Re-thinking the relationship between food & architecture in Umeå.
2
Eating Disorder?
Re-thinking the relationship between food & architecture in Umeå Rafaela Taylor
rafaela_taylor@hotmail.co.uk
Master’s Programme “Laboratory of Immediate Architectural Intervention” (LiAi) Umeå School of Architecture
Umeå University UMA Examiners:
Alberto Altés Arlandis, Oren Lieberman, Aida Sánchez de Serdio & Roemer van Toorn External Examiner:
(to be announced) Supervisors:
Alberto Altés Arlandis, Josep Garriga Tarrés & Oren Lieberman
I feel that the way we work in the LIAI is strengthened by working together, therefore many of my projects featured in this thesis were done in collaboration with my classmates - in particular Josh- ua Taylor. Many ideas and discussions were also shared with Piotr Paczkowski.
‘Cykelturen Skarume?’
Was an event organised by Nina Bäckström, Stefanie Gruyaert, Joshua Taylor and myself in May 2014.
Umeå May 2015
4
6
conference and a man asked ‘Does agricul-
ture have a future?’ So I asked him ‘Do you have a future without
agriculture?’ that shut him up!”
Arne Lindstöm
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Food is something that we all have in common.
We need it to survive and although we don’t always notice it, it has structured our relation- ships, homes, communities, countryside and cities for as long as humans have been around.
The invention of farming led to the first static settlements, thus, enabling the evolution of cities.
In Sweden, the way people live and eat has changed drastically over the last fifty years.
A society that was previously made up of clus- ters of small self-sufficient family-run farms has urbanised rapidly becoming one of the least self-sufficient, supermarket-dominated countries in Europe. 1 Current housing devel- opments such as Tavleliden (described by the municipality as a ‘nature-oriented’ area) on the outskirts of Umeå are designed and marketed in a way that encourages its residents to do little else but drive to the shops and consume.
In order to reach optimistic population and eco- nomic growth goals, politicians in Umeå hope that the rapid rate of urbanisation will contin- ue. Many decisions, such as building new roads, covering up valuable agricultural land, subsidis- ing large out-of-town retail centres and cutting down on services in surrounding villages are being justified because of these expectations.
The landscape is not only becoming defined by cars and places to shop, but it seems the only people being catered for are those with money to spend.
1 Forsberg, Björn. Umeå 2014 Lecture
The favouritism towards large corporations has not only made life almost impossible for independent businesses in the city to survive, (the number of independent food shops in the city centre has gone from thirty-six in 1950 to just one upmarket delicatessen in 20142), but according to Bjorn Forsberg they are also mak- ing it difficult for small food shops and farms outside Umeå - and the communities that rely on them to survive. While many middle-class families with jobs in the city are choosing to move to the suburbian developments out- of-town, people whose livelihoods may have depended on the land are being forced to move into the town.
Some of us may find the experience of visiting a supermarket bland. Others may find the perma- nent and predictable choice of products from all over the world thrilling. Whatever our differing opinions, the fact is that, as there is very little else to choose from, whether we want to or not, in Umeå we all rely on them.
If we start trying to imagine the length of roads, train lines, airports, food-distribution centres and ferries that need to work faultlessly day in and day out delivering enough food for almost 300,000 meals a day to Umeå alone, we realise how important, but also how dependent the current food network is. If this system failed in Sweden, unlike many other counties who stock reserves, there would be a food crisis in only two days.
2 Westerlund, Tobias. LIAI project 2013
Manifesto
locally produced food, though still cater for a largely middle-class market. Other producers in Västerbotten such as Hallnås or Baggböle Gård, are either relient on the neo-liberal supermar- ket system to sell their products or if they do sell directly to clients currently lack the re- sources to make themselves known.
You may wonder why I think that this matters and why it has any relation to architecture. If there’s food on the shelves, what’s wrong with continuing with business as usual?
