Shifts in food system can help Sweden meet its environmental goals

Within the next 20 years, many countries around the world aim to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality. Since the food system is one of the major polluters, researchers previously designed scenarios for Sweden to achieve ambitious targets for climate, as well as biodiversity and health.

In a new study, Rachel Mazac, together with researchers from the Centre, Chalmers University, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), calculated how close Sweden would get to the targets by following previously suggested scenarios. The study analysed actions to change individual diets, then assessed additional steps of reducing food waste by half and phasing out fossil fuels across the food chain.

The study found that dietary changes alone could help reduce environmental impacts, such as land-use change, freshwater use, and biodiversity loss, by 30% compared to current diets.

“Two main changes to the current Swedish diet are necessary in all scenarios: we need to eat significantly more vegetables to reach health targets and fewer animal foods to reduce climate and global biodiversity impacts,” says researcher Rachel Mazac.

Changing diets not enough

Although dietary changes can play a substantial role, improvements in food production and waste reduction are also required to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.

“Regardless of which direction we take, just changing our diets is not going to be enough. Additionally, we need to phase out fossil fuels from the food chain and reduce food waste by at least half,” adds Mazac.

The study estimates that combining dietary changes with phasing out fossil fuels in the food chain could further reduce climate impact by 50-60%. If food waste were cut by half, it would reduce climate, land use, and biodiversity impacts by an additional 8-10%.

“A lot of public narratives are focusing on behavioural changes, but our study confirms that the change in energy use in food production is as important to consider as changing diets,” argues Mazac.