During our formative years, the Finnish education system taught us that we live in the land of a thousand lakes. While that phrase underestimates the true number, it captures something essential in our cultural imagination. Freshwater here feels abundant, clean, and safe. It is part of who we are. So it’s no wonder the question arises: Why are we even talking about water?
It’s a question I ask myself, and one I pose to interviewees in our research on the societal dynamics of water as part of the food system. At first glance, water in Finland seems like a given. But when you look closer, its role in the food system is anything but simple.
My perspective on water in food systems is rooted in anthropology, a field that views water not only as a natural resource but also as a sociocultural, political, and economic element. From this viewpoint, our research explores the values, attitudes, and meanings attached to water in the food system. Not as a theoretical exercise, but as a crucial part of shaping water–food futures.
Within Work Package 3.2, we examine how water is perceived, what motivates or hinders sustainable practices, and what attitudes and values shape its role in the food system. In recent months, I’ve spoken with people across the spectrum, from food services and beverage producers to horticulturalists, irrigation specialists, and other actors in the food industry.
Water is both an input and a safeguard. It is a raw material essential for production, and it underpins food safety. Some interviewees emphasize the need for clean water in processing and hygiene, while others highlight its centrality to agriculture and crop growth. At the same time, concerns about drought and extreme weather events are becoming more common. These are already affecting primary production and industry water use, including groundwater that can be impacted by both scarcity and excess. Climate change may well make these issues more pressing. Several interviewees have noted that water has become a rising topic in recent years, though not yet as prominent in responsibility discussions as biodiversity or carbon emissions. Increasing droughts, floods, groundwater changes, and shifting rain patterns, among others, could accelerate the importance of water as part of corporate responsibility.
Will we then stop asking why we’re talking about water? Perhaps, but because we’re not yet there, we still need to ask and to answer that question. Doing so helps us prepare for possible water-food futures. What our results will ultimately show, we’ll know once the project concludes. The work continues, expands, and invites all of us to reflect on the meaning, importance and future of water in your part of the food system.
Atte Penttilä, co-leader of Work Package 3, wrote this blog post.