Placing resilient local food systems on the municipal agenda: insights from Sweden

Abstract Due to increasing vulnerability to complex global changes, there is a growing need to promote resilient food systems. While food systems operate across scales from local to global, processes of change are rooted in local and regional contexts. In Sweden, the interest in food resilience has increased over the last decade. The aim of this study is to explore the state of Swedish municipalities’ work on food system planning in the context of resilient local food systems and food contingency planning. A survey was conducted, with responses received from 73% of Sweden’s 290 municipalities. The data were analysed using an established categorisation of municipalities to enable comparison across categorises. Main results show that the majority of municipalities support work to develop local food systems and that there is a local political will to do so. However, political will was reported to be weaker in both very sparsely populated rural municipalities and large city municipalities. The main barriers identified were a lack of clear regulations, insufficient national-level support, and limited resources (funding/staff), particularly regarding how to work with food contingency planning. A lack of resources was more frequently reported by rural municipalities compared to others, potentially indicating a lower capacity to respond to crises in these municipalities. Additionally, few municipalities had developed a local food strategy. Overall, the study highlights that municipalities have been engaged with local food systems for a longer time, while work on food contingency planning has recently begun for the majority.