IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v58y2026i1p76-91.html

Harvesting labour justice: Interrogating the social implications of sustainable transformation efforts in Sweden’s forest berry industry

Author

Listed:
  • Linn Axelsson

    (Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden)

Abstract

Localisation is increasingly seen as a solution to the many problems associated with global food systems. However, there is growing concern that the uncritical promotion of ‘the local’ effectively conceals its exclusionary mechanisms, including the exclusion of temporary migrant workers from discussions about food system transformation. Through a critical examination of ongoing efforts in Västerbotten, Sweden to transform a criticised global food chain involving forest berries, this paper interrogates the social justice implications of such initiatives, focusing on the fair and democratic inclusion of global workers in sustainable food production. This analysis underscores the need to recognise the intertwined nature of local food and global labour dynamics in sustainable food production. Ultimately, the paper calls for a reimagining of food systems as spaces of collaboration, solidarity and mutual respect, emphasising the need to challenge hierarchical, global divisions of labour to create a truly inclusive food system.

Suggested Citation

  • Linn Axelsson, 2026. "Harvesting labour justice: Interrogating the social implications of sustainable transformation efforts in Sweden’s forest berry industry," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 58(1), pages 76-91, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:58:y:2026:i:1:p:76-91
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X251377073
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X251377073
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X251377073?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jessica Clendenning & Wolfram Dressler & Carol Richards, 2016. "Food justice or food sovereignty? Understanding the rise of urban food movements in the USA," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(1), pages 165-177, March.
    2. Patricia Allen, 2010. "Realizing justice in local food systems," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 3(2), pages 295-308.
    3. Marit Rosol, 2020. "On the Significance of Alternative Economic Practices: Reconceptualizing Alterity in Alternative Food Networks," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 96(1), pages 52-76, January.
    4. Steven Schnell, 2013. "Food miles, local eating, and community supported agriculture: putting local food in its place," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(4), pages 615-628, December.
    5. Anelyse M. Weiler, 2022. "Seeing the workers for the trees: exalted and devalued manual labour in the Pacific Northwest craft cider industry," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(1), pages 65-78, March.
    6. Clare Hinrichs, 2016. "Fixing food with ideas of “local” and “place”," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 6(4), pages 759-764, December.
    7. Eleni Papaoikonomou & Matías Ginieis, 2017. "Putting the farmer’s face on food: governance and the producer–consumer relationship in local food systems," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(1), pages 53-67, March.
    8. Joshua Sbicca, 2015. "Food labor, economic inequality, and the imperfect politics of process in the alternative food movement," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(4), pages 675-687, December.
    9. Matti La Mela, 2014. "Property rights in conflict: wild berry-picking and the Nordic tradition of allemansr�tt," Scandinavian Economic History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 62(3), pages 266-289, November.
    10. Alberto Alonso-Fradejas & Saturnino M. Borras & Todd Holmes & Eric Holt-Giménez & Martha Jane Robbins, 2015. "Food sovereignty: convergence and contradictions, conditions and challenges," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(3), pages 431-448, March.
    11. Ana Moragues-Faus & Terry Marsden & Barbora Adlerová & Tereza Hausmanová, 2020. "Building Diverse, Distributive, and Territorialized Agrifood Economies to Deliver Sustainability and Food Security," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 96(3), pages 219-243, July.
    12. Michael Ekers & Charles Z. Levkoe & Samuel Walker & Bryan Dale, 2016. "Will work for food: agricultural interns, apprentices, volunteers, and the agrarian question," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(3), pages 705-720, September.
    13. Jack Kloppenburg & John Hendrickson & G. Stevenson, 1996. "Coming in to the foodshed," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 13(3), pages 33-42, June.
