Final Reflections on the Co-SFSC Project’s Three-Year Journey

As the Co-SFSC project nears the end of its three-year cycle, a series of six reflection interviews has highlighted the successes, challenges, and future pathways for transforming food systems across three continents. Spanning hubs in Thailand, Turkey, Taiwan, Sweden, and Germany, the project has transitioned from academic observation to active, real-world interventions aimed at building resilient, cooperative food networks.

Building a Global Community of Practice

Project coordinator Pia Laborgne noted that the initiative’s greatest strength was the creation of a "strong community of practice". Despite initial concerns regarding disciplinary and cultural complexities, the project successfully fostered trust through regular monthly meetings and in-person visits to research and practice partners. Pia Laborgne emphasized that the project aimed to contribute to "deep sustainability," looking beneath the surface of infrastructure to more fundamental cultural understandings of food.

Regional Innovations and "Real Utopias"

The diverse hubs reported unique local interventions that underscore the complexity of food system change:

• Sweden: The Swedish team focused on municipal food strategies and the "missing middle" of food infrastructure. A notable success was the creation of the "Potato Game", a workshop format that has since been shared with international partners.

• Taiwan: Under Ying-Chen Lin, the Taiwan hub focused on policy interventions, including the "Big Granary Program". They provided empirical data to the Ministry of Agriculture regarding land-use conflicts between solar farms and traditional agriculture. Ying-Chen Lin also highlighted the "academic diplomacy" that led to long-term partnerships with universities in Thailand and Turkey.

• Thailand: The Thai team successfully connected local women producers of "bitter orange" to a unique outlet: Hap Cafe, located inside a prison. This intervention demonstrated how smaller, flexible providers can bypass the strict institutional barriers found in large hotels and restaurants.

• Turkey: Researchers Aylin Topal and Zühre Aksoy advocated for a "network" rather than a "chain" analogy for food systems. Despite severe economic stagflation and political turbulence that led to the closure of their main partner, the Clean Harvest cooperative (Temiz Hasat), they observed that the underlying producer networks remained resilient and motivated.

• Germany: The Karlsruhe hub organized the Karlsruhe Food Summit, creating a vital space for networking between municipal administration, activists, and producers. Wanda Wieczorek noted that while structural and legal barriers prevented their partner, Food Circle, from founding a business as planned, the project succeeded in building the trust necessary for future change. In Freiburg, the team supported food SME to convert to a cooperative business model and developed a training program for food SME.

Future Steps: Beyond the Project

As the funding period concludes, the researchers are looking toward "institutionalizing" these collaborations. Common future goals include moving toward food councils, scaling up local indicators to national spatial planning, and continuing to advocate for food sovereignty.

While the project technically ends this year, the participants view themselves as little co-creators in a long-term, global effort. As the Turkish team put it, the goal remains a "real utopia"—a food system built on solidarity, ecological borders, and justice.