Assessing the Potential of Hydroponic Farming to Reduce Food Imports: The Case of Lettuce Production in Sweden

Abstract: Many studies have investigated the issue of feeding the world’s growing population from different perspectives. Conventional agricultural methods usually have small production yields while requiring large amounts of scarce and unevenly distributed resources such as farmland and water. Furthermore, although produced food may meet the demands, it is still inefficiently delivered among different regions. Urban agriculture has been proposed to produce food inside urban areas with higher yields and less resource consumption. Hydroponics is one of the urban farming methods that needs further research before being applied on large scales. This study aims to investigate the potential lettuce production using hydroponic systems to grow lettuce domestically in urban areas in Sweden to lower its lettuce import and motivate local food production to become self-sufficient. The study is performed using a literature review, theoretical design of a system, and scenario-based assessment of hydroponic lettuce production. The detailed analysis is performed via a case study of lettuce production in Uppsala municipality and two scenarios considering the reduction of lettuce import to Sweden and related challenges and opportunities of the designed system. The analyses demonstrate that the system paves the way to decrease lettuce import and dependence on trade. Therefore, applying the system increases self-sufficiency and decreases vulnerability to shocks. Nevertheless, the study does not necessarily address issues related to transportation and food miles. Moreover, finding suitable places to establish the system needs further studies.