This Research Topic illustrates the broad variety of AFN models and their different approaches to fostering sustainable, resilient, and equitable food systems through local, indigenous, and innovative practices that build strong connections between producers and consumers. Taken together, these efforts highlight an array of strategies that can be mobilized to scale AFNs out and up and, ultimately, build more sustainable and resilient alternative food systems. When scaling, however, AFNs face various challenges within the dominant food system. Overcoming these barriers requires coordinated efforts among diverse stakeholders, better access to resources, and community and institutional support. Even more importantly, however, it requires a shift in discourse from achieving sustainability through incremental change and techno-centric solutions toward a transformational paradigm that centers principles such as sufficiency, regeneration, fair distribution, commoning, and care (McGreevy et al., 2022). The AFNs described in this Research Topic offer a promising starting point. Key priorities for future research will be to assess their effectiveness according to these principles, and to identify successful strategies for expanding these models and transferring them between different contexts.