The purpose of this research was twofold. Firstly, it aimed to indicate factors hindering and accelerating the development of organic food as a niche innovation in Poland. Secondly, to depict a phase and a pathway of sustainability transition in the Polish agri-food sector. The analysis was performed taking advantage of the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions, which has not been used to analyze the sustainability transition in Poland so far. Data were collected through a systemic literature review. Organic food production is a slow-growing niche in Poland, and the sustainability transition from the current dual agri-food regime consisting of small family farms and intensive food production is at a take-off phase. Organic food production struggles to become a regime with short food supply chains and agroecology, and the number of barriers it faces outweighs the number of enablers for its development. A de-alignment and re-alignment transition pathway can be observed. Which niche innovation becomes dominant depends on changes in regulations and on the development of both local marketplaces and online sales channels. The major conclusion is that in order for the transition in the Polish agri-food sector to happen, it should be better governed. Specifically, we need new policy instruments and governance mechanisms, new financing schemes, alternative and hybrid organizational and ownership structures, and institutional and transformative change approaches.

Prices and quantities in agricultural commodity and food product markets are subject to constant changes due to evolving supply and demand conditions. Big and sudden shifts in supply or demand may lead to price movements that bring negative consequences for food producers or consumers. Factors causing such movements can be of different natures, but substantial changes in the world energy price levels are supposed to be one of the most important. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of global energy price shocks on the evolution of food commodities and food consumer prices. Using the World Bank data on the respective price indices, we looked for shocks in these data series by utilizing statistical tools. Having identified three global energy price shocks in the period 2000–2024 induced by the financial crisis of 2008, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the outbreak of war in Ukraine, their influence on the world agricultural commodity prices and food consumer prices was assessed. It was found that the series of energy, food commodity, and food consumer price indices were related in the long term. Also, the occurrence of global energy price shocks to a visible extent translated into global food commodity and food consumer price shocks. Applying various statistical and econometric techniques, including Chow tests and MS-VAR modelling, enables the identification of which breaking points led to regime changes between the analysed variables. The most sensitive to the structural breaking points appeared to be the relation between energy and consumer food prices. This discovery can be considered our major contribution.

W artykule przedstawiono istotę teoretycznych modeli zachowań i wpływu grup interesu oraz syntetyczną ocenę ich przydatności w przewidywaniu i wyjaśnianiu kształtu polityki rolnej. W szczególności wskazano ograniczenia i możliwości związane z zastosowaniem tych modeli w objaśnianiu przebiegu procesu dochodzenia do określonych rozstrzygnięć w postaci konkretnych instrumentów realizacji tej polityki w danych uwarunkowaniach społeczno- ekonomicznych.

Invention activity is an important innovation development factor, as it not only imposes changes in economic activity, but also often leads to the completely new structures within sectors. The aim of the paper was to investigate the relationship between macroeconomic and sectorial business cycle, and the patent filings in the food system in Poland in the period 2006–2022 taking advantage of statistics defined in time and frequency domains. Data on patent applications from 34 IPC classification (sub-)classes were analyzed, combined into five groups: food, beverages, tobacco, agricultural chemistry, agricultural machinery and packaging. The results obtained with spectral and cross-spectral analysis tools were compared with results obtained in the time domain. The positive relationship between patents and macroeconomic cycle is the strongest for cycles lasting 3.5–4 years, which dominate in reference to GDP series in the analyzed period. Patent filings are strongly positively correlated also with the agri-food sector output, especially in shorter cycles of 2.5–3 years. Although cycles of patent filings fluctuate much more than both business cycles, they seem to be more similar to the agri-food sector fluctuations. Moreover, patent activity may be treated as an early warning indicator of sectorial economic activity, whereas it’s lagging in reference to the aggregated economic activity.

All over the world, we can observe the ongoing transition of agri-food sectors into sustainable food systems. Actors bridging stakeholders and their processes, thereby facilitating transitions, are called intermediaries. The wide variety of their missions, aims, and strategies creates so-called ecologies of intermediation. The main research question was how intermediaries could improve the facilitation of the transition to sustainable food systems in Poland. In order to do so, we analysed five intermediaries, each representing a different level of transition. We focused on organic food production, as organic certificates are commonly regarded as a sign of sustainable production. Understanding the ecologies of intermediation and increased support for activities and the establishment of intermediaries in the Polish food system should become the shared aim in governing the transition to a sustainable food system in Poland. In the public debate, we should highlight the modes, activities, and tasks of systemic, regime, niche, process, and user intermediaries, encouraging new and existing ones to develop, upscale, and intermediate between actors, networks, and institutions.