Why do local plant proteins not take off? : Sustainability rationalities in public catering

This is a self-archived version of an original article. This version may differ from the original in pagination and typographic details. Author(s): Title: Year: Version: Copyright: Rights: Rights url: Please cite the original version: CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Why do local plant proteins not take off? : Sustainability rationalities in public catering © 2023 The Authors. Published by RC40. Published version Kortetmäki, Teea Kortetmäki, T. (2023). Why do local plant proteins not take off? : Sustainability rationalities in public catering. International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 29(1), 25-43. https://doi.org/10.48416/ijsaf.v29i1.487 2023 Int. Jrnl. of Soc. of Agr. & Food, 2023, Vol. 29, No. 1 , pp. 25-43 Paper first received: 09 June 2022; Accepted: 22 April 2023; Published in final form: 30 April 2023 https://doi.org/10.48416/ijsaf.v29i1.487 Teea KORTETMÄKI1 Abstract This study examines the potential of local plant proteins in promoting sustainable dietary transition in public catering and, simultaneously, helping rural regions find sustainable livelihoods in the future. Environmental and health reasons call for a transition to more plant-based diets in Western countries. This poses a livelihood challenge for many rural/semi-rural regions that are currently livestock-dominated. Local plant protein crops could be a ‘win-win’ solution, both for promoting dietary transition and for supporting local rural economies – presently two conflicting objectives in regions where animal production prevails. This study is based on a development project in which local public catering actors undertook to increase the use of local plant proteins. It analyses public actors’ rationalities that explain actions and inactions for sustainability transition and the positioning of plant proteins therein. Results demonstrate how the dominant catering rationalities, and mismatches between regime and niche actor rationalities, hinder the mainstreaming of local plant proteins. The discussion reflects upon ways to overcome these barriers.Introduction Significant reductions in the climatic and land use impacts of modern food systems necessitate a transition to more plant-based diets and reduced meat consumption, which would also benefit public health (de Boer and Aiking 2019; Willett et al., 2019). Research has identified the prospects of and barriers to a dietary ISSN: 0798-1759 | This Journal is double blind refereed. © 2023 The Authors. Published by RC40. 1 University of Jyväskylä., Finland Corresponding author: Teea Kortetmäki, [email protected] Bibliographical notes Teea Kortetmäki (PhD) works at the School of Resource Wisdom, University of Jyväskylä. Her main research interests include just sustainability transitions in food systems, environmental and food justice, and food ethics. ACKNOLWEDGEMENTS The author thanks Tiina Silvasti, Ville Tikka, Marileena Mäkelä, and the reviewers for valuable feedback and Emma Kynkäänniemi for all the discussions during the development project. 25 Why do local plant proteins not take off? Sustainability rationalities in public catering 26 Why do local plant proteins not take off? Introduction Significant reductions in the climatic and land use impacts of modern food systems necessitate a transition to more plant-based diets and reduced meat consumption, which would also benefit public health (de Boer and Aiking 2019; Willett et al., 2019). Research has identified the prospects of and barriers to a dietary transition at the individual level (Niva, Vainio and Jallinoja 2017; Austgulen et al., 2018; Kaljonen et al., 2019). The ineffectiveness of steering consumers by information campaigns or soft nudging has created interest in the role of organisational (public) food system actors in promoting transition. Related research has been framed in terms both of sustainable procurement (e.g., Smith et al., 2016; Sonnino 2009) and of promoting environmentally sustainable diets via public catering (Florén, Amani and Davis 2017; Wahlen, Heiskanen and Aalto 2012; Colombo et al., 2020). One unstudied aspect in this context lies in the tensions between different sustainability objectives, which may even suggest opposite transition pathways (Kortetmäki 2019) and are of concern to rural livelihoods. For example, local food is commonly perceived as evidently sustainable and just (e.g. Autio et al., 2013; Gottlieb and Joshi 2013). However, animal-based production predominates in many modern food systems, comprising nearly or approximately half of the value of agri-food based GDP in the European Union, the United States, and Australia. This situation generates tension between promoting sustainability by supporting the existing local production, and promoting a dietary transition. The latter reduces the consumption of products that presently form the cornerstone of regional food systems and may increase the use of non-local, even imported, foods (Kortetmäki 2019). Food chains constitute a significant building block in the development of rural areas struggling with the continued withdrawal of capital and decreased distribution of added value to primary producers (Marsden et al., 2000). The production and use of local plant proteins could alleviate the tension and create ‘win-win’ solutions by providing a way to simultaneously promote local rural livelihoods and