If ‘we are what we eat’, I would also argue that the design of our cities, homes (and of course, the hinterland that we rely on!) are also a result of ‘what we eat’. But, as the English architect Carolyn Steel points out in her book Hungry City “No government, including our own, has ever wanted to admit its dependency on others for sustenance.”3 Arne Lindström, the regional manager for The Federation of Swedish Farm- ers (LRF) has similar concerns. In a recent article in Västerbotten’s Kuriren he exclaims:
“The reason why we have to farm seems to have been lost during an era of abundance. That food is essential is actually no longer obvious, and it
3 Steel, Carolyn. Hungry City, How Food Shapes Our Lives (London: Chatto & Windus, 2008), p7
valuable arable land for a large shop that sells cheap mass-produced furniture. We are happy to drain our hinterlands of the people and ex- pertise that know how to produce food. We are happy to keep building more supermarkets and ordering catalogue houses that require more cars and more oil.
What if instead, there was an architecture that allowed another kind of living? One that was less dependent on cars and imported food. One that encouraged residents to be producers as well as consumers. Maybe an alternative to the secluded suburbs and souless supermarkets that are being planned all around the city. An architecture that allows communities develop that are more connected to the land and the food that it eats.
This thesis will explore these ideas.
4 Arne Lindström and Mats Granath, Väster- botten’s Kuriren, http://www.vk.se/1364941/se-till-att- maten-produceras (January 19th 2015)
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“Why is Umeå here?
Because this is where we could feed it!”
Arne Lindstom, March 2015
Röbäcksslätten Röbäcksslätten
The fertile plain in Röbäck is the reason why Umeå is located here.
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Despite Umeå City Council’s claim to strive for “A varied agricultural landscape”.1 Great effort and money is being put into removing, draining and developing on some of Umeå’s most precious fertile arable land to make way for the arival of Umeå’s fourth out-of-town shopping center and IKEA. Three metres of gravel has been laid over 29 hectars of land where there will also be park- ing space for 2500 cars. The photograph shows one of the ponds needed to drain the land being built on. The ponds are near the airport so in orrder not to attract birds they cannot hold water for more than 24 hours.
Photograph taken by Jana Džadoňová
1 Odling för Dummies, http://maria.norrlage.se/
tag/ikea/
How can architecture help support an alternative to
the profit-driven food system in Umeå?
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Meeting with Britta Lundgren,
curator of the Inland exhibition that was held at the Västerbotten Museum March 2015
The Land & it’s speciesCity LifelinesEating Together
PRODUCTIVE UMA
*
Arne Lindström Helena Ågren
Björn Isacsson Niklas Makie
Kamela Karlsson
Ingela Hansson
*
Gunnar Alskog
Patrick Bränner
*
Cozinha Popular da Mourar
*
****
Baltic-Gruppen
*
Other students Other students
Alterna- tive ways to shop
Market Proposal
UMAT SATELITE
*
Loes Dager
*
Christina Hammarström
Lars Ericson
Urban Farming
RECIPE STORIES
Research
CYKELTUREN SKARUME?
APPLICATION FOR FUNDING
*
Norråkers Handel
*
Älmeblads Bröd
Shop/
market research
PREPARATION FOR EVENT: CYKELTURNEN SKARUME?
PROVIDE PLANTS FOR BILDMUSEET TOUR BALTIC-
MEAL
THE MOVEABLE FEAST
UMAT PROPOSALS
*
Kitchen Stories
TAKE A BUILDING FOR A RIDE
RÖBÄCK COMMON LIFE
PRODUCTIVE UMA HARVEST
THOUGHTS FOR THE FUTURE
FOOD
*
Benny Karlsson
Arne Lindström
*
GARDEN ON A BIKE
MEATBALL CHALLENGE
Other students
SEEDS IN A CUP
Bostaden
*
VK
Green Party
*
*
Rotterzwam
THESIS CHAPTER
** ****
T I M E 2 0 1 3 2 0 1 4 2 0 1 5
*
*
Visit / Case StudyEncounter Event
Design Cykelturen Skarume Meetings about UMAT
This diagram attempts to illustrate the complex- ity of actions and encounters that make up my Master Thesis. Some of my interests have
carried through from the ‘In our Backyard’
project in 2014. Actions that I feel relevant to my current work have been included.
