Just transition principles and criteria for food systems and beyond.

• Just low-carbon transition in food systems needs conceptualisation. • We introduce principles and criteria as a guiding framework for the conceptualisation. • We establish a conceptual framework for clarifying justice in food system low-carbon transition. • The framework is suitable for application in different contexts. • The principles of the framework suit conceptualizing justice in any transition sector. In this article, we propose a framework of principles and criteria for just transitions in food systems. Climate mitigation activities are urgently needed in food systems, but can have damaging social, environmental, economic, and health impacts. Consequently, food system transitions can cause significant side effects across and beyond food systems, aggravating existing inequalities and unsustainabilities, causing new ones, or hampering equal engagement in the transition itself. Thus, justice questions stand at the core of assessing decarbonization pathways and policies and must link to other sectors as well: Who bears the costs and who enjoys the benefits of the transitions? Can transitions be inclusive, leaving no one behind? We examine the establishment and purpose of general principles and food system-specific criteria for just transition, present the framework – standards for judging, evaluating, and deliberating justice in food system transitions – and reflect upon the uses of the framework and future developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]