Farmers perspective’s on the frictions and tractions of regenerative agriculture in Sweden

Abstract: The notion that the world's food system is in crisis is becoming more common. Such arguments point to a slew of problems, ranging from malnutrition, poverty, and obesity to industrial farming, overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, low food security, environmental destruction, biodiversity depletion, animal health, as well as corporate domination and a lack of resilience. The rates of soil erosion vastly transcend that of soil formation, implying that a third of the soils have a lifetime of fewer than 200 years. The current interest in Regenerative agriculture has taken root in this sense, where any part of farming, distribution, food processing, and consumption is being debated. The concept of “regenerative agriculture" has been an accepted practice for a long time, but there has been a renewed interest in it in recent years. This study thus aims to identify the frictions and tractions for regenerative agriculture in Sweden, from a producer perspective, to investigate the future of sustainable agriculture in the country. This study is based on two sources of data: the first and principal are semi-structured interviews with Swedish regenerative producers; the second is a survey conducted by Swedish regenerative producers. The results showed an evident dissatisfaction with the Swedish agricultural system regarding subsidies and regulations as well as a strong personal ideological motivation for regenerative practices amongst the participants. The results argue that a restructure of the Swedish agricultural system is crucial if innovative and sustainable alternatives, such as Regenerative agriculture, are to thrive and the national sustainability- and food security goals are to be achieved.