Food system's sustainability is threatened by many factors. Conventional approaches to solve this problem focus much on ‘problem-solving’, failing to capitalise on foresight techniques. In the global food challenge, rural communities are the most vulnerable and perceived to be ‘needing’ help. However, these rural communities have aspirations, dreams and desires for the future, which are often neglected. The proposed study aims to characterise the envisioned and desired rural food systems and develop an approach to achieve the desired food systems. The study hypothesizes that community desired futures are targets which communities own and feel obligated to work towards, triggering community creativity and commitment. Also, community visions enable understanding community’s interactions with the lived environments. The study is an alternative approach to empower communities through creative problem-solving.Community visions can be used strategically in problem solving and policy design.
