Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Food in the face of net-zero emissions: a call for repoliticization : a juxtaposition of Sweden’s National Food Strategy and Climate Policy Framework

Iwarsson, Emmy LU (2020) HEKM51 20201
Human Geography
Human Ecology
Abstract
Food is a fundamental human need – a physical requirement for survival. At the current historical juncture, the global food system is entangled in a web of neoliberal capitalist exchange relations and suffers from heavy dependence on fossil energy inputs. Today’s agro-industrial complex, which has evolved jointly with fossil capitalism and is organized according to its principles, is firmly entrenched. Meanwhile, there is a global political consensus on the need to take action on climate change. In the summer of 2017, the Swedish Parliament adopted both the country’s first-ever National Food Strategy – which aims to increase Swedish food production by 2030 – and a Climate Policy Framework, according to which Sweden is to reach net-zero... (More)
Food is a fundamental human need – a physical requirement for survival. At the current historical juncture, the global food system is entangled in a web of neoliberal capitalist exchange relations and suffers from heavy dependence on fossil energy inputs. Today’s agro-industrial complex, which has evolved jointly with fossil capitalism and is organized according to its principles, is firmly entrenched. Meanwhile, there is a global political consensus on the need to take action on climate change. In the summer of 2017, the Swedish Parliament adopted both the country’s first-ever National Food Strategy – which aims to increase Swedish food production by 2030 – and a Climate Policy Framework, according to which Sweden is to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. This thesis puts the two policies into dialogue as to single out (in-)compatibilities and silences in and between them, drawing on the ’What’s the Problem Represented to Be?’ framework and qualitative content analysis. It concludes that the Swedish efforts to increase its domestic food production while simultaneously reaching net-zero emissions in its food sector are based on a political conceptualization of food as a ‘green sector’, which depoliticizes its industrial nature. The actions taken to achieve net-zero emissions are seen to be insensitive to scale, unfeasible to generalize on a global level and at odds with environmental justice, as they are founded on ecologically unequal exchange and environmental load displacement. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Iwarsson, Emmy LU
supervisor
organization
course
HEKM51 20201
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
depoliticization, food policy, climate policy, Sweden, WPR
language
English
id
9026493
date added to LUP
2020-09-21 14:30:55
date last changed
2024-02-12 10:31:33
@misc{9026493,
  abstract     = {{Food is a fundamental human need – a physical requirement for survival. At the current historical juncture, the global food system is entangled in a web of neoliberal capitalist exchange relations and suffers from heavy dependence on fossil energy inputs. Today’s agro-industrial complex, which has evolved jointly with fossil capitalism and is organized according to its principles, is firmly entrenched. Meanwhile, there is a global political consensus on the need to take action on climate change. In the summer of 2017, the Swedish Parliament adopted both the country’s first-ever National Food Strategy – which aims to increase Swedish food production by 2030 – and a Climate Policy Framework, according to which Sweden is to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. This thesis puts the two policies into dialogue as to single out (in-)compatibilities and silences in and between them, drawing on the ’What’s the Problem Represented to Be?’ framework and qualitative content analysis. It concludes that the Swedish efforts to increase its domestic food production while simultaneously reaching net-zero emissions in its food sector are based on a political conceptualization of food as a ‘green sector’, which depoliticizes its industrial nature. The actions taken to achieve net-zero emissions are seen to be insensitive to scale, unfeasible to generalize on a global level and at odds with environmental justice, as they are founded on ecologically unequal exchange and environmental load displacement.}},
  author       = {{Iwarsson, Emmy}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Food in the face of net-zero emissions: a call for repoliticization : a juxtaposition of Sweden’s National Food Strategy and Climate Policy Framework}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}