Improving agricultural sustainability: the case of Swedish greenhouse tomatoes

Of major concern to agriculturists and society are issues of sustainability and land and resource requirements for food and fiber. Sustainability of Swedish domestic agriculture is explored using the production of tomatoes in greenhouses as a case study. Issues of sustainability are related to net yields, environmental loading, greenhouse gases, employment and land use. A model for evaluation of sustainability is developed and illustrated using the concepts and theories of analysis. The intensive tomato production system investigated was shown to be highly dependent on non-renewable resources and human service fed back from society. Substituting wood powder from logging residues for the oil used for heating reduced the environmental load and improved the sustainability of the system significantly.