Food production and consumption need to substantially change in order to improve human and planetary health. With unique nutrition and environmental properties, grain legumes have the potential to play a key role in dietary shifts that support food system transformation. Recent research has called for actors from governments to farmers to work together, emphasizing the need for well-performing supply chains to realize this shift. Using Sweden as a case study, this Licentiate thesis explores what actions have the potential to increase grain legume consumption and which actors are positioned to take these actions in support of healthy and sustainable diets. 

Paper 1 identifies system level actions to increase grain legume consumption through a leverage points framework that evaluates how these actions can support transformation towards healthy and sustainable diets. Paper 2 builds on thematic action categories from Paper 1, evaluating self-perceived and attributed influence through semi-structured interviews with value chain actors and structural influence through social network analysis. 

Paper 1 finds a range of actions with different transformative potential, illustrated in an example ‘chain of leverage’ of how a combination of actions at different leverage points might work together to increase grain legume consumption. The combination of self-perceived, attributed, and structural influence in Paper 2 finds that few actors have all forms of influence over actions with the potential to increase gran legume consumption, and that the national government is likely to play a role in coordinating activities across actor roles and in different policy arenas. Self-perceived and attributed influence vary widely between several value chain actors, which has implications for actor recognition and participation in efforts to change the current system. Increasing ties between actors and developing shared goals around the future of the grain legume system may help align these types of influence and support transformation towards a more healthy and sustainable system.