dietary transition. Local plant proteins could support values associated with locality and food justice, even food autonomy,1 as well as potential for added value through short supply chains (Marsden et al., 2000), while promoting decarbonisation and public health (Willett et al., 2019; de Boer and Aiking 2019). This potential has turned attention to the prospects of ‘re-launching’ the currently marginal domestic and local plant protein food crops in public catering (e.g., Balázs et al., 2021; Lascialfari et al., 2019; Magrini et al., 2021). Local plant proteins could help semi-/rural communities respond to food system regeneration demands in ways that benefit sustainable livelihoods and the viability of rural communities (cf. Marsden et al., 2000). However, unlocking such potential requires that lock-ins in local plant protein production and consumption be overcome (Balázs et al., 2021; Magrini et al., 2021; Paloviita 2021). This research focuses on the role of public catering as a promising avenue for overcoming the aforementioned lock-ins (Paloviita 2021). Catering can create high-volume demand for new products and novel value chains, and transform eating practices by introducing sustainable choices and creating food environments that support change (Wahlen, Heiskanen and Aalto 2012; Colombo et al., 2020; Niva, Vainio and Jallinoja 2017). The focus on catering also answers to calls for examining the role of non-market actors in sustainability transitions and the spatial contexts of transitions (Lawhon and Murphy 2012), and understanding the public-private dynamics in food system transitions (Marsden 2013). Furthermore, results bear relevance beyond public catering. First, they can illuminate public-institutional rationalities for sustainability action more generally. Second, as public catering needs to justify its activities in ways that a majority of policymakers and taxpayers accept (Schedler 2003), their reasons ‘mirror’ the prevalent socio-cultural valuations and conventions of appropriateness in food practices. Third, the affordability standards of public catering reflect mainstream consumer viewpoints (the importance of price) better than the willing-to-pay niche consumers featured in 1 While food autonomy discourse is active in various countries and is posited as central for sustainability and justice, discourses in Finland rarely refer to food autonomy. Instead, they stick to the (related) notions of self-sufficiency and supply security. The development project was carried out in 2018–2019. The war in Ukraine in 2022 might have influenced related views and articulations. 27 Kortetmäki many transition studies. As one of the catering actors pointed out: a product that passes catering standards can triumph in mainstream markets too. Thus, study results are also valuable for understanding the potential of local plant proteins for dietary transition more generally. Finland, where the case study is located, is a flagship country in public catering. Like Sweden, it has long served free, nutritionally wholesome and warm school meals (Peltola et al., 2020; Colombo et al., 2020). Finland provides free school meals for all pupils in basic education (aged 7–16) and upper secondary education: roughly c 900,000 meals overall every school day. Finnish public catering also handles a majority of pre-school, hospital, and elderly catering, and sells lunch for municipal workers. Lessons learned therein are highly relevant to large-scale catering generally, including private student and staff canteens (many of which are publicly subsidised) that similarly aim at providing low-cost yet satisfying and wholesome meals for the masses. Finland is representative of Western dietary patterns and modern food systems: animal-based production comprises almost half of the total production of the Finnish food industry (Finnish Food and Drink Industries Federation 2022). Could local plant proteins provide ‘win-win’ solutions, promoting both local livelihoods and dietary transition simultaneously, in semi-/rural areas? This research aimed to understand the potential of local plant proteins in promoting dietary transition alongside sustainable local livelihood sources in the future.2 It took place within the context of a development project that promoted food system sustainability in a Finnish semi-rural, livestock-dominated region. In the following section I introduce the theoretical-conceptual background for the study, the Weberian framework of institutional rationalities. This is followed by the project description, an explanation of the data and methods, and the presentation of the results. The main results show that the dominant regime rationalities create several barriers to the mainstreaming of local plant proteins and produce a diagnostic framing where sustainability is more a matter of geographical, rather than dietary, transition. Rationality mismatches, in turn, hamper successful interactions between local plant protein actors and public organisations. Finally, I reflect upon solutions to the identified barriers to local plant protein use. Rationalities and sustainability transitions Food system sustainability transitions are studied in the fast-evolving field of sustainability transition studies. In this field, transitions are often considered as resulting from multilevel interactions within and between the exogenous socio-techno-political factors, the regime (the mainstream institutional actors and