Cream of the crop? A study of consumers in the alternative food network REKO in Oslo and sustainable transitions in the Norwegian food system

In a food system hungry for change, every bite of food matters. Locked in a global system of unsustainable production, processing, distribution and disposal, current food consumption practices of Norwegians contribute to environmental degradation, climate change and social injustices. In response to these issues, a growing number of alternative food networks seek to transform unsustainable processes of food provisioning, simultaneously negotiating what good food is and should be. However, these initiatives raise questions about the potential of niche food systems to bring about change. Untangling the complex connections of the Norwegian food system extend beyond the scope of individual behaviour change or government awareness-raising. This thesis analyses the sustainability transition challenges of the Norwegian food system. I apply a mixed methods approach to examine the engagement of consumers in two REKO rings of the alternative food network REKO in Oslo. REKO is a network that uses an online platform to facilitate local and direct trade between consumers and producers. Drawing on social practice theory and the multi-level perspective, the complex entanglements of the Norwegian food system were revealed. The analysis showed that REKO consumption is a niche activity within routinised everyday life food consumption. The lock-in mechanisms of the current food system make it likely that alternative food networks like REKO will remain in the margins of industrialised food supply chains. I argue that the momentum of niches and landscape-level pressures need to intersect with changes in food practices for there to be a chance of reconfiguring the unsustainable, oligopolistic food provisioning regimes of the Norwegian and global food system. Moreover, the findings showed that there is an opportunity to reframe and make the REKO network easier to use. Doing so may offer alternative ways of doing food to reconfigure unsustainable consumption practices at the level of niche innovations, if not of the food system