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

• Kumm, Karl-Ivar

  • Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG2 End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
SDG12 Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns


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