Beyond growth in food systems: Cultivating seeds of change

The Special Section on Post-growth food systems for a just social-ecological transition within planetary boundaries explores post-growth and degrowth approaches that advocate for sufficiency, care, regeneration, and the democratization of food systems. It shows that post-growth food initiatives face multiple structural barriers, including capitalist systems that prioritize profit over ecological and social well-being, colonial legacies that affect land access and cultural resilience, patriarchal regimes that undervalue care and regeneration, and dominant Western knowledge systems that dismiss and devalorize relational and experiential ways of knowing. Despite these barriers, there are seeds of hope. What emerges from the Special Section is the importance of building alliances, fostering critical food systems literacy, and embracing artistic and culturally rooted practices to reimagine our relationships with food, land, and each other. We argue that there is a need to support diverse methodologies and (re)center marginalized perspectives in academia. Ameaningful and extensive conversation around science-making and the societal relevance of academia in transforming food systems is long overdue.