practices), and innovative and radical niche actors (Geels and Schot 2007). Transitions can come about through multiple pathways (Geels 2014; Geels and Schot 2007). Incumbent regime actors may transform the system, while retaining their position, by changing their activities in response to exogenous criticism or policy changes, or by adopting novelties from the niche cumulatively, for economic or functional reasons. Incumbent regime actors may also get replaced because they lose their legitimacy due to the exogenous criticism or, in market conditions, by losing the competition to the emerging niche actors. Demands for food system transformations comprise a major exogenous pressure on the regime (mainstream) institutional actors (Marsden 2013, 295). Low-carbon transition studies show that actors’ responses to transition pressures depend on how they perceive the problem; resistance in various forms is a common response (Geels 2014). Dietary transition is a critical aspect of food system transition (de Boer and Aiking 2019; Willett et al., 2019), for which plant-based proteins represent the key niche (Morris et al., 2014; Lonkila and Kaljonen 2022). Research on food system sustainability transitions has focused primarily on global and national change mechanisms, and on alternative food networks as niches, while meso-scale change mechanisms have been understudied (Lamine et al., 2019). Yet understanding the responses of regime actors to transition pressures requires us to look at meso-scale actors at their level of operational environment, where the implementation 2 Crop rotation with legumes was excluded from this study as irrelevant for dietary transition and public catering contexts, although it is relevant for agroecological transitions. Another excluded topic is the transformative capacity of current livestock producers who would not all benefit from dietary transition. 28 Why do local plant proteins not take off? of sustainability actions materialises or fails (e.g., Lonkila and Kaljonen 2022; Lamine et al., 2019). Dietary transition marks a system-wide transition that will materialise only if it is implemented by various regime actors. Institutional catering represents one of the key regime actors as an established, relatively stable institution with specific regulations, professional networks, practices, and training systems. Weberian rationalities and organisational change Max Weber introduced rationalities when he sought to explain different development pathways and the distinct features of the life spheres of Western civilization as compared to others (Weber 1958; 2019; Kalberg 2011). Rationalities provide an analytical lens for understanding the regularities of institutional and organisational actors (Townley 2002; Fuenfschilling and Truffer 2014), including responses to transition pressures. Rationalities are regularities of thinking and ordering that aim at mastering reality and making particularised events and fragments of life into meaningful wholes to organise and justify action (Kalberg 2011:16–17).3 Rationalities also determine what counts as ‘proper’ justification for actions (Watson 2003). Institutional rules and practices invent rationalities as institutional logics; thus, rationalities also influence the likelihood and contents of institutional actions for sustainability (Fuenfschilling and Truffer 2014). Rationalities are rational only in relation to particular reference points or values (e.g., Weber 1946: 331–340, 544–554) that may appear as self-evident at present yet are mutable over time. Studying competing rationalities and their interplay illustrates how the dominant rationalities may become destabilised (Townley 2002: 164) and where the key opportunities for endogenous regime transitions reside. Rationalities offer an interesting lens for analysing public actors in sustainability transitions. Public actors, using taxpayers’ money, need constantly to justify their actions and use of public resources. To articulate acceptable reasons for their activities or for changing them, actors must consider the prevalent rules and assumptions in their society, in the regional and national contexts, while also demonstrating sensitivity to the emerging exogenous pressures. This forces public actors to navigate between competing objectives (‘reflexive rationality’, Alrøe et al., 2017). Rationalities exist and are reproduced through social action. Weber (2019: 99ff) describes such action as comprising four ideal types (real-world actions rarely represent only one type): traditional; affective; value rational; and instrumentally rational. Traditional actions are guided by habituation, and affective actions by emotions, whereas the other two types of action are guided by value and purposive rationality. While tradition-related and affective factors are highly relevant for individuals’ food choices (e.g., Niva, Vainio and Jallinoja 2017), public actors can hardly appeal to emotions or ‘non-rational traditions’. In modern societies, public catering needs to justify its operations in terms of different rationalities. While the twofold distinction of value and instrumental rationalities (in the above-described action typology) has been commonly applied in research, it dismisses other aspects of rationality that are highly relevant for institutional actors. The fourfold account developed by Stephen Kalberg (2011) is thus more apt for analysing institutional actors. This fourfold typology has