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Academics can do more to disrupt and reframe the solution space for food system transformation

Food systems transformations are necessary, but will be difficult to achieve without disrupting current political framings and governance mechanisms. The academic community can do more to drive change at the science–policy interface to open a larger political, social and economic space for progress.

Science–policy interfaces (SPIs) are social processes linking academics and decision-makers, allowing for debate, codesign and knowledge co-production to enable better policy-making1. Despite recent food system SPI progress2,3,4, to date, the academic community largely acts as information providers. Assessments produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) are mostly passive attempts to provide robust evidence for decision-makers; what is done with the information is out of scope.

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  1. Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, London, UK

    Tim G. Benton

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Benton, T.G. Academics can do more to disrupt and reframe the solution space for food system transformation.
Nat Food (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00876-w

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  • Published: 25 October 2023

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00876-w

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