Introduction
Food production is important in all Nordic countries, and interesting and important changes are happening due to the green transition. There is a tremendous need and opportunity to develop innovative and green businesses, including food systems, where the natural resources are located, and can create added value. However, there is a declining interest among young people in pursuing careers within food systems. Further, the latest global crises have kicked off more focus on ensuring more robust and resilient food systems. The food systems have undergone major structural changes in terms of farm size (from small to large), employment structure (from family members to hired labour and contractors), technology (from manual labour to mechanisation to digitalisation), global megatrends such as urbanisation and demographic change and sector-specific seasonality as well as inheritance. There are also growing concerns about an ageing workforce, relatively low levels of education or skills mismatch, and low attractiveness of careers in the sector for young, skilled people. Today’s institutional structures with many higher educational institutions located in cities imply that career and livelihood choices for young people happen in urban areas.
All of the above are relevant to the decrease in youth participation in food systems. This has led to a need to investigate challenges and potentials for increased youth participation in food systems in a project funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers for Fisheries, Aquaculture, Agriculture, Food and Forestry in 2024 and 2025.
The following questions have been investigated:
What challenges do young people face in choosing a career in food systems within different occupational groups (e.g., farmers, chefs, nutrition assistants, veterinarians, food technologists)?
Which good practices can be found in the Nordic (and Baltic) countries that have the potential to be scaled up in the region?
How can current and future producers in food systems be supported to make this employment sector more attractive?
What kind of support mechanisms are needed to encourage innovation and fresh perspectives among new food producers, and how can existing ones be improved?
The project can be seen as a stepping stone to address an important, prevailing trend where much remains to be done. But by combining literature review, workshops, and surveys among youth, anchored by a skilled reference group, the authors hope to bring valuable insights and deliver a clear path for the next steps towards realisation.