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

In this paper we analyze the environmental consequences of local small-scal e versus centralized large-scale bread production and the potential for sel f-sufficiency in bread in a Swedish island community. Mills and bakeries lo cated on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea were compared with large-s cale production systems on the Swedish mainland. The results show that brea d production in local bakeries requires more total energy input per kilogra m of bread than the industrial bakery, mainly due to inefficient technology . On the other hand, the analysis shows that emissions of CO2, SO2 and NOx are smaller from bread produced in the small local bakeries than from big b akeries 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. T he present local production of hour on Gotland does not satisfy the local d emand, but there is a potential for increased self-sufficiency. Farms on th e island produce large amounts of bread grain, but only a small fraction (2 0%) is used in local flour production, while the rest is exported or used a s animal fodder. Thus the region has a large potential to produce enough fl our 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, chang ing consumer behavior and internalizing environmental costs of transportati on are crucial measures in achieving this goal. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B .V. All rights reserved.