System Merits or Failures? Policies for Transition to Sustainable P and N Systems in The Netherlands and Finland

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycles are absolutely vital in maintaining sustainable food systems. Human activities disturb the natural balance of these cycles by creating enormous additional nutrient fluxes, causing eutrophication of waterways and pollution in land systems. To tackle this problem, sustainable nutrient management is required. This paper addresses sustainable nutrient management in two countries: The Netherlands and Finland. We adopt a critical perspective on resource politics, especially towards opportunistic policy strategies for the pollutant management of N and P. Two research questions are considered. First, what are the key systemic and policy failures that occurred in the N and P systems in the Netherlands and Finland between 1970 and 2015? And second, which lessons can be drawn when addressing the policy responses in the two countries to cope with these failures? The cases are analyzed within Weber and Rohracher's framework that addresses "failures" preventing sustainable transitions. The results show that a number of failures occurred, besides market failures (over-exploitation of the commons, externalization of costs): lack of directionality, policy coordination, institutions, capabilities, infrastructure, demand articulation, and reflexivity. Policy responses in both countries resulted in ponderous policy frameworks that were adequate to tackle nutrient problems from the industrial sector and municipalities. However, both countries provided only a moderate response in terms of system-wide integrated policy frameworks to cope with sectoral-transcending issues. The agricultural use of N and P, in contrast to detergents, has not been subjected to strong regulatory measures.

Research on agro-food sustainability transitions: where are food security and nutrition?

“…All four food security dimensions are considered Source: Adapted from Garnett (2014) (Sixt et al 2018), as well as the waterenergy-food nexus (Halbe et al 2015). In other cases, the focus is on transitions in the use of some agricultural inputs, such as fertilisers (Hoppe et al 2016;Jacobs et al 2017) and pesticides (Hammond Wagner et al, 2016;Sherwood and Paredes 2014).…”

Transition heuristic frameworks in research on agro-food sustainability transitions

“…In fact, papers focus on building visions for sustainable agro-food systems and actions needed to move towards such an envisioned system. Selected papers address transition in production de Olde et al 2017;Grin 2012;Hoppe et al 2016;Pant et al 2014), processing Rosin et al 2017), consumption (Vinnari and Vinnari 2014;Vittersø and Tangeland 2015) or in the whole food system Gorissen et al 2018;Kuhmonen 2017;van Gameren et al 2015). Other papers adopt a wider approach and deal with bioeconomy (Hansen and Bjørkhaug 2017) or water-energy-food nexus .…”

“…Van Gameren et al (2015) highlighted that socio-political configurations, institutional contexts and governance arrangements influence the nascent local food systems in Belgium and, consequently, sustainable food consumption transitions. Therefore, they put Gorissen et al (2018) Urban food system Belgium Grin (2012) Dutch agriculture in the post-World War II The Netherlands Halbe et al (2015) Water-energy-food nexus Cyprus Hansen and Bjørkhaug (2017) Bioeconomy Norway Hoppe et al (2016) Phosphorus and nitrogen management Multi-country (The Netherlands and Finland) Kuhmonen (2017) Potential of futures images in food system transition Finland Long et al (2018) Food and beverage industry The Netherlands Pant et al (2014) Transformation in subsistence farming Nepal Rosin et al (2017) Sustainable wine production New Zealand van Local food systems Belgium Vinnari and Vinnari (2014) Plant-based diets Undefined Vittersø and Tangeland (2015) Organic food Norway governance, politics and institutions at the centre of the debate on sustainable consumption. Hoppe et al (2016) addressed resource politics in their critical analysis of the governance of phosphorus and nitrogen systems in Finland and the Netherlands.…”

Sustainability as a Driver in Forestry‐Related Services

“…This strengthens the incremental innovations within the existing structure keeping the overall structure of existing industries intact. Previous studies also showed that the transition towards sustainable bioeconomy systems are prevented by several barriers, such as market failures, lack of directionality, policy coordination, institutions, capabilities, and infrastructure (Hoppe et al 2016).…”