FINEST

Food Innovation Enabling Sustainable Transition (FINEST)

FINEST develops three food production value chains in Sweden: forest berries, protein from legumes, and experimental production of food. By investigating how the wild ingredients can be processed to form new products, the project aims to ensure more food is produced locally, thereby also creating jobs in Sweden.

Unfortunately, producing the food that sustains us is also a major contributor to the world’s environmental and climate change emissions. The project identifies potential trade-offs in facing out traditional meat-based food. An example of such could be that farmers involved in meat production suffer in the process of outfacing meat as a protein source in the food system, whilst they are important for a vivid and well-functioning rural society. This creates a conflict between social and environmental sustainability.

Investigating this goal conflict is only a small part of a large project, generally looking at how food production can be made sustainable from an environmental, economic and social perspective. FINEST is a national center where RISE, Chalmers University of Technology and Uppsala University are included together with 15 actors in the Swedish food industry.