Elin Röös

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences | SLU · Department of Energy and Technology

In the EU, including Sweden, organic farming is seen as a promising pathway for sustainable production, protecting human health and animal welfare, and conserving the environment. Despite positive developments in recent decades, expanding organic farming to the Swedish national target of 30% of farmland under organic production remains challenging....

In an analysis of food system sustainability challenges and solutions among Swedish food system actors using Q-methodology, five perspectives were identified. One of the main three perspectives placed the highest priority on reduced meat consumption, food waste, and climate impact in agriculture, but downplayed strategies highlighted in the nationa...

Domesticated ruminants supply nutrient-dense foods but at a large environmental cost. However, many ruminant production systems are multi-functional, providing ecosystem services (ES) other than direct provision of food. When quantifying the climate impact of ruminant products using life cycle assessment (LCA), provisioning ES (i.e. beef and milk)...

The European Commission recently embraced the concept of agroecology as a pathway to reduce negative impacts from agri‐food systems on the environment. So far, it remains unclear whether agroecology can deliver on these high hopes if implemented on a large scale. We here assess socio‐economic and environmental implications of multiple agroecologica...

Successful transitions to agroecology require shared understanding of the sustainability implications of transitions for food systems. To gain such understanding, a transdisciplinary approach is increasingly called for by funders, end users of research and scientists. Transdisciplinary processes were used in the UNISECO project to develop strategic...

Denna rapport är framtagen inom forskningsprogrammet Mistra Food Futures. Det övergripande målet för programmet är att skapa en vetenskapligt baserad plattform som bidrar till att det svenska livsmedelssystemet kan transformeras till ett system som är ekonomiskt, socialt och miljömässigt hållbart samt resilient och kan leverera hälsosam mat. Må...

This report was prepared for WWF Sweden to provide scientific background information for complementing the consumer guide for plant based products with information on coffee, tea and cocoa. This report includes quantitative estimations for several environmental categories (climate, land use, biodiversity and water use) of coffee (per L), tea (per L...

Implementing the European Green Deal requires a consistent food systems’ policy that involves not only targeting the supply side but also conducting extensive changes in diets at the consumer level. Reducing meat consumption is an obvious strategy to put the European food system on track to meet the Green Deal’s goals. This cannot be achieved by fo...

Background The global food system is causing considerable environmental harm. A transition towards more sustainable consumption is needed. Targeted public policy interventions are crucial for stimulating such transition. While there is extensive research about the promotion of more environmentally sustainable food consumption, this knowledge is sca...

Background: Little is known about the current intake of sustainable diets globally and specifically in middle-income countries, considering nutritional, environmental and economic factors. Objective: To assess and characterize the sustainability of Mexican diets and their association with sociodemographic factors. Design: Dietary data of 2,438 adul...

Supplementary materials for Karlsson, J.O., Tidåker, P. & Röös, E. (2022). Smaller farm size and ruminant animals are associated with increased supply of non-provisioning ecosystem services. AMBIO. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01726-y

To balance trade-offs between livestock’s negative environmental impacts and their positive contributions (e.g. maintaining semi-natural grasslands, varied agricultural landscapes and crop rotations), a better understanding is needed of how the supply of ecosystem services differs across farms. We analysed a suite of indicators for non-provisioning...

There is a growing interest among farmers and consumers in increasing production and consumption of grain legumes in Sweden. This requires better knowledge among farmers and advisors about suitable species, varieties and management practices for different conditions. Since cultivar suitability and management practices are highly site-specific, farm...

Eating “less but better” meat can be a strategy to guide meat consumption in Western or high-income countries towards sustainability, but what “better” means depends on the perspective. Multiple studies and reports suggest that agroecological farming systems could contribute to a broad range of sustainability benefits, but few studies have examined...

One Health is an approach to achieve better health and well-being outcomes for people, farmed organisms and their shared environment. The One Health approach was used to analyse the impacts on the environment, people and organisms (including the pigs) of three scenarios for future pig production to ascertain their strengths and weaknesses when comp...

Replacing meat with grain legumes would benefit human health, the environment and agriculture. This study analysed legume and meat consumption practices by investigating consumer perceptions and competences relating to lightly processed grain legumes (LPL), legume-based meat substitutes (LBMS) and meat in Sweden, and how these (and demographic vari...

The contribution of seafood to global food security is being increasingly highlighted in policy. However, the extent to which such claims are supported in the current food security literature is unclear. This review assesses the extent to which seafood is represented in the recent food security literature, both individually and from a food systems...

