Technological innovation is no longer assumed as a catalyst of progress only, when huge environmental problems are at stake. This has been recognized by leading scholars in the innovation economics field like Luc Soete (2013). Indeed, he has recently argued that there has been an excessive creative destruction, a “short-termism” of the creative destruction. In line with David (2012), Soete analyses critically the post-war growth, in which “professional-use driven” innovation has continuously fed the creation of monopolistic profits through planned obsolescence and an unsustainable “innovation-led consumerism growth path” (Soete, 2013, p.136). His conclusion is that the environmental impact and ecological footprint of this model make it unsustainable in the developed world but also increasingly so in emerging countries, claiming for a shift in the process of research and innovation (Soete, 2013). This has been stressed by authors like Jackson (2009), who claims that the current economic and social models will bring about an ecological collapse, whatever the effect of improved technologies on the reduction of the energy and resource intensity of production. Transition scholars have pointed out the relevance of the transition process to a decarbonized economy (Geels, 2002, 2004; Geels and Schot, 2007; Coenen, Raven and Verbong, 2010; Smith, Voß and Grin, 2010; Markard, Raven and Truffer, 2012). This process is a complex and no single pathway phenomenon, involving economic, social and policy shifts. Within this new field, a multilevel perspective has been proposed, where radical innovations take place in protected places (niches) and become adopted (or not) as substitutive or complementary technologies at the established regimes level, under the pressures exerted by the policy and institutional level (landscape) (Geels, 2004). Drawing on this framework, the aim of this paper is to analyse innovative environmentally-friendly experiments in the domain of food production and consumption (one of the major societal functions), which are mostly based on new organizational forms and new patterns of behaviour and participation. The main question is to inquire which is the likely evolution and impact of these experiments on the transformation of the food socio-economic-technical system. The role of specific actors and institutions (consumers, producers, and associations), is also a relevant issue to be addressed. Finally, policies may boost or hinder the emergence and deployment of the new social practices (Spaargaren, 2011), which some authors denote as constituents of an emerging sharing economy (Schor, 2014). Case studies have been already identified in the domains of food production and consumption in Portugal (e.g. short food supply chains). They represent social innovation – a kind of functional equivalent of “niches” - which might deploy to a broader scale if appropriate policies and measures at local and national levels are adopted. These include Common Agricultural and Rural Development Policy, Cohesion Policy, and local policies. The involvement of a diversity of actors (e.g., local public administration, socioeconomic associations) is also crucial in the development of these bottom-up approaches to sustainable patterns of food production and consumption. A critical assessment of the cases, together with the identification of the challenges and opportunities, will be carried out.

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sustainability transitions; innovation; new patterns of food production and consumption