not been applied to food system studies before. The four ideal types of Weberian rationalities (Kalberg 2011:18–26) are: practical; substantive; theoretical; and formal. Practical rationality (also means-end or instrumental rationality) refers to pragmatic actions dealing with the challenges of daily reality to meet goals with the most efficient means. Substantive or value rationality (hereafter value rationality) refers to constellations of normative values and belief systems, including conceptions of good and right. Theoretical rationality represents belief-cognitive and often abstracted knowledge about the reality. Formal rationality denotes the sphere of legal and bureaucratic, ‘impersonal’ rules that organise reality. Practical and value rationalities directly link to the Weberian types of action. Theoretical rationalities link to action indirectly, as the study will demonstrate. Formal rationalities link to action both directly 3 Weber did not systematise his account very clearly. Thus, I rely on Kalberg’s more nuanced typology instead of a relatively common ‘instrumental vs. value rationality’ typology. 29 Kortetmäki and indirectly. While rationalities are rational only in relation to certain (historical and contextual) reference points and are thereby mutable, they change neither easily nor quickly. This is because of their importance for mastering the shared understanding of the reality of the given society and historical time. Data and methods Case description and action research approach This case study examines a 15-month development project (in 2018–2019) ‘Protein Silicon Valley’, funded by the Finnish Innovation Fund and managed by Emma Kynkäänniemi. The project was designed to promote regional food system sustainability and to nurture collaborative experimentation to find uses for local plant proteins.4 It also sought to foster new business models such as collaborative product development between catering and food producers. Experiments included: testing local plant protein products in catering; developing related recipes in both public catering and large-scale catering education; and marketing products and raising awareness in the region. The project engaged actors in primary production, small-scale processing, marketing, catering, restaurants, education, and retail. Experiments constituting the development project were planned in collaboration with them. The research process run in parallel was designed by the researcher; it involved actors as informants but not in more engaging ways, except for the focal actors who were also involved in reviewing rationality summaries (see Data collection and analysis). The project was located in a Finnish region with c. 275,000 inhabitants and 23 municipal units: one bigger city (c. 150,000 residents) surrounded by predominantly rural or semi-rural (intermediate) municipalities with significant agricultural activity. The population demographics represent the Finnish average. The region’s main economic activities comprise services and forestry-based industry. The number of farms is c. 2,500 and is declining, while farm sizes are increasing. Primary production accounts for 5 % of employment in the region (mostly outside the city area). Beef and dairy production generate over 80 % of agricultural income. Plant protein experiments engaged public catering in three municipalities (3,000–25,000 residents), as well as other actors from around the region.5 The public catering actors engaged represented food services managed directly by the municipality. This is a typical management method in smaller municipalities whereas in bigger cities public corporations are common. The research approach was interpretive action research: a reflective and emergent form of research that utilises local knowledge and capacity-building to endorse transformations, and that focuses on how actors perceive, interpret, and react to events (Stringer 2013). Action research fits well for event-focused research that reveals the everyday frictions hindering sustainability transitions (Kaljonen et al., 2019). The development project determined the emergence of events that generated research data, which were then enriched with additional interviews. Action researcher is not a distant observer (Stringer 2013); I participated in experiments and collaborated closely with the project coordinator. This implies a dual role: being critical of the existing discourses, practices, and power relations, while encouraging the project goals. I reflected my role and its implications on the analysis throughout the project. The designated coordinator allowed me to focus on asking and wondering instead of facilitating action or initiating events: I was a ‘curious sidekick’. The coordinator was also a key informant, and our discussions were influential to the analysis. She also read and commented this manuscript (but did not consider herself as a co-author). The inclusion of actors’ voices in the research was strengthened by iterative reflection with the key actors and individual interviews, ensuring that central actors from group meetings had a possibility to speak with their own voice. Iterative reflection 4 The project also aimed to increase the use of local freshwater fish. I excluded fish here because local, sustainable and safe freshwater fish are neither broadly available nor typically an option to agricultural actors. 