Knowledge Impact Framework
How Domain, Pillars, Action Kinds, Actions, and Evidence tiers pull together into a coherent causal accountability structure — and how the Biosphere → Society → Intervention chain binds them.
Plant-Based Food Transition
"Industrial animal agriculture is a primary driver of biosphere destabilisation; transitioning to plant-based food systems simultaneously addresses climate stability, land use, biodiversity loss, and equitable access to nutrition."
onto_chain — the causal premise injected into every narrative prompt
Biosphere harm: Land routed through livestock at 10–15% caloric efficiency
Biosphere harm: Methane, nitrous oxide, and land-clearing from animal farming
Biosphere harm: Land concentration, food cost inflation, diet-related disease burden
Biosphere harm: Deforestation, soy monocultures, and pasture conversion
Each pillar = a distinct societal stake + a specific biosphere harm that animal agriculture causes. One action can serve multiple pillars simultaneously.
Each Action Kind can serve multiple pillars simultaneously — e.g. land_use actions appear under Food Security, Climate Resilience, and Biodiversity.
Plant-based default in council catering
Rewild former grazing land
Meat/dairy consumption tax
Hospital plant-based meal share
Each action carries: action_kind (instrument) · pillar[] (which argument axes it serves) · applicable_tiers (council / national / parliament / devolved) · why_rationale (grounding text for LLM prompts)
cross_domainUniversal Premises
Applies to every domain, every pillar
- · IPCC Climate Change 2022
- · Safe and just Earth system boundaries (Rockström)
- · SDG framework
domain_tag: null → matches any domain
pillar_tags: empty → matches any pillar
quality_score: 0.55–0.95
domainDomain Foundation
Applies to all actions within the domain
- · Poore & Nemecek 2018
- · UK Food Security Report 2024
- · National Food Strategy
domain_tag: food_transition
pillar_tags: empty → matches any pillar in domain
quality_score: 0.55–0.95
action_specificPolicy Instrument Evidence
Supports specific action kinds via paper_action_links
- · Food tax modelling study
- · School meals RCT
- · Procurement impact analysis
domain_tag: specific domain_tag
pillar_tags: specific pillar tags set
quality_score: 0.30–0.85
Retrieval uses pgvector cosine similarity weighted by quality_score (meta-analyses outrank grey literature at equal semantic distance). Tier 1+2 papers feed pillar narratives; Tier 3 papers feed action-specific summaries via paper_action_links.
The Causal Reasoning Chain — embedded in every generated narrative
Layer 1 — Biosphere
What planetary/ecosystem condition makes this action urgent? Grounded in cross_domain + domain papers. Specific mechanisms and quantities.
"Animal agriculture routes 80% of agricultural land through livestock at 10–15% caloric efficiency — land that could feed 5–10× more people directly."
Layer 2 — Society
How does that biosphere condition specifically threaten the domain's human stakes? UK context, societal consequences.
"UK food self-sufficiency falls; import dependency rises; diet-related disease burden concentrates in lower-income households who cannot access affordable protein alternatives."
Layer 3 — Intervention
How does acting on this pillar/action address the causal chain? What leverage does the evidence show?
"Shifting school and hospital catering to plant-based defaults directly reduces institutional demand, demonstrates price parity, and normalises dietary change — evidence shows 30–60% uptake when plant-based is the default."
This chain is directional: ecological conditions first → human stakes → policy leverage. The onto_chain from the domain is injected as grounding context in every call, ensuring all narratives inherit the same causal position.
/why
Domain-level pillar narratives from Tier 1+2 papers. 4 pillars × N papers cited.
/actions/N — Foundation
Per-action pillar cards from Tier 1+2 RAG. One card per pillar × papers cited.
/actions/N — Evidence
Action-specific supporting/contesting summaries from Tier 3 papers via paper_action_links.
/council/N — Causal Impact
Per-decision causal chain: what this vote enables or forecloses, cited to evidence.
Key Structural Distinctions
Pillars ≠ Kinds
catering is a Kind (instrument). equity is a Pillar (argument). A catering action can serve equity, food security, and climate simultaneously. The separation prevents circular reasoning — you can't justify a policy instrument by the same instrument.
Tiers are retrieval scopes, not quality ranks
A Tier 3 paper (action-specific RCT) may have a higher quality score than a Tier 1 report. The tier determines which RAG query path retrieves it — foundation queries vs. action-link queries — not its evidentiary weight within its scope.
onto_chain is the binding glue
Without the domain's causal premise injected into every prompt, pillar narratives would drift toward generic climate or health messaging. The onto_chain keeps all generated text anchored to the specific claim: because industrial animal agriculture does X, acting on pillar Y achieves Z.