Strengths and limitations of localizing food production as a sustainability-building strategy — an analysis of bread production on the island of Gotland, Sweden

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the environmental consequences of local small-scale versus centralized large-scale bread production and the potential for self-sufficiency in bread in a Swedish island community. Mills and bakeries located on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea were compared with large-scale production systems on the Swedish mainland. The results show that bread production in local bakeries requires more total energy input per kilogram of bread than the industrial bakery, mainly due to inefficient technology. On the other hand, the analysis shows that emissions of CO 2, SO 2 and NO x are smaller from bread produced in the small local bakeries than from big bakeries on the Swedish mainland. This is because the transportation routes are much shorter for bread from the small bakeries and because oil is more frequently used for heating the ovens in large and medium sized bakeries. The present local production of flour on Gotland does not satisfy the local demand, but there is a potential for increased self-sufficiency. Farms on the island produce large amounts of bread grain, but only a small fraction (2%) is used in local flour production, while the rest is exported or used as animal fodder. Thus the region has a large potential to produce enough flour for its local population and thus to become less dependent on imports. However, using more locally produced bread grain to produce flour in local mills, improving energy efficiency in small-scale mills and bakeries, changing consumer behavior and internalizing environmental costs of transportation are crucial measures in achieving this goal.