Transformation of the food systems: the role of consumer responsibility

Abstract

The transformation of food systems is a central challenge in the current food policy debate. This paper examines the role of consumer responsibility within this transformation, arguing that sustainable food systems emerge not mere-ly from ethical consumption but from the integration of individual and col-lective  responsibility  within  social,  economic,  and  institutional  frameworks.  The  analysis  situates  consumption  within  broader  socio-technical  systems  that  reproduce  unsustainability  through  structural  mechanisms  and  cul-tural  norms.  The  paper  introduces  a  model  of  transformative  responsibility  – comprising four stages: knowledge production, problematization, responsi-bilization, and politicization – illustrating how awareness and ethical com-mitment can evolve into collective agency and institutional reform. Through empirical examples, the study demonstrates how responsibility is framed, en-acted, and institutionalized in contemporary societies. It concludes that only by  embedding  responsibility  within  processes  of  social  learning  and  demo-cratic  governance  can  consumer  practices  contribute  to  a  just  and  sustain-able transformation of food systems.