Sara Brogaard
Senior Lecturer
Visioner för fossilfria lantbruk och livsmedelssystem i Sverige - ett lantbrukarperspektiv
Visions for fossil-free farm and food systems in Sweden – a farmer’s perspective
Author
Other contributions
- Åsa Öberg
Summary, in English
What are the main challenges for fossil-free agriculture and food systems, according to Swedish farmers? And what do farmers think fossil-free farms should look like, and how should they function? What actions are needed from different actors to achieve these visions by 2050? These questions were discussed during a lunch-to-lunch workshop in Eskilstuna, 13-14 November 2025. The purpose of the workshop was to develop future visions for fossil-free farms and agricultural systems from a farmer’ perspective. The workshop gathered 29 farmers with different production orientations, methods and farm sizes and resulted in five future visions. The visions built to a large extent on cooperation and circularity. Circularity was expressed as cooperation between farms and other food system actors to, for example, develop local energy hubs, share machinery, and shorten value chains with fewer middlemen to increase profitability for the farmers. Soil health and photosynthesis were central in future visions, for example through integration of animals and crop cultivation in the landscape. However, the visions differed regarding the role of technology for achieving fossil-freeness on farms. Some visions highlighted precision farming and smart technology as a way to optimize and minimize the use of fossil-based inputs. Others were more critical to the role of technology in the transition and highlighted that a change of machinery also requires fossil resources. Instead, they described a fossil-free future based on societal value changes rather than technological solutions.
Department/s
- LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
- LTH Profile Area: The Energy Transition
- BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
- LU Profile Area: Nature-based future solutions
- Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES)
- MECW: The Middle East in the Contemporary World
Publishing year
2026-02
Language
Swedish
Full text
Document type
Report
Publisher
Rise, Research Institute of Sweden
Topic
- Environmental Studies in Social Sciences
- Environmental Sciences
Status
Published