    14. Helen Coulson & Paul Milbourne, 2021. "Food justice for all?: searching for the ‘justice multiple’ in UK food movements," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(1), pages 43-58, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guilherme Raj & Giuseppe Feola & Hens Runhaar, 2024. "Work in progress: power in transformation to postcapitalist work relations in community–supported agriculture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 41(1), pages 269-291, March.
    2. Michelle R. Worosz & E. Melanie DuPuis, 2024. "Farming with a mission: the case of nonprofit farms," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 41(4), pages 1877-1894, December.
    3. William Lacy, 2023. "Local food systems, citizen and public science, empowered communities, and democracy: hopes deserving to live," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(1), pages 1-17, March.
    4. Zhanping Hu & Qian Forrest Zhang, 2024. "Alternative agrifood systems and the economic sustainability of farmers' cooperatives: The Chinese experience," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 7447-7460, December.
    5. Sara A. L. Smaal & Joost Dessein & Barend J. Wind & Elke Rogge, 2021. "Social justice-oriented narratives in European urban food strategies: Bringing forward redistribution, recognition and representation," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(3), pages 709-727, September.
    6. Leigh Martindale, 2021. "‘I will know it when I taste it’: trust, food materialities and social media in Chinese alternative food networks," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(2), pages 365-380, June.
    7. Bolette Bele & Ann Norderhaug & Hanne Sickel, 2018. "Localized Agri-Food Systems and Biodiversity," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-17, February.
    8. Serena Mandolesi & Ahmed Saidi & Teresa Del Giudice & Simona Naspetti & Raffaele Zanoli & Carla Cavallo, 2025. "Is the Concept of Food Sovereignty Still Aligned with Sustainability Principles? Insights from a Q-Methodology Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-18, July.
    9. Lesli Hoey & Allison Sponseller, 2018. "“It’s hard to be strategic when your hair is on fire”: alternative food movement leaders’ motivation and capacity to act," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(3), pages 595-609, September.
    10. Joshua Sbicca, 2015. "Food labor, economic inequality, and the imperfect politics of process in the alternative food movement," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(4), pages 675-687, December.
    11. Marusak, Amy & Sadeghiamirshahidi, Narjes & Krejci, Caroline C. & Mittal, Anuj & Beckwith, Sue & Cantu, Jaime & Morris, Mike & Grimm, Jason, 2021. "Resilient regional food supply chains and rethinking the way forward: Key takeaways from the COVID-19 pandemic," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    12. David Cleveland & Allison Carruth & Daniella Mazaroli, 2015. "Operationalizing local food: goals, actions, and indicators for alternative food systems," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(2), pages 281-297, June.
    13. Lijun Angelia Chen & Bruno Varella Miranda & Joe L. Parcell & Chao Chen, 2019. "The foundations of institutional-based trust in farmers’ markets," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(3), pages 395-410, September.
    14. Qian Forrest Zhang, 2024. "Producers’ transition to alternative food practices in rural China: social mobilization and cultural reconstruction in the formation of alternative economies," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 41(2), pages 615-630, June.
    15. Marylynn Steckley, 2024. "The relevance of food sovereignty assessments in urban sites of scarcity: lessons from mothers in Cap-Haitian, Haiti," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 41(4), pages 1811-1824, December.
    16. Elizabeth A. Bennett, 2018. "Extending ethical consumerism theory to semi-legal sectors: insights from recreational cannabis," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(2), pages 295-317, June.
    17. Lea Loretta Zentgraf, 2025. "How Democratic Is Just Enough? Critical Reflections on the Transformative Potential of the Berlin Food Policy Council," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10.
    18. Rike Stotten, 2024. "Heterogeneity and agency in the contemporary food regime in Switzerland: among the food from nowhere, somewhere, and here sub-regimes," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, Springer, vol. 105(2), pages 251-274, November.
    19. Catherine Brinkley & Gwyneth M. Manser & Sasha Pesci, 2021. "Growing pains in local food systems: a longitudinal social network analysis on local food marketing in Baltimore County, Maryland and Chester County, Pennsylvania," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(4), pages 911-927, December.
    20. Alana Siegner & Jennifer Sowerwine & Charisma Acey, 2018. "Does Urban Agriculture Improve Food Security? Examining the Nexus of Food Access and Distribution of Urban Produced Foods in the United States: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-27, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:58:y:2026:i:1:p:76-91. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.