The global industrial food system contributes not only to environmental degradation, but also to multiple forms of nutritional harm and social inequalities. Despite numerous good reasons to fundamentally transform the sector, contemporary debates among practitioners, policy makers and scholars are marked by conflict over the direction of such transformation.

Focusing on Germany, Schoppek analyses the transformative potential of strategic agency in advancing social-ecological alternatives to industrialised capitalism within the agricultural sector. The book compares three initiatives that pursue distinct visions and strategies of reform, innovation, and resistance: a farmers’ interest group, a large agricultural cooperative, and an activist-led field occupation.

Drawing on these case studies, the analysis provides insight into the conditions under which transformative change emerges or fails to emerge, and the challenges of alliance building for a more just and resilient food system.