5 The project engaged five municipalities (and involved individuals from other municipalities) but not all tried plant proteins. Bigger city actors acted as informants but did not participate in the project that focused on semi-rural municipalities to address rural development and engage new actors. Most prior food sustainability experiments in the region had been urban. 30 Why do local plant proteins not take off? also involved additional involvement of people who had shown interest in the research process. The focal plant protein actors and the most active catering personnel also commented my initial summaries of their rationalities to ensure that the summaries successfully captured their views. Data collection and analysis The data were collected from informants (Table 1) throughout the project events (Table 2). Events, totalling 33, included experiment planning meetings, funding application meetings, the experiments themselves (mainly in schools), and informal exchanges. They were complemented with thematic individual and focus group interviews. Of all these events, 24 were recorded (c. 30 hours) and transcribed verbatim. Field notes covered the whole project via on-the-spot and recollective reflection (c. 85 pages in total). Informants (N=42, Table 1) comprised two groups. Closest informants engaged directly in the project, while external informants were chosen to enrich data by broadening understanding about the context of research; for example, city-based informants were experienced in sustainability experiments. Engaged informants represented diverse categories yet, in practice, project meetings often became discussions with the catering and plant protein actors, project coordinator, and myself. Municipal officers drew back from the discussions after the initial steps and commented the experiments supportively but did not want to get actively involved. Thus, the analysis included diverse voices, although the voices of the catering and plant protein actors were emphasised. Table 1. Informants. Actor category NComments Informants who engaged in the development project Project coordinator 1 Collaborated closely with the researcher; mutual discussions influenced field notes. Public catering personnel in managerial positions 6 Public catering personnel in other positions 4 Municipal officers 4 Public catering educators 2 Plant protein producers 3 All were also involved in supply chains (innovation, processing, marketing). Plant protein actors who were not producers 4 Involved in product development, processing, marketing, and sales. Non-municipal catering personnel, managerial positions 2 One private sector representative and one national public catering representative. Informants who did not engage in the project (additional interviews) Catering managers and personnel from other cities with experience of similar projects 6 Participated in focus group interviews; one was interviewed individually. Education sector actors 5 Actors’ institutions run local food projects; interviewed in focus groups. Students interested in sustainable proteins 5 Participated in two focus group interviews. Two researchers from the author’s department participated in three interview events (synergistic interviews) but were not included as informants. 31 Kortetmäki Table 2. Project events that generated research data. Event type Informants (N) Additional remarks Counting activity as a research event implies that at least the coordinator or the author was present; actors also continued project activities on their own. 1 Start meeting with plant protein actors and previous regional food project coordinators 7 2 Start meeting with (other) plant protein actors 2 Not recorded, informant wish 3 Focus group interview 2 Public catering 4 Planning meeting, municipality D 3 5 Planning meeting, municipality B 3 6 Planning meeting, municipality C 2 7 Focus group interview 4 8 Individual interview 1 City catering actor 9 Planning meeting with national catering actors 2 10 Planning meeting on plant protein experiments and funding prospects 5 11 Planning meeting, municipality A 4 12 Planning meeting on plant protein development and funding applications 6 Not recorded (technical issues) 13 Sustainability education and plant protein-based lunch theme day in municipality C school 2 Not recorded (event type made field notes more feasible) 14 Planning meeting, municipality B 4 15 Planning meeting, municipality A 1 16 Recipe competition for faba bean use 1 Not recordable 17 Recipe development meeting with catering education personnel and plant protein actors 3 18 Sustainability education and bean-based theme day, municipality A 2 Not recorded (event type made field notes more feasible) 19 Planning meeting with plant protein actors about production and product development 5 20 Meeting between plant protein actors and development funders 4 Not recorded (informant wish) 21 Wrap-up with plant protein actors about the first half of the project 4 22 Discussion with a plant protein farmer about topical issues 1 Not recorded (an unplanned phone call) 23 Discussion with a plant protein entrepreneur about marketing 1 Not recorded (an unplanned phone call) 24 Tasting event for school kids in the municipality B school 3* *Catering students and teacher; children were not approached as research subjects 32 Why do local plant proteins not take off? 25 Planning meeting with plant protein actors, ‘autumn kickstart’ 5 26 Meeting with municipality D actors, post-experiment reflections 2 Not recorded (informant wish) 27 