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Developing a more resilient food system based on sustainable food production and consumption is of major concern in creating food security. One issue in this complex field concerns the scale of the food system. Trends and tendencies show that the interest for local food has increased the last decade in Sweden, as well as in other parts of the world. Although the concept "local food" is commonly used, research shows that there is no single definition of it, instead definitions and meanings vary widely. This has led to a need by consumers of clearer information when buying "local food". Several main actors in the Swedish food sector have joined forces to meet this issue. This paper contributes to knowledge on definitions, interpretations, and practice on local food by presenting views and opinions among different actors in the food chain in a Swedish context, but also in the light of an international pilot study. Main findings concern how the meaning of "local food" related to production, processing, raw material, and distance differs among stakeholders in the food chain. A majority stated that the basic meaning of "local food" concerns both the production and consumption within a certain geographical area.

This paper discusses planning from a localization perspective in relation to food production and consumption in Swedish local authorities. A national interview study was conducted where 75% (218) of Swedish municipalities participated. Four issues relating to locally produced food provided the focus of the study, namely, policy, procurement procedures, communication efforts directed at producers and logistics. Local-level planning documents such as comprehensive plans, climate strategies and programmes for sustainable development were studied to explore the extent to which issues of local food were included as a factor in municipal planning.

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Agricultural land is crucial for the production of food and is, thereby, directly connected to food security. Agriculture is threatened by a multitude of hazards, such as climate change, peak oil, peak soil and peak phosphorus. These hazards call for a more resilient food system that can deliver food security for the global population in the future. In this paper, we analyse the Baltic Sea region’s ten European Union (EU) member states, investigating which trends are to be found in statistics between 2005 to 2016 on the development of agricultural land. In our paper, we analyse these trends of agricultural land by looking at three categories of data: (1) utilised agricultural area, (2) number of farms and (3) agricultural labour input. The results showed a trend that agricultural land is increasingly dominated by large farms, whilst over 1 million predominantly small farms have disappeared, and agricultural-labour input has dropped by more than 26%. These trends point towards a mechanisation of production, where larger and less labour-intensive farms take over production. This could partly be due to the EU common agricultural policy, which tends to favour large farms over small. Further, we argue for the importance of farm-size diversity, and about the dangers to food security that a system that is dominated by large farms possesses. Lastly, we conclude that the concept of resilience needs to be better included in policy development and food-system planning, and that more research needs to be done, analysing how existing agricultural policies impact the parameters studied in this paper.

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Seven key community resources (physical, economic, biological, organisational, social, cultural and aesthetic resources) were studied in each of 22 common local urban townscape areas in 11 cities in the Baltic Sea region. A method was developed for multi-dimensional assessment of the sustainability status of the local communities according to the United Nations Habitat agenda. From an analysis of strong and weak points of the seven resources, a contextual micro-comprehensive plan for sustainable community development was outlined for each local area, comprising three components: universal, townscape-type-specific and place-specific strategies. The research also revealed unique key drivers for change for each area – either a specific problem or a vision for change. By addressing the key drivers, it is suggested that sustainable community development could be more efficiently introduced and implemented.