Therese Lindahl´s research here:
Therese Lindahl | Beijer Institute (kva.se)

Sarah Säll
WP: Policy

Dr. Sarah Säll is a researcher at the Department of Economics; Agricultural Sector Economics. Sarah Säll’s research primarily focuses on sustainable food consumption and how economic instruments can be used to encourage consumers to make more sustainable choices. She also works with common-pool resources and how different actors in the food sector can be encouraged to collaboratively manage resources in a way that promotes long-term sustainability.

In addition to her work at MISTRA, Sarah leads a project focused on economic instruments in the Swedish food sector. She is also responsible for several courses offered within the economics programs.

Learn more about Sarah Säll´s research here:
Sarah Säll | Externwebben (slu.se)

Maria Hellström
WP: Transition lab 

Maria Hellström is the head of the Sustainable Consumption and Production unit within the Agriculture and Food division at RISE. The group conducts research and development projects focusing on sustainable agriculture, sustainable seafood, and sustainability data. By applying a systems perspective, the team maps the environmental impact of the entire food chain to identify opportunities for improvement in both production and consumption patterns, as well as to provide a basis for policy decisions that promote more sustainable development. Maria also has extensive experience in business management and leadership from the private sector.

In Mistra Food Futures, Maria is the work package leader for Transition Labs. Here, various actors in the food system, from small businesses to authorities, collaborate to find solutions to systemic problems. Transition Labs is a platform where transition initiatives are launched and tested, and where participants have the opportunity to learn from both research and each other to collectively drive the changes the food system needs to achieve long-term sustainability.

 Learn more about Maria Hellström here:
(3) Maria Hellström | LinkedIn

Björn Persson
WP: Transition lab

Dr. Björn Persson är projekt- och processledare inom framsyn och hållbar omställning. Björn har en bakgrund som beteendevetare med en doktorsexamen inom minnesforskning, och arbete med att förstå hur beteenden påverkas av förändringar i omvärlden. Hans främsta expertis är inom framsyn, med fokus på att undersöka hur framtiden kan komma att utvecklas genom trend- och scenarioanalys, och är även involverad i RISE arbete inom governance innovation och systemomställning.

Learn more about Björn Persson here:
(3) Björn Persson | LinkedIn

Martin Persson
WP: Pathways

Martin Persson is an associate professor of Physical Resource Theory. Martin Persson conducts interdisciplinary research on sustainable land use, with a focus on how we can reduce the environmental impact of our global food systems. The overarching goal of his research is to understand how to design effective policy instruments to steer towards more sustainable food production and consumption by encouraging actors throughout the food chain to take greater responsibility for reducing their impact on climate and biodiversity—particularly by addressing deforestation caused by agricultural production.

Learn more about Martin Persson´s research here:
Chalmers Research: Martin Persson

Elin Röös
WP: Pathways

Associate Professor Elin Röös’ research focuses on sustainable food systems from a broad and interdisciplinary systems perspective. She conducts research and teaches on sustainable food production and consumption from various angles. This includes assessing the environmental impact of different foods and production systems, as well as calculating the environmental effects of different dietary patterns.

She also works on modeling future scenarios that describe how we can sustainably produce food for a growing population. Elin is involved in several interdisciplinary projects that explore economic and informational policy instruments for more sustainable dietary patterns, as well as how more sustainable and healthy raw materials can be produced and processed.

Learn more about Elins Röös´s research here:
Elin Röös | Externwebben (slu.se)

Vivian Wei Huang
WP: Organisations

Dr. Vivian Wei Huang is a senior lecturer at the Department of Economics, specializing in Environmental Economics. Her research interests include measuring productivity growth and efficiency, eco-efficiency analysis of non-market goods, demand analysis of consumption, and spatial econometric analysis of natural resources.

Vivian is the course leader for “Productivity and Efficiency Analysis in Food System Enterprises” and supervises theses in economics at both the bachelor’s and master’s levels. She also teaches parts of “Production Economics.”

Learn more about Vivian Wei Huang´s research here:
Vivian Wei Huang | Medarbetarwebben (slu.se)