Close to 40% of Earth's land area is used for agriculture to provide humankind with plant- and animal-based food, fibers or bioenergy. Future trends in agricultural land use, livestock husbandry and associated environmental pressures are determined by developments in the food sector, agricultural productivity, technology, and many other influencing...

The time-dependent climate impact of beef production, including changes in soil organic carbon, was examined in this study. A hypothetical suckler cow system located in south-east Sweden was analysed using a time-dependent life cycle assessment method in which yearly fluxes of greenhouse gases were considered and the climate impact in terms of temp...

In comparison with protein, dietary fat receives little attention in the food system sustainability literature, although we calculate that the average consumption of fats in many populous regions of the world is below nutritional recommendations. Animal products are the major source of dietary fat, particularly in regions with excess fat consumptio...

This report provides methodological briefs that provide short, step-by-step, guidance and lessons learnt on applying key methods used in the H2020 UNISECO project. The briefs are available in electronic form and can be accessed via the Agro-ecological Knowledge Hub as a part of information content for the different target audiences (https://uniseco...

The overall objective of this report is to summarise the analysis of barriers and drivers hindering or facilitating the implementation of agro-ecological practices, and the strategies identified that address the barriers and drivers of agro-ecological transitions in the context of the 15 UNISECO case studies. The co-construction of the transition s...

This is a comprehensive dataset of the agriculture and food system scenarios co-developed with stakeholders with the agricultural land use model BioBaM-GHG 2.0 and presented in Deliverable 4.2 of the H2020 project UNISECO. It includes sub-national (NUTS1/2-level) data on agricultural production and consumption, land use, greenhouse gas emissions fr...

This study analysed the environmental impacts of taxation on Swedish food consumption and sought to identify potential synergies and goal conflicts between environmental aspects. This was done by analysing various taxation scenarios to reduce environmental impacts of food, including taxation based on: climate impact; a score based on weighting of s...

In 15 case studies representing different European farming systems and stages along the agro-ecological transition, related barriers have been analysed and strategies co-constructed with the Multi-Actor Platforms over the course of the UNISECO project. The strategies are the result of different assessments (such as sustainability assessment or soci...

Most existing life cycle assessment studies that have compared the sustainability of organic and conventional pork supply chains are environmental assessments. The economic and social sustainability dimensions of pork supply chains are currently under-researched. The study reported here was designed to assess the environmental, economic and social...

The alignment of the environmental, economic and social sustainability of farms is necessary for enhancing the provision of public goods in farming. This study combines the use of three tools for the assessment of farm sustainability. It provides first insights into the sustainability performance of farms at different stages of agro-ecological tran...

Pulses are important components in sustainable diets and cropping systems. This study evaluated the environmental impact of cultivation of five Swedish pulses (yellow peas, grey peas, faba beans, common beans and lentils) in a life-cycle perspective. The impact of selected Swedish pulses (conventional or organic) was then compared with that of impo...

Organic farming aims to minimize negative impacts on the local environment, but its contributions to global food sustainability also depend on a resilient food supply. We studied a farm aiming to move beyond organic and become "a sustainable farm of the future", in the farmer's own words. This meant going beyond local impacts to consider how the fa...

The European Union (EU) livestock sector relies on imported soybean as a feed source, but feeding soybean to animals leads to a loss of macronutrients compared to direct human consumption, and soybean production is associated with deforestation. Here we show that 75–82% of current EU animal fat and protein production could be sustained without soyb...

Agro-ecological approaches are fundamental for sustainable food production in the future, and the overarching objective of UNISECO is to co-develop improved and practice-validated strategies and incentives for the promotion of improved agro-ecological approaches. The key dilemma is how to produce public goods whilst maintaining viable production of...

This study analysed Swedish stakeholders’ views on future developments of organic production and consumption based on Organic 3.0, a strategic initiative by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM). Focus group discussions were carried out with actors representing different parts of the organic value chain in Sweden. Th...

In the last years, it has been suggested to use statistical inferential methods, such as hypothesis testing or confidence intervals, to compare different products, services, or systems within comparative life cycle assessments based on Monte Carlo simulation results. However, the use of statistical inferential methods in such settings is fundamenta...

Food waste undermines long-term resilience of the global food system by aggravating ecosystem damage. The global community must therefore work to reduce the amount of food that gets wasted. However, we should be mindful of some potential conflicts between food waste reduction and food system resilience. Over-production and over-supply are a contrib...

