Publications

Rachel Mazac, Hanna Karlsson Potter, U. Martin Persson, Rasmus Einarsson, Hanna Rut Carlsson, Janne Bengtsson, Johan Karlsson, Garry Peterson, Line J. Gordon, Elin Röös. 2025. Diet changes in food futures improve Swedish environmental and health outcomes. Communications Earth & Environment. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02679-2

Aligning national food systems with global goals is required for sustainable transitions. We examine if realistic, context-specific dietary changes, mindful of Swedish food culture and in line with future scenarios, are sufficient to meet ambitious environmental goals. Here, we quantified diets based on the four Swedish Food Futures scenarios, which reflect prospects of technological development, behavioral change, import tren...

Rachel Mazac, Kajsa Resare Sahlin, Iisa Hyypiä, Fanny Keränen, Mari Niva, Nora Berglund, Iryna Herzon. 2025. Does “better” mean “less”? Sustainable meat consumption in the context of natural pasture-raised beef. Agriculture and Human Values. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-025-10707-2

Livestock production has significant environmental impacts, requiring sustainable dietary shifts with reduced meat consumption. The concept of "less but better" has gained attention as a pragmatic approach to dietary and production changes, advocating for reduced meat consumption while focusing on sustainably produced, high-quality products. We focus on the interplay between "less" and "better" and critically evaluate the appr...

Rachel Mazac, Minna Kaljonen, Kaisa Kurki, Niko Räty, Sanja Tuovila, Iryna Herzon. 2025. Planetary plate puzzle. International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts. https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2025.2501067

The debate around dietary change, particularly the importance of culturally acceptable changes, has become highly polarised, hindering societal transitions towards sustainability. Serious games have been used as effective deliberation tools fostering safe spaces for co-creation and respectful participation. We designed a serious game, the Planetary Plate Puzzle, aimed at investigating ecologically and culturally sufficient die...

Costanza Conti, Andrew Hall, Kristiaan Kok, Per Olsson, Michele-Lee Moore, Claire Kremen, Amar Laila, Line J. Gordon, Anne Barnhill, Sofie te Wierik, Anna Norberg, Bianca Carducci, Sumati Bajaj, Matthew Gibson, Thais Diniz Oliveira, A. Charlotte Bunge, Tim G. Williams, Rachel Mazac, Mary Scheuermann, Jessica Fanzo. 2025. A quest for questions: The JUSTRA as a matrix for navigating just food system transformations in an era of uncertainty. One Earth. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2025.101178

A just food system transformation is imperative to meet this century's goals of environmental sustainability, economic fairness, and equitable social well-being. While considerations of justice are beginning to inform food system transformation debates, there remains a lack of conceptual and practical integration of these two historically separate disciplinary perspectives. This perspective therefore proposes the just transfor...

Anne Charlotte Bunge, Rachel Mazac, Michael Clark, Line Gordon. 2025. Emerging alternatives to coffee, cocoa and palm oil deserve a spot on the research agenda. Nature Food. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-01103-w

Jana Moritz, Rachel Mazac, Mariana Hase Ueta, Niko Räty, Hanna L. Tuomisto, Toni Ryynänen. 2024. Prospects of Justice for Cellular Agriculture. Food Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41055-024-00156-8

Transformation in food systems poses new opportunities for improving environmental sustainability and reducing the use of farmed animals. Discussions about transforming current food systems have been centered mostly on replacing animal source proteins with plant-based alternatives and about how to minimize food waste and loss. Products from cellular agriculture are part of a novel food transition and are presented as new, sust...

Iryna Herzon, Rachel Mazac, Maijaliisa Erkkola, T Garnett, H Hansson, M Jonell, M Kaljonen, T Kortetmäki, Marjukka Lamminen, A Lonkila, Mari Helena Niva, Anne-Maria Pajari, T Tribaldos, Marjaana Toivonen, Hanna L. Tuomisto, Kari Koppelmäki, E Röös. 2024. Both downsizing and improvements to livestock systems are needed to stay within planetary boundaries. Nature food. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-01030-w

Rachel Mazac, Matti Hyyrynen, Niina E. Kaartinen, Satu Männistö, Xavier Irz, Kari Hyytiäinen, Hanna L. Tuomisto, Chiara Lombardini. 2024. Correction: Exploring tradeoffs among diet quality and environmental impacts in self-selected diets: a population-based study. European Journal of Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-024-03430-x

In the original version of this article, in the abstract, second sentence of the result sections which previously read. One cluster, including twenty percent of the individuals in the sample was identified as a “best compromise” diet with the highest diet quality and the second lowest environmental impacts of all clusters, except for freshwater eutrophication. Should have read One cluster, including eighteen percent of the ...

Rachel Mazac, Matti Hyyrynen, Niina E. Kaartinen, Satu Männistö, Xavier Irz, Kari Hyytiäinen, Hanna L. Tuomisto, Chiara Lombardini. 2024. Exploring tradeoffs among diet quality and environmental impacts in self-selected diets: a population-based study. European Journal of Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-024-03366-2

Proposed sustainable diets often deviate dramatically from currently consumed diets, excluding or drastically reducing entire food groups. Moreover, their environmental sustainability tends to be measured only in terms of greenhouse gases emissions. The aim of this study was to overcome these limitations and identify a cluster of already adopted, relatively healthy diets with substantially lower environmental impacts than the ...

Rachel Mazac, Morena Bruno, Michele Marini, Dario Caro. 2024. Assessing the sustainability of cultured meat in optimized Danish diets. Sustainable Production and Consumption. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2024.04.002

Reducing animal-sourced foods in diets saves a significant share of environmental impacts. Sustainable dietary patterns have proposed large reductions in red meats in particular. Foods with the potential to reduce the environmental impacts of diets are under increasing investigation, and cultured meat, produced by culturing animal cells, could play a key role, especially for diet transitions away from high red meat consumption...