Individual interview 1 Hemp food actor 28 Individual interview 1 Hemp food actor 29 Individual interview 1 Hemp food actor 30 Individual interview 1 Hemp food actor 31 Focus group interview 3 Public catering 32 Interview: Project end reflections 1 Faba bean actor 33 Interview: Project end reflections 3 Hemp food actor Action research influences data generation but does not predetermine analytical methods. The analysis was done as abductive content analysis. This process began with content-driven thematic coding to allow the informants to speak, and the data were read with sensitivity to any topics raised by them. Coding followed the process described by Guest, MacQueen and Namey (2014) and yielded 72 codes. Then, in abductive content analysis, the codes were organised and grouped using the analytic framework of Weberian rationalities (Kalberg 2011). Abductive analysis allows for the emergence of categories and explanations, also from theory, which help to interpret the rich data and find linkages between different themes. The major themes unfolding were organised under four rationalities: formal (governance); practical (daily work); value-related; and theoretical (knowledge). Synthesis and grouping of the codes were utilised to see how different actors combined different rationalities, creating constellations of ideal types that illustrate how actors perceive the local plant proteins within the context of sustainability transitions. The comparison between ideal types and actors’ ideal type constellations resembles a Weberian comparative approach generally yet deviates from the initial Weberian comparative-historical methodology. This is because I aim not to explain diversity in largescale historical unfoldings but in how certain partial solutions to contemporary problems are perceived as more or less viable. My intention is thus modest compared to large-scale Weberian studies, yet the Weberian conceptual apparatuses have proved valuable in inquiries of this sort (e.g. Alrøe et al., 2017; Townley 2002). The validity and reliability of the analysis was increased by using multiple data sources, complementing meetings-based data with semi-structured interviews, and asking key project participants to review the first rationality summaries (following Guest, MacQueen and Namey 2014) before further analysis. Finally, the project coordinator also commented this manuscript with a specific request to check whether my representation of the project events, arising tensions, and related discussions seemed appropriate. Unfolding the project: constant positive interest but no take-off The project aimed to kickstart the mainstreaming of local plant proteins in the regional food system. Faba bean and hemp were chosen as targeted crops because they were already cultivated in the region, even though they were still marginal newcomers: plant protein production was only emerging and there were no conventional crops or established producers.6 The project begun with planning meetings with non-municipal actors and plant protein producers, followed by municipality visits that launched the co-planning and conducting of experiments with public catering. One of the hemp actors frequently joined municipal meetings, bringing along ever-evolving product samples. Faba bean actors, in contrast, wanted to do marketing on their own. The atmosphere in meetings was generally positive and interested. Catering actors in three municipalities chose to work with plant proteins. In municipality A, three school classes (pupils aged 9–10) visited the bean producer to learn about farming, and school served chili con(/sin) carne with local beans the same day. Catering also tested hemp in several recipes and served hemp seeds as garnish. In municipality B, children aged 6–9 tasted three dishes with hemp, designed and prepared by mass catering students. In municipality C, pupils 6 Pea was also cultivated, but for feed. 39 Kortetmäki actions (Alrøe et al., 2017; Fuenfschilling and Truffer 2014). The pace and likelihood of rationality changes varies. If the given regime is dominated by a relatively unified set of core rationalities, the resulting stability makes significant changes unlikely (Fuenfschilling & Truffer 2014: 775–776). The results of this study imply that semi-/rural public catering may have just such a relatively stable bundle of core rationalities, which lessens the likelihood of rapid transformative rationality changes. Results show that the underlying rationalities in public catering trace back to the formal rationalities that determine the statutory objective of catering, performance indicators, and catering resources. Thus, significant changes in public catering will likely require formal rationalities to be revised. National and municipal regulation could clarify sustainability objectives and the importance of dietary transition, which geographical transition can complement but not replace. Formal objectives and performance indicators should be updated to encourage transition activities and experimenting instead of risk avoidance. For example, adjusting food waste amounts with a climatic emissions coefficient12 would transform the incentives created by the indicator. Updating actors’ environmental knowledge is critical to address unawareness of the climatic impacts of foods, due to which the significance of dietary changes is commonly underestimated (Kause et al., 2019). Theoretical rationalities significantly influence what is