Many consumers are willing to move to a more plant-based diet, as is apparent from the increasing demand for plant-based protein sources on many markets. There is scientific evidence that such diets are associated with lower environmental impacts, especially climate impact, land use, and energy use. However, all food production affects the environm...

Grazing systems emit greenhouse gases, which can, under specific agro-ecological conditions, be partly or entirely offset by soil carbon sequestration. However, any sequestration is time-limited, reversible, and at a global level outweighed by emissions from grazing systems. Thus, grazing systems are globally a net contributor to climate change and...

Rapidly increasing international food trade has drastically altered the global food system over the past decades. Using national scale indicators, we assess two of the resilience principles that directly reflect the effects of global trade on food systems-namely, maintaining diversity and redundancy, and managing connectivity. We perform our analys...

To reduce environmental burdens from the food system, a shift towards environmentally sustainable diets is needed. In this study, the environmental impacts of the Swedish diet were benchmarked relative to global environmental boundaries suggested by the EAT-Lancet Commission. To identify local environmental concerns not captured by the global bound...

This document represents the Deliverable D5.2 within Workpackage WP5 “Governance and policy assessment” of the EU Horizon 2020 project UNISECO (Understanding and improving the sustainability of agro-ecological farming systems in the EU). The overall objective of this Deliverable (D5.2) is to identify and analyse the governance structures which char...

Purpose The aim of this study was to determine transparent food carbon footprint values for use in a climate tax, using a consistent methodology across the taxed food products and taking into account the need for such a tax to be administratively simple and accepted by affected stakeholders. Methods A method based on Life Cycle Assessment followin...

Current food systems are resource-inefficient, as farm animals consume large quantities of human-edible crops and large amounts of external fossil fuel-based inputs are used for energy and fertilisers. In this study, we assessed the production capacity and environmental performance of an alternative theoretical regional food system based on organic...

Breastfeeding is one of the foundations of child health, development and survival. Breastmilk substitutes (BMS) are associated with negative influences on breastfeeding practices and subsequent health concerns and, as with all foods, production and consumption of BMS comes with an environmental cost. The carbon footprint (CFP) of production and con...

Recent research indicates that sustainability assessment tools (SAT) for farms need to be contextually adapted to be acceptable and useful. Focusing specifically on social sustainability , this study sought to identify important aspects of relevance for Swedish (livestock) farmers' social situation and compare these aspects with social indicators u...

https://www.slu.se/centrumbildningar-och-projekt/futurefood/forskning/-rapporter/ The role of dairy and plant based dairy alternatives in sustainable diets Publ. 2018. Del 3 i serien Future Food Reports. Hållbara dieter som är näringsriktiga, miljövänliga, ekonomiskt bärkraftiga och socialt och kulturellt acceptabelt blir allt mer efterfrågade. Fok...

Swedish beef and dairy farmers are currently facing a challenging financial situation. Simultaneously, beef farming contributes significant environmental impacts. To support farmers, actors from the whole value chain are now promoting Swedish beef as particularly ‘sustainable’. The paper draws on critical discourse analysis of interviews with and d...

The development of future food systems will depend on normative decisions taken at different levels by policymakers and stakeholders. Scenario modeling is an adequate tool for assessing the implications of such decisions, but for an enlightened debate, it is important to make explicit and transparent how such value-based decisions affect modeling r...

This study examined appropriate design of efficient climate taxes on consumption of food by constructing a simple theoretical model and exemplifying the results using the examples of tomatoes and beef in Sweden. The theoretical results showed that, for the tax to be efficient, i) existing taxes on greenhouse gases (GHGs) should be considered when c...

The Western diet is characterized by high meat consumption, which negatively affects the environment and human health. Transitioning toward eating more plant-based products in Western societies has been identified as a key instrument to tackle these problems. However, one potential concern is that radically reducing meat in the current diet might l...

Public sector food service is a major contributor to food waste generation in Sweden, with schools, pre-schools, elderly care homes, hospitals etc., producing approximately 70,000 tons of food waste each year. Sweden has appropriate infrastructure for handling food waste in place, recycling nutrients and energy, but there is still great potential t...

Agriculture is increasingly targeted for sustainability assessment. The social dimension has been identified as the so far least developed. Indicators of more subjective nature that might be of relevance for measuring social sustainability, are difficult to catch in traditional reductionist approaches. Therefore new approaches have had to be devel...

