“Fika in the Anthropocene”: leveraging food systems transformations through food cultures

The role of food cultures in food systems transformations is gaining prominence in scholarly discourse. However, several food cultures rely on products with substantial environmental and socio-economic impacts and risks, raising questions about their potential role in transformation processes toward more sustainable food systems. One such example constitutes the Swedish Fika, the daily practice of having coffee and pastries in company as an important social care institution. Based on ingredients like coffee, cocoa, and palm oil, it relies on products associated with high environmental and socio-economic impacts and risks. This paper draws on resilience theory and uses pathways as a conceptual approach to explore how Fika as an illustrative food cultures can be adapted to societal targets and anthropogenic challenges in order to preserve its deeper social value in the long term.

We first outline the interlinked environmental and socio-economic impacts and threats associated with Fika ingredients. We then develop two distinct exemplary pathways, “less but better” and “innovated” Fika, to illustrate potential strategies that could mitigate adverse impacts while enhancing its resilience to anthropogenic challenges. Finally, we discuss the potential of these pathways to leverage wider dietary transitions by permeating throughout the food system. We propose that viewing individual food products within their cultural context (the food cultural lens) provides the opportunity for a paradigm shift, using food cultures as strategic entry points and levers for wider food system transformation. Further multi- and transdisciplinary research is required to evaluate the effectiveness of these pathways as well as the broader potential of food cultures to leverage food system change.