My Landscape of Actions
The Land & it’s speciesCity LifelinesEating Together
PRODUCTIVE UMA
*
Arne Lindström Helena Ågren
Björn Isacsson Niklas Makie
Kamela Karlsson
Ingela Hansson
*
Gunnar Alskog
Patrick Brännerg
*
Cozinha Popular da Mouraria
*
****
Baltic-Gruppen
*
Other students Other students
Alterna- tive ways to shop
Market Proposal
UMAT SATELITE
*
Loes Dager
*
Christina Hammarström
Lars Ericson
Urban Farming
VÄSTERBOTTEN BBQ PINBRÖD MAKING
RECIPE STORIES
Research
CYKELTUREN SKARUME?
VÄSTERBOTTEN SMÖRGÅSTÅRTA
APPLICATION FOR FUNDING
*
Norråkers Handel
*
Älmeblads Bröd
Shop/
market research
PREPARATION FOR EVENT: CYKELTURNEN SKARUME?
PROVIDE PLANTS FOR BILDMUSEET TOUR BALTIC-
MEAL
THE MOVEABLE FEAST
UMAT PROPOSALS
*
Kitchen Stories
TAKE A BUILDING FOR A RIDE
RÖBÄCK COMMON LIFE
PRODUCTIVE UMA HARVEST TALKING
WITH BREAD
THOUGHTS FOR THE FUTURE
FOOD
*
Benny Karlsson
Arne Lindström
*
GARDEN ON A BIKE
MEATBALL CHALLENGE
Other students
SEEDS IN A CUP
Bostaden
*
VK
Green Party
*
*
Rotterzwam
THESIS CHAPTER
** ****
T I M E 2 0 1 3 2 0 1 4 2 0 1 5
*
*
Visit / Case StudyEncounter Event
Design Cykelturen Skarume Meetings about UMAT
My Landscape of Actions P16
Chapter 01. The Land P18
(Producing the Food)
Introduction & Questions P22
Farming Essays and Mappings P24
First Encounter with Arne Lindstöm P34
Farming Case Studies P40
Urban farming Case Studies P57
Actions P67
Reflection P81
Chapter 02. City Life-lines P82
(Transportation, Shops and Markets)
Introduction & Questions P86
Essays and Mappings P88
Case Studies P98
Reflection P109
Actions P11
Chapter 03. Eating Together P116 (At the Table, in the Kitchen, in the city)
Introduction & Questions P120
Case Studies P122
Actions P129
Chapter 04. Thoughts for the Future P140
(Tomorrow’s Table)
Introduction & Questions P143
Gymnastikensaluhall Proposal P145
A Second Opinion from Arne Lindström P161 Benny Karlsson’s Article in Västerbottens Kuriren P162
Speculative designs P167
Bibliography P178
Image Credits P179
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Chapter 01
18
The Land
& it’s Species
Producing the food
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Transporting cucumber plants. UMA, 2014
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A look at where our food comes from, how it is being (and how it could) be produced and the issues faced by those who are producing it.
One of the effects of the European Common Market formed in the 1960s is the freedom to think of food as a speculative asset rather than a necessity. Since then many decisions about where our food comes from and what we eat are made by large corporations hungry to make a profit. Strict health and safety regulations, laws concerning minimum wage and environ- mental legislations in Sweden mean that while we have cheap oil it is most often cheaper to import food from abroad and pass these re- sponsibilities on to other countries.
Although there is a recent history of wide- spread farming in Sweden the number of farm- ers are rapidly decreasing, with now less than two percent of the population providing our food.1 The majority of farms that we do have are getting fewer, bigger and more specialised.
