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Abstract

A futuristic study by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency in the 1990s on how to make Swedish agriculture environmentally and economically sustainable by 2021 has been updated. The updating was based on assumptions of far-reaching improvements in biological productivity and the replacement of all existing EU support with environmental payments based on landscape values and the climate utility of carbon sequestration. The results suggest that economically sustainable food production satisfying domestic demand can be achieved through large-scale labour- and capital-saving rationalization and compensation for additional costs arising from special Swedish animal welfare regulations. Such rationalization is also necessary for the economically sustainable preservation of landscape values, including grazed semi-natural pastures and remaining arable land in forest-dominated districts. Carbon sequestration by broad-leaved trees planted on pastures and on arable land not needed for food production could compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions from food production.

Published in

Outlook On Agriculture
2014, volume: 43, number: 4, pages: 247-252

SLU Authors

Global goals (SDG)

SDG2 Zero hunger
SDG12 Responsible consumption and production

UKÄ Subject classification

Agricultural Science

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.5367/oa.2014.0182

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/63826