The concept of food preparedness is widely used today by authorities and food system interest groups as well as in research and the media. It usually refers to activities aimed at maintaining the food supply necessary for the survival of the population, securing important societal functions, and the capacity of the military defense. But it also relates to a set of related concepts, such as resilience, robustness, and food security. In connection with the rebuilding of the civil defense, various questions are being raised about how Sweden's food supply preparedness should be secured in the event of a crisis or war and what priorities should be set. Against this background, this report first examines the concept of food preparedness in relation to other, primarily inter nationally used concepts, followed by a brief review of the use of the concept from the turn of the last century to the present day in the Swedish press and parliamentary materials, concluding with a discussion of how different actors use the concept of food prepared ness today. Finally, we discuss how the different understandings and uses of the concept can affect the structure of food preparedness in practice. The report shows that the time perspective is critical: In the short term, food preparedness is usually linked to economic conditions, competitiveness, and continued production capacity in today's food sector. In the long term, food preparedness is most often linked to the need for transition, sustainability, and resilience in the food sector of the future. The report identifies a tension between the food preparedness paradox - i.e., that profitability in peacetime leads to vulnerabilities in times of crisis or war - and the transformation dilemma - i.e., that transitioning to more sustainable production methods takes time, and during that time, the existing system needs to be kept running. The report concludes that it is important to understand the nuances in the use of concepts that arise from different starting points and that multiple perspectives on the concept can promote both long-term transition capacity and short-term survival, in peacetime as well as in times of crisis or war.