Mann, StefanStefanMannBürgi, ElisabethElisabethBürgi0000-0001-5732-8937Schader, ChristianChristianSchaderJacobi, JohannaJohannaJacobi2025-01-222025-01-222024-11-20https://boris-portal.unibe.ch/handle/20.500.12422/203307Purpose We aim to compare multifunctionality, ecosystem services and just transition as overall conceptual approaches to understand agri-food systems. Design/methodology/approach This is a theory-motivated literature study. Findings This paper argues that the concepts of multifunctionality and ecosystem services are unsuitable for considering the systemic complexities of today’s food system in order to tackle its grave environmental and social problems. Furthermore, these two concepts tend to neglect the negative externalities of food systems and overemphasize the positive ones. The notion of just transition puts justice and sustainability at the center of agri-food studies and defines targeted systemic interventions in food systems. Originality/value While the approach of just transition is only starting to be widely applied to the agriculture–food nexus, we argue that it is better suited to re-orient diets, production processes, the value chain and labor conditions in a more sustainable direction. The just transition approach is also useful in drafting systemic policy innovations.enParadigmsPolicyInnovationSystem thinkingJusticearticle10.48620/8482910.1108/IJSE-09-2023-0740