Due to an increasing global population and changes in diets the impact of food consumption on the world’s ecosystems and their services has become more significant. The purpose of this project has been to investigate how the impact on ecosystem services from Swedish food consumption has changed over time and if this development is sustainable or not. A quantitative assessment of six different environmental impact factors has been carried out for each food category. The project clarifies how Swedish food consumption has developed since the 1960s, the origin of the food that has been consumed, which processes that affect the environment as well as the consequences from these impacts. The result showed that Swedish food consumption has increased considering quantity, that the consumption pattern has changed, and that the import of goods has increased since the 1960s. The average Swede eats more animal-based products such as meat, cheese and cream, along with more vegetable-based products such as fruit and berries, and vegetables. Instead, products such as milk and soured based products has decreased, while products made from flour and grains has stayed unchanged. The project shows that animal-based products, especially from ruminant animals, has a significantly higher ecological footprint in comparison with vegetable-based products, concerning most of the categories mentioned above. Considering that the swedes eat more animal-based products today than in the 1960sthefollowing conclusion, that the Swedish impact on ecosystem services has increased since the 1960s even though food production has become more efficient, could be drawn.

The food industry is one of the main contributors to anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. The greatest impact is caused by production of animal-sourced foods. To reduce the planetary burden, a dietary shift from animal-based to more plant-based foods is necessary. Policy interventions are tools to achieve such a shift. For policies to be successful, acceptability is a crucial component. Several variables such as age, gender, education level, and geographical residence have previously been identified as decisive for policy acceptability. The aim of the present research is to go beyond these findings and obtain a deeper understanding of acceptability of policy proposals for reduced consumption of animal-sourced foods. Qualitative interviews with Swedish citizens were conducted to investigate which factors influence high respective low policy acceptability. Results indicate that environmental concern, exposure to plant-based foods, perceptions of others’ views, and environmental norms are crucial factors shaping policy acceptability, as these mediate several other critical factors. The discussion pointed out beliefs about the sufficiency of plant-based foods and the necessity of meat, ideas about consumers of plant-based foods as radical, and perceived effectiveness and fairness of the policies to be entry points for increasing policy acceptability, as these beliefs are theoretically established to be susceptible to change. Insights from the research can be used for policy design and communication efforts. The study offers recommendations to communicate the sufficiency and healthiness of plant-based foods, to frame its consumers in a more inclusive and appealing way for meat and dairy consumers to identify with, and to expose the policy tradeoffs by contrasting them with the environmental cause. / Mistra Food Futures WP7