The potential of bottom-up initiatives to produce a just transformation toward sustainable food consumption

Official URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2025.151.020

In the past decade, grassroots communities and citizen collectives have emerged as a bottom-up response to take the lead in addressing social inequalities and environmental sustainability chal lenges, including the promotion of environmentally sustainable food consumption. These bottom-up initiatives (BUIs) generate new transformative ideas while simultaneously creating resilient communities and a sense of solidarity and collective unity. Despite the growing interest in the potential transformative role of BUIs, there is scarcity of studies investigating their influence at the individual consumer level and exploring mechanisms of potential change. The present study investigated whether participation in BUIs—already being implemented in five countries—is associated with individual change in particular food values and consumption behavior. To do so, we conducted a mixedmethods real-life study focusing on inequalities through the adoption of a gender+ intersectional1 understanding of vulnerability. The key finding is a significant BUI-related change in sustainable consumption (plant-based and seasonal food) and values (animal welfare and health) associated with healthier and more sustainable food choices in a sample where the majority of people self-identified as being socially vulnerable on diverse and often multiple grounds. We also identify several potential vulnerability-related barriers for change and suggest potential mechanisms driving the changes based on the analyses of the interviews with the BUI’s organizers.