Food for transformation – food for thought : The development of transformative capacity of niche initiatives in the Greater Cape Town area and the Stockholm city-region

As the global food system causes environmental degradation and contributes to detrimental health effects, a transformation is vital for a sustainable and fair future for all. Research on food system transformation and the role of food initiatives have increased. Niche initiatives or “seeds” in the food sectors in Stockholm and Cape Town are finding new ways to contribute to change in the social-ecological systems in which they operate. The questions addressed in this thesis are (i) how the transformative capacity of these seeds have developed over time (ii) what amplification strategies the seeds apply to increase their impact and (iii) what the enablers and barriers to amplification processes are. A three-dimensional framework of transformative capacity and a typology of eight amplification processes are used for the analysis. Findings indicate that seeds are building momentum and developing transformative capacity within three areas: connecting to the biosphere, social cohesion, and agency. The initiatives foremost apply strategies of stabilizing, growing, scaling deep, and scaling up to amplify their transformative impact. Food seeds play an important role in building sustainable food systems and their contribution to change challenges the traditional thinking of growth in transformations and emphasize aspects of changing values, improving quality, and encouraging diversity