Sixty percent of farmers in Sweden are over the age of 50 and (the ones I’ve spoken to) are concerned about who’s going to take over. The rural population of Norrland is gradually mov- ing into the cities. Many former farm houses
1 Conversation with Arne Lindström
and their surrounding land are now used only for leisure, an ‘escape’ from the city. For the comfortable, modern Swede it is easy to think of the countryside as something only to be enjoyed rather than used as a valuable source of income and food.
It would seem short-sighted to allow Swedish farming to subside, apparently here in Nor- rland we can grow ‘the best strawberries in the world!’2 and it would be catastrophe if the rising cost of fuel and changing climates else- where made it impossible to continuing import- ing the bulk of our food from abroad.
In Sweden there are people doing farming differently. They are currently a minority, work- ing hard against the flow of a much larger, more powerful system, but in the cases I’ve looked at there are also highly rewarding pay-offs; time spent outdoors, the satisfaction of producing delicious food, an alternating routine, the free- dom of self-employment and perhaps most important of all is the sense of purpose and belonging in a vital (but often ignored) network of people, plants and animals who all need to work together.
2 Niklas Markie on our visit to his farm
0.1.Introduction & Questions
The Land & Its Species
(Producing the Food) 14% Food
18% Other
‘Consumer Articles’
26% Housing 12% Transport
30% Services
Leisure & Health % of average Swedish income
spent on
---
Statistics found at Fox Research, 2013, Food Market Report Sweden, Chamber Trade Sweden.
grow ‘the best strawberries in the world!’
____________________________________________________
From a disscussion with farmer Niklas Markie
Globally there are also contemporary examples of people striving to make another food system work - either for necessity (in the case of urban farming revolution in Cuba)3 or for other politi- cal, social or environmental reasons.
The subarctic climate in Umeå makes producing food all year round a challenge. However quali- ties that can be utilised do exist.
1. What are these qualities that exist for food production and how can they be combined with techniques (growing, storing, preserv- ing etc.) from the past with modern knowl- edge and technology (aqua-ponics, permacul- ture...) to create a model of production suited to our local environment?
The obvious local qualities to be utilised are:
the intense growing season in the summer, lots of underutilised space, the heat lost to the at- mosphere from heating and ventilation systems and an increasing number of people looking for housing and jobs.
I would like to start gathering information on existing food production happening in and
3 Video :The Power of Community : How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=L2TzvnRo6_c)
around Umeå. What are the aims of allotment holders and Urban gardeners? Or how about the students who specialise in ‘alternative’
growing systems such as aqua-ponics at the University?
Information on traditional living and eating techniques could be found in; Västerbotten Museum, books on Norrland life-styles, people living in villages who still work the land...Other references to be looked at include; Urban farm- ing, Permaculture, Vertical Farms, Blue-Econo- my Case Studies...
2.Is there a future for Swedish agriculture or are Neo-liberal practices destroying the Swedish food system?
To help me answer this question I intend to talk people directly involved in the Swedish food system, particularly local farmers, food-pro- ducers and food-related organisations. In what way do they feel the current system supports or works against them and what are their hopes and dreams for the future of Swedish food production.
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The diagram1 on the opposite page shows how little land in Våsterbotten is currently being used for farming – less than one percent. More than fifty percent of the land is covered by managed forest, which although spans a large area, doesn’t provide many jobs because of the highly mechanised system of operation.
On the agricultural land that there is, more than half is used solely to feed animals – mostly cattle. Less than two percent is actually used to grow vegetables : most of this is used to grow potatoes which have been a very important crop here. (Many of my Swedish friends say that for their grandparents a meal is not com- plete without potatoes and the new potatoes at the beginning of the season, cooking slightly and then dipped in butter is something many Swede’s also get very excited about!)
Before I started this project I wouldn’t of been surprised by these statistics, after all we are almost in the Arctic circle. However, after visiting farms and seeing first-hand that it is possible to grow delicious crops in this climate I’m convinced that the reason there isn’t people growing more food is because it just doesn’t seem worth it.
