The environmental performance of Swedish food production : an analysis of agri-environmental indicators

Sammanfattning: In the European Union 43.5% of the land area is used for agricultural purposes, providing food, feed and fiber for the population, but also causing detrimental environmental impact. Agri-environmental indicators (AEIs) are used to measure, and communicate environmental performance of agriculture, and serve as important tools to develop and evaluate progress of agri-environmental policy and measures. In this paper, commonly used AEIs for describing some of the biggest environmental issues coupled to agriculture, are analyzed, and applied to Sweden, to describe the present environmental performance of Swedish food production. An international comparison, including countries with similar climatic and agricultural conditions to Sweden, is used as support for discussing the difference in performance and the underlying causes. Novel indicators are also presented: Nutrient leaching per kg protein, and Ammonia emission per kg milk/meat, to visualize the link between food production and environmental impact. The paper is mainly based on a literature review, and the analysis and processing of data from Eurostat, OECD, FAO and EEA. In comparison to the countries presented in this paper, Sweden has a high environmental performance in Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), Gross nutrient balance, Nutrient leaching, Ammonia emissions (NH3) and Pesticide use, when expressed in kg/ha. The performance for the indicators Nitrate pollution of groundwater and Agricultural water use was also high (above average). The performance was low (below average) when NH3 emission was expressed in mass units (kg/ton), for beef meat. The performance was average for the indicator Soil erosion. The performance was also average when Nutrient leaching, GHG and NH3 emissions (pig, poultry and milk) were expressed in mass units (kg/kg). The overall high performance of Swedish food production is mainly explained by low nutrient inputs and low livestock densities in Sweden, compared to the other countries in this study. Driving force and pressure indicators do not always manage to predict environmental performance, i.e. a high use of mineral fertilizers or a high gross nutrient balance does not necessarily mean that nutrient leaching is correspondently high. Natural conditions (soil type and precipitation) are likely a part of the explanation. The functional unit had great impact on the results, when the functional unit was mass based (kg), instead of land based (ha), countries with intensive production (high Animal- or Plant-Protein production per ha) were favored. When using mass based indicators (kg), the total environmental impact might still be high, even if the indicator result indicates low impact, thus mass based indicators should not be used alone if the aim is to describe total environmental impact.