known to be low-carbon and healthy, although balancing this knowledge with other rationalities is not self-evident and requires reflexivity (Alrøe et al., 2017). Improved communication about dietary transition for public health reasons (Mason and Lang 2017; Willett et al., 2019) could be valuable since promoting health is a statutory public catering objective. Socio-cultural change in semi-/rural value rationalities is needed to erase the stigma of vegetarian dishes as ‘alternative’ and implicitly inferior to meat-including ‘normal’ dishes. Here the contrast to the urban context was significant: the city-based catering was already normalising vegetarian dishes by presenting them simply as a part of ordinary selection. Limitations and topics for future research The main limitation of this study is its semi-/rural focus. Interviews with the city-based informant suggested that urban catering rationalities might differ significantly from rural ones. The city catering had broader objectives, including educational and care-related ones that encouraged solutions which might not always immediately please the customer but were, in the long term, good for them. Urban actors were also happier to use the plant-based meat-like products that fit better in the current dietary regime and enjoy broader customer approval (Lonkila and Kaljonen 2022). We interviewed only a few urban informants and studying the differences between ‘urban and rural rationalities’ remains a topic for future research. The non-urban focus in this study does nevertheless make an important contribution to dietary transition research dominated by case studies on urban forerunners. Local plant proteins can be more utilisable in smaller semi-/rural catering units with modest demand volumes. This study moreover helps us to understand why dietary transition is slower outside of cities and what needs to be considered in promoting transitions in semi-/rural regions. It is important to create feasible rural development activities that align with the demands for reducing the role of livestock. After all, rural areas are those where agricultural transformations take place and where the challenge of future rural livelihoods is to be resolved. The findings of this study highlight topics for future research on dietary transition, rationalities, and public catering. Mechanisms that invoke rationality changes in relatively stable and established institutions, such as public catering, should be understood better. Comparative studies between forerunners and non-adopters would help understand which factors promote or hinder change at the organisational level. The interplay between different rationality types would help to further understanding of the dynamics, and disintegration, of relatively sedimented institutional rationalities (cf. Fuenfschilling and Truffer 2014 on Australian urban water sector). Finally, understanding the ways of ‘patching up’ rationality mismatches between the regime and niche 12 This would mean that food waste is measured by multiplying the amount of waste with its relative climatic impact (emissions per product-kg). 40 Why do local plant proteins not take off? actors would be important. Conclusion This research examined the potential of local plant proteins in public catering to foster dietary transition and sustainable future rural livelihoods simultaneously. The constellation of formal, practical, value, and theoretical rationalities guides public catering actors and their responses to sustainability transition pressures. Rationalities were found to influence perceptions about the appropriateness of local plant proteins as one solution for promoting sustainability. Although local plant proteins could provide win-win solutions to meeting multiple sustainability objectives via public catering in semi-/rural regions, the dominant regime rationalities and rationality mismatches between regime and niche actors hamper this. Formal rationalities discourage public catering to take sustainability measures that deviate from the dominant perceptions of normal dietary patterns: in other words, sustainability measures are primarily sought from the scope of actions that align with the normalised dietary patterns and do not involve risk-taking. Practical rationalities guide achieving the main objective of catering (making children eat) effectively, which discourages development work, risk-taking, and experimenting with plant-based products that first raise prejudices. In theoretical rationalities on environmental impacts, catering actors overemphasise transport and food waste, downplaying the significance of dietary changes and posing them even as a risk to sustainability (increased food waste). Thus, local plant proteins fail to stand out positively. Finally, diverging food quality definitions among catering and plant protein actors create mismatches in marketing, perceived price-quality ratio, and product development. If the road to mainstream plates is created by making plant proteins fit the dominant regime rules as Lonkila and Kaljonen (2022) suggest, local plant protein actors – if they aim at reaching the mainstream – should change their product development and marketing strategies. Whether this is feasible for small-scale local actors is another question. The studied semi-/rural public catering actors embrace sustainability but frame it geographically, as a matter of locality. 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