The importance of agriculture in a sustainable society : focusing on the climate issue in the region of Västerbotten in Sweden

The purpose of this study was to investigate how farmers in the region of Västerbotten work for a sustainable development according to climate change, and where resources could be put in place to make agriculture even more climate friendly. The method chosen was a qualitative interview study where eight farmers from the county were interviewed. Half of them had an ecological production, and the other half was conventional. All the interviews were recorded, and the raw data was put in a database in Excel and analyzed. The results showed differences between ecological and conventional production systems, such as which agricultural practice that was the most sustainable in the future. Many farmers described several ways of decreasing their own climate burden by changing to LED light bulbs, Eco driving, spring plowing and raising their cattle in an intensive system. The future for agriculture was hard to speculate about, but faith in politicians played a crucial role. There were thoughts about both moving backwards to family-oriented agriculture and to increase the animal units with big industry-like settings. Overall, my own conclusion states that agriculture should be more circular to be sustainable, and that the society should be more involved in this circularity for it to work. Intensively raised cattle fed with less concentrate, and less imported meat, seems like a sustainable production. The agriculture of the future should be close to nature but at the same time modern, and we must protect our countryside if we want to have a sustainable society