The ecological footprint of swedish sugar consumption

Abstract: Climate change, loss of biodiversity and an ongoing population growth are challenging the global food production. Land is a scarce resource that is demanded for many purposes, reason why it is relevant to question how the arable land is used in the food production. Some commodities, including refined sugar, are not essential for the human diet, but are still consumed in higher quantities than are healthy for us. This report aims to investigate the ecological footprint of the sugar consumption in Sweden, focussing on land use. The research questions are: 1) Where does the sugar consumed in Sweden come from – geographically and crop-wise? 2) How much land is required for producing the sugar consumed in Sweden? 3) Does the Swedish consumption require more land than the current Swedish production can provide? 4) What are the environmental and social benefits of the current production, in comparison to those of alternative land uses? Aspects including food security, other food production, organic agriculture, nature conservation for biodiversity and biofuels are considered in three plausible scenarios. The report is based on a literature review and an analysis of data collected from statistical bureaus and institutions, and it discusses three different scenarios of how the sugar supply can be managed in the future. The results show a present gap between the Swedish sugar production and the Swedish sugar consumption, which can be solved either by importing sugar (scenario 1), by increasing the Swedish sugar beet production (scenario 2) or by adjusting the consumption (scenario 3). The conclusion is that, despite other potential environmental benefits from the first two scenarios, scenario 3 is the only way of reducing the ecological footprint of the Swedish consumption.