Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
during the measured four weeks were then extrapolated to get values for consumption
during the whole year. For some comparisons to Swedish average figures, the results for the
Järna consumers were also extrapolated to cover meals eaten outside the home, on average
16% of their meals. Apart for content of an alternative food basket the consumer survey also
estimated the household cost for this. In all 49 individuals in 15 households took part in the
survey. The families were invited to take part in the survey through local food and
environment organisations. No formal socio-economic stratification of the families were
performed but the general picture obtained during the interviews was that the families well
represent the Swedish society. Considering the low number of participants the results
obtained is to be considered a special case (scenario 4) and wider implications should be
interpreted carefully.
2.2 Calculating agriculture area and environmental impacts of food baskets
The annual environmental impacts of a food basket from ERA farms is calculated from data on
consumption (kg per capita and year) of different food product categories, and data on the
annual agricultural production (kg per ha). In this study only agriculture land in Sweden was
included in the calculations of environmental impacts in terms of nutrient surplus, use of
energy and emissions of green house gases. The external fodder including nutrients in
imported fodder was however included in the input resources in the nutrient balances.
Products in the food basket were calculated back to the original (primary) amounts of
agricultural products produced for human consumption. These included weight of crops
harvested for food consumption (kg), living weights for animals going to slaughter (kg) and
delivered milk (kg). Calculations for the different products from the average Swedish
agriculture and from the ERA agricultures represented by the 12 ERA prototype farms were
done using the equation:
O = C*cf (1)
where C is the amount of a food stuff (kg), cf is a conversion factor for converting a
foodstuff back to the weight of the original agricultural product (O). The conversion factors
for the different foodstuffs were based on the database FAOSTAT (2004) and complemented
with information from Saltå Mill (bread and cereal products) (Gustavsson, 2003) and Svensk
Mjölk (dairy products) (Pettersson, 2005). Since the production levels and environmental
impacts differed greatly between the farms and farming systems, the original food
production in kg was converted to area (ha) in order to get proper results.
The products from the ERA farms included in the food baskets were grouped into seven
agricultural categories: Potato products (O
1
); Grain products (O
2
); Root crops (O
3
); Vegetable
products (O
4
); Milk products (O
5
); Meat from ruminant animals (O
6
); Meat from
monogastric animals (O
7
). Characteristic for the Swedish ERA-farms is that they all integrate
crop and animal production. However, it was possible to group the farms according to
production following four groups with the dominant product named first (bold):
1.
Potatoes,
root crops, vegetable products, bread grain and milk (2 farms)
2.
Milk
, meat and bread grain (6 farms)
3.
Pork
, poultry, egg and cereals (2 farms)
4.
Ruminant meat
and cereals (2 farms)
The farms in group 1 were more diverse and produced a broad spectrum of agricultural
products. The farms in group 4 were more specialised and more extensive. To calculate the
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