PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Nutrition and Sustainable Diets
This article is part of the Research TopicSustainable Food Consumption and Production in the 21st Century: Volume IIView all 18 articles
What If? Integrating Scenarios and Fiction in Food Systems Policy and Governance
Provisionally accepted
- Huanggang Normal University, Huanggang, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Modern food systems face unprecedented challenges that require transformative policy responses beyond conventional forecasting. We argue that scenario-building and science fiction narratives can serve as tools for policy innovation, helping stakeholders to consider complexity, weigh trade-offs, and shape more adaptive strategies. By synthesizing insights from foresight studies, participatory scenario exercises, and narrative approaches, this perspective suggests that creative future visions can support new policy pathways toward sustainable food systems. These methods offer co-created visions of possible futures encompassing climate, diets, technologies, and governance systems.
Keywords: Scenario planning, Foresight, Sustainable food systems, food systems policy, participatory governance, Plant-based diets, food system transformation, policy innovation
Received: 28 Apr 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhou and Razzaq. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Amar Razzaq, amar.razzaq@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.