Designing to Support Local Stakeholders in Negotiating about Future Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems

Paper Title

Designing to Support Local Stakeholders in Negotiating about Future Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems

Publication Info

• Topic area: Interactive tools for participatory futures in sustainable food systems.
• Keywords: HCI, sustainable food systems, participatory design, futures literacy, interactive models, regional food systems, agricultural land use, stakeholder engagement, technology probes, sustainability transitions.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Limited understanding of how interactive simulation models can mediate collaborative reasoning about large-scale food futures; existing tools often prioritize technical accuracy over inclusivity and interpretability.
• Significance: Addressing this gap is crucial for enabling diverse stakeholders to engage in envisioning and negotiating sustainable and healthy food systems, particularly at regional scales.
• Motivation and related work: Prior HCI research has explored food practices, speculative design, and participatory futures but rarely addresses regional-scale reasoning about land use, diets, and environmental constraints. Existing systems-modeling tools are typically expert-oriented and do not adequately support non-expert stakeholders in exploring trade-offs and systemic constraints.

Solution

• Proposed approach: Development of an interactive crop and livestock model as a technology probe to mediate stakeholder discussions and support futures literacy in regional food systems.
• Novelty:
  1. Conceptual insights into how stakeholders interpret and contest model assumptions in reasoning about food-system futures.
  2. Empirical analysis of how interactive simulations mediate collaborative reasoning and foster futures literacy.
  3. Design implications for participatory tools that support negotiation, interpretation, and critique rather than optimization.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted formative workshops to understand stakeholder perspectives on food systems.
  • Designed an interactive model allowing users to configure land use and explore impacts on production, environment, and nutrition.
  • Deployed the model in virtual workshops to study its role in mediating stakeholder discussions.
  • Analyzed workshop data using qualitative coding to identify themes and insights.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • The interactive model stimulated curiosity and supported macro-level discussions about regional food systems.
  • Participants used the model to explore scenarios, such as aligning production with the EAT Lancet diet or replacing certain crops/livestock.
  • The model's assumptions (e.g., reliance on conventional farming data) provoked critical discussions about alternative practices and systemic constraints.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Enabled more in-depth and regional-scale discussions compared to earlier workshops without the model.
  • Fostered futures literacy by making abstract transformations tangible and discussable.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Two sets of workshops: formative (29 participants) and technology probe (17 participants).
  • Participants included diverse food-system stakeholders (farmers, consumers, policymakers, etc.).
  • Evaluated the model's impact on discussions and its usability through thematic analysis of workshop transcripts.
• Limitations and future work:
  • The model's reliance on conventional farming assumptions limited its applicability for stakeholders advocating alternative practices.
  • Future work could incorporate alternative farming practices, expose adjustable variables, and explore automated scenario generation for better usability.

Summary

This study developed and evaluated an interactive crop and livestock model as a technology probe to support regional food-system stakeholders in envisioning sustainable and healthy futures. The model facilitated macro-level discussions, provoked critical reflections on farming practices, and scaffolded futures literacy by situating scenarios within regional landscapes. While the model's reliance on conventional farming assumptions was a limitation, it also served as a productive provocation for eliciting stakeholder values and concerns. The findings highlight the potential of interactive simulations as mediating artefacts for participatory futures work, emphasizing the importance of inclusivity, situatedness, and contestability in their design.