The need for more sustainable production and consumption of animal‐source food is central to the achievement of the sustainable development goals: within this context, wise use of land is a core challenge and concern. A key question in feeding the future world is: how much animal‐source food should we eat? We demonstrate that livestock raised under...

Current organic agriculture performs well in several sustainability domains, like animal welfare, farm profitability and low pesticide use, but yields are commonly lower than in conventional farming. There is now a re-vitalized interest in increasing yields in organic agriculture to provide more organic food for a growing, more affluent population...

Farming is the foundation of our food system. While the prerequisite for farming is a clean environment and a diverse nature, agriculture is currently the cause of major environmental problems, including greenhouse gas and nitrogen emissions. The challenge to protect our environment and feed the world sometimes seem insurmountable, but solutions mi...

The report dissects claims made by different stakeholders in the debate about so called ‘grass-fed’ beef, the greenhouse gases the animals emit, and the possibility that, through their grazing actions, they can help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It evaluates these claims and counterclaims against the best available science, providing a...

Both supply and demand side changes are necessary to achieve a sustainable food system. However, the weight accorded to these depends on one's view of what the priority goals are for the food system and the extent to which production systems versus consumption patterns are open to change. Some stakeholders see the problem as one of 'not enough food...

Various frameworks for assessing sustainability in agriculture have emerged in recent years. We analysed how sustainability is framed as a governing concept for agriculture within three such frameworks. The results suggest that in all three frameworks sustainability is perceived as a fixed, definable end goal, rather than a process, and its assumed...

To facilitate the choice of more sustainable animal-based products in the diet, a Swedish meat guide providing complex, multi-layered environmental information to non-experts has been developed. This study evaluated reception of this guide by consumers. In five focus groups, participants (“interested consumers”) carried out a joint environmental an...

Multiple production and demand side measures are needed to improve food system sustainability. This study quantified the theoretical minimum agricultural land requirements to supply Western Europe with food in 2050 from its own land base, together with GHG emissions arising. Assuming that crop yield gaps in agriculture are closed, livestock product...

We will scrutinize value challenges faced by public food procurement managers to ensure multiple values are met within a limited budget and under current regulations. The current highly complex foo ...

Reducing or altering meat consumption has the potential to significantly lower the impact humans have on climate change. Consumers, however, are unlikely to break their food habits unless they are aware of the problem and motivated by the solutions. Fear appeals are often used to overcome this, however, their effectiveness in the context of meat re...

Allan Savory is the man behind holistic grazing and the founder of the Savory Institute. Savory claims that holistic grazing can stop desertification and reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to pre-industrial levels in a few decades. In this report, we review the literature on holistic grazing in order to evaluate the scientific support behind...

There are plant-based alternatives to cow's milk that resemble milk in appearance and function, but differ nutritionally. These are associated with lower land use and environmental impact than milk. However, there are places where dairy herds contribute positively to conservation of high nature value pastures through their grazing. The dairy system...

A method was developed for designing ‘fair’ diets (not using more than globally available arable land per capita) and for assessing the sustainability of such diets. The diets were based on the principle of ‘ecological leftovers’ for livestock production, i.e. raising livestock on pasture and by-products not suitable for or wanted by humans. The me...

This study examined two methods for jointly considering the environmental impact and nutritional quality of diets, which is necessary when designing policy instruments promoting sustainable food systems. Both methods included energy content and 18 macro- and micronutrients in the diet, the climate impact, land use and biodiversity damage potential....

Background Food consumption is one of the most important drivers of environmental pressures. Adoption of healthy diets is suggested to be an option for less environmentally intensive food habits and improved public health. In particular, changes in meat consumption are believed to bring potential benefits. Objective To quantify the impact of chang...

Environmental impacts from food consumption are dominated by the consumption of livestock products. Changes in consumption patterns are necessary to reduce these impacts. Information is a policy instrument that can influence consumers to make more sustainable choices, as well as increasing awareness of the problem and hence creating acceptance for...

The food system has been identified as one of the major contributors to climate change. The main sources of greenhouse gas emissions are nitrous oxide (N2O) from soils, methane (CH4) from enteric fermentation in animals, and carbon dioxide (CO2) from land use change, such as deforestation. Emissions also arise from manure management, mineral fertil...

The advice on climate-smart food consumption given by authorities and NGOs includes the recommendation to “eat seasonal foods”. However, no clear definition of seasonality is given in the literature. This study investigated how the carbon footprint of yearly per capita consumption of tomatoes and carrots in Sweden was affected by seasonal consumpti...