Building Fair and Local Food Systems in Sweden: An Interview with Olga Grönvall Lund

As part of the EU4Advice Advisors’ Campaign, we spoke with Olga Grönvall Lund, founder and director of Reformaten, the leading Swedish initiative promoting local food production, short food value chains, and new ownership models that empower both producers and communities.

Through Reformaten, Olga has become one of Sweden’s most active voices for transforming how food is produced, distributed, and valued — working at the intersection of policy, innovation, and grassroots action. Her organisation connects farmers, researchers, policymakers, and citizens to reimagine the food system as a driver of health, sustainability, and local prosperity.

Within EU4Advice, Olga also acts as the main contact point for the Dutch Living Lab, fostering collaboration between Sweden and the Netherlands to explore new opportunities for cross-border learning and project development. Together, we are now exploring how the EU4Advice Living Lab can support Reformaten through training, funding, and tailored tools that strengthen advisory capacity and systemic change in local food systems.

Could you describe your role and how it connects to short food supply chains?

I’m the founder and General Secretary of Reformaten, a Swedish non-profit that works to shift the food system toward health for people, animals and nature. My role sits at the intersection of policy, public engagement and on-the-ground pilots. We educate and convene farmers, restaurants, municipalities, researchers and civil society to remove bottlenecks that keep local, agroecological producers out of everyday markets. Short food supply chains (SFSCs) are the backbone of that vision: fewer steps, fairer prices, stronger regional resilience. We say that everyone has the right to be a qualitarian, and quality produce comes from SFSCs. We host a lot of events/activities, and by doing that, we show that the transition is fun, tasty and enjoyable!

What are the main challenges you see for local farmers and suppliers today?

Three things:

• Awareness/education: Lack of awareness and education among decision-makers about the difference between working with healthy and sustainable food systems vs. just “food.” Also the holistic knowledge about how food production and consumption affect the health of people, planet and animals.
• Markets: Procurement rules and logistics favour large, centralised suppliers; small volumes and seasonality become “risks” instead of strengths.
• Middleware: Missing infrastructure (wash/pack hubs, cold chain, small abattoirs) and admin load (traceability, certifications, e-invoicing) block access to public buyers.

How do you currently collaborate with local producers or networks such as De Lokalist?

We work with regional producers’ groups, CSAs/andelsjordbruk, REKO-nätverk and emerging food hubs. We have established a farmer council for Reformaten with representatives of six Swedish farmer organisations who live agroecology and food sovereignty—no attachment to the industry. We are just about to identify which policies to push at the national, regional and local levels to make it easy to produce right.

In your view, what kinds of training or advisory support would most benefit local suppliers?

• Economic incentives: Farmers should get paid for the ecosystem services they provide for the public good.
• Procurement readiness: Our tax money should go straight to farmers working with nature, not to the unsustainable industry that harms farmers, ecosystems, and kids.
• Communication: Credible claims (beyond “local”), and impact reporting on soil, biodiversity and community jobs.

What role should policymakers play in strengthening short food supply chains?

Set the rules so “doing the right thing” is the easy thing. That means: adapt procurement to value quality, seasonality and ecosystem benefits; invest in regional infrastructure (aggregation, processing, cold chain); protect small-scale slaughter and on-farm processing; support land access and succession; and align subsidies, school meal standards and health goals with agroecology. Also: measure what matters—health and biodiversity outcomes, not just the lowest price per kilo.

How do you see EU initiatives like EU4Advice Living Labs supporting your work or the sector?

Living Labs can bridge research and practice. We need farmer- and kitchen-led trials, rapid evaluation, and open toolkits that help a municipality move from pilot to policy. EU4Advice can also help with interoperable data standards (so small suppliers can plug into public procurement systems), shared KPIs for health/biodiversity, and peer learning across regions—so we stop reinventing the wheel.

What barriers do farmers and suppliers face in adopting digital tools or new practices?

Time, resources and trust. Tools often aren’t designed for low-bandwidth, on-farm realities; onboarding is heavy, support is thin, and data ownership is unclear. Many farmers have already tried platforms that over-promise and under-deliver. If a tool doesn’t reduce admin, lower risk, or secure a buyer, it won’t stick—no matter how “innovative” it is.

Which forms of collaboration (public-private, farmer-to-farmer, cross-country) are most needed?

• Public–civic–private: municipalities + producer co-ops + mission-driven intermediaries to unlock local, positive food systems.
• Cross-country: exchange on procurement models, legal templates and data standards—so solutions from, say, Flanders or Denmark can be adapted in Sweden quickly.

How can short food supply chains contribute to broader goals such as sustainability and rural development?

SFSCs keep more value in the region, enable diversified rotations, and make it feasible to farm with soil and biodiversity in mind. They cut unnecessary transport and packaging, reconnect citizens with producers, and anchor jobs in processing and logistics that have been hollowed out. For public health, aligning menus with seasonal regional supply improves diet quality. Again—everyone has the right to be a qualitarian.

Looking ahead, what would an ideal future for short food supply chains look like in your country or region?

A territorial food system where public kitchens routinely buy from regional agroecological producers; a network of small processing hubs within 50–100 km of cities; fair, living-income prices for farmers; simple digital rails that don’t erase producer identity; and procurement that rewards ecosystem outcomes. Kids know their farmers, farmers know their buyers, and crises don’t empty shelves—because resilience is built into the system. The food system has created joy and meaning for citizens who eat and cook together. No one is lonely or living a boring life.