Aiming for sustainable development of food value chains several assessment methods are developed, however it seems challenging to go from assessment to actual change. A solution proposed is increased stakeholder involvement also in the assessment phase. The perspective on sustainability varies depending on several variables, among which the geographical context where the producers are located. The perspective of the latter is of paramount importance as these are the actors on who, ultimately, possible changes towards sustainability depend. In this article, we applied a qualitative approach to investigate the farmers’ perspective on sustainability, in the horticultural production in Arctic Norway. We found that many of the premises for sustainable food production are present. The main challenges are lack of long-term planning, dependency of rented land as well as fluctuating yield and income. Producer’s network is essential for development as well as introduction of technical improvements. The study shows the importance of contextualisation of sustainability, as well as pointing at concerns about trade-offs between sustainability dimensions and themes in the proposed model. The research contributes to method development by demonstrating how a qualitative approach is a fruitful method to unravel the complexities of sustainability in food production.

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可持续价值：挪威北极地区园艺生产者的观点

为了实现食品价值链的可持续发展，已经开发了几种评估方法，但是从评估到实际变化似乎具有挑战性。提出的解决方案是在评估阶段也增加利益相关者的参与。关于可持续性的观点因几个变量而异，其中包括生产者所在的地理环境。后者的观点至关重要，因为这些角色最终取决于对可持续性的可能改变。在本文中，我们采用定性方法研究了挪威北极地区园艺生产中农民对可持续性的看法。我们发现存在许多可持续粮食生产的前提。主要挑战是缺乏长期规划，租赁土地的依赖性以及产量和收入的波动。生产者网络对于开发以及引入技术改进至关重要。这项研究表明了将可持续性背景化的重要性，并指出了在拟议模型中对可持续性维度和主题之间的权衡取舍的担忧。该研究通过证明定性方法是解决食品生产中可持续性复杂性的卓有成效的方法，为方法开发做出了贡献。并指出了在拟议模型中可持续性维度与主题之间的权衡取舍的担忧。该研究通过证明定性方法是解决食品生产中可持续性复杂性的卓有成效的方法，为方法开发做出了贡献。并指出了在拟议模型中可持续性维度与主题之间的权衡取舍的担忧。该研究通过证明定性方法是解决食品生产中可持续性复杂性的卓有成效的方法，为方法开发做出了贡献。