In a recent article on SVT headlined:
‘Nine out of Ten Farms Have Gone in Twenty-five Years’,
new statistics from the Swedish University of Agriculture reveal that farms are disappearing at a much faster rate then previously realised.
One of the reasons that people are not aware is because the land-use changes slowly so its not
1 Information found at Statistics Sweden, 2009, http://www.scb.se/en_/
something obvious like the local shop closing.
Camilla Eriksson from the Swedish University of Agricultural Science argues that “ We have a paradoxical situation in which we place high demands on Swedish agricultural environmen- tal and ethical considerations, but buy food that does not meet those conditions.”2
Traditionally potatoes, grains and dairy were the most important food items in the area, from what I’ve heard its the dairy farmers that are suffering the most. In the STV article Camilla Eriksson asks various farmers what they are doing to survive. Grain farmers are trying to compete on the global market, particularly by offering specialised crops like Glutan-free grain.
2 SVT, May 2015
http://www.svt.se/nyheter/vetenskap/9-av-10-jordb- ruk-borta-pa-25-ar
01. The Land
Farming trends in Västerbotten
The majority of Sweden’s agricultural land is in the South of Sweden.
Skåne has 100 more growing days than Västerbotten. However, Nicklas Markie, a farmer in Resele has clients in Skåne because his slow growing vegetables, are more better quality.
Land Under Forest Agricultural Land Bare Rock & Other Mires Natural Grassland Water Built-Up Areas
Grain Green Fodder Other Plants Horticultural Plants Potatoes
Arable Land
Energy Forest
Fallow
Ley & Pasture Land Under Forest
Agricultural Land Bare Rock & Other
Mires Natural Grassland Water Built-Up Areas Land-uses in Västerbotten (Percentage)
Agricultural Land-uses in Västerbotten (Percentage)
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Self- Sufficiency
Urban Population Rural Population Life Expectancy at Birth Total Population
5.1m55
1900 = 0.5
1950
2,378,556
Agricultural Employees
Nine warehouses built to store food
Recommended that import goods should be stored in a limited number. Commodities should be stored for at least half a year’s consumption at normal peace-time levels.
RATIONING
Ordered to keep reserve staples for livelihoods and farms
Increased storage by 22,000 tons with warehouses in Norrland
Sweden went from full alert, and government-sponsored self-sufficiency to total elimination of stockpiles in six years.
This is interesting in a country that although no longer under threat from the Soviet Union, is so sparsely populated that many other, less geo-political
events could cause a severe food shortage if goods are not able to get from the south to the north.
The climate can be harsh and even the whole of Norrland has nowhere near the arable land area of Skåne county.
The “Just In Time” approach,
familiar from manufacturing and the supermarket delivery chain, is in marked contrast to Finland, for example, where the policy is still of state responsibility for the citizens’
nutrition in a time of national crisis.1
1 Information found on ‘The Swedish Statistics Yearbook’ 1990- 2014 (http://www.scb.se)
Over-confidence?
01. The Land
WWI WWII
1960 = 1
27
WWI WWII
Elk Killed
2000
Comparative Wages 1900 = 0.5
1960 = 1 2010 = 230
184,350 5m
1960 = 1
30,000 tons in warehouses in central and southern Sweden
Total stored food:
450,000 tons
Re-evaluation of threats, resulting in a
reduction of storage E.U. membership. New investment halted as E.U. provides security.
Stockpiles start to be sold off.
It is considered
“no longer appropriate” to stockpile.
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“In Sweden they have dis- covered that the optimal size of a farm with cattle and pigs is the family-sized farm... Bakeries are closing down large bread factories in favour of local bakeries.”
Bjørn Berge1
One side of the polarised global food debate argues that the best way to feed our rapidly growing population is to have fewer, larger and more efficient farms. This suggests that by being more ‘efficient’ there will be more food on the table. However, in this case the word
‘efficiency’ is misleading and there is plenty of evidence showing that in reality small farms, although maybe not ‘efficient’ in profit-making terms are actually producing more food we think. In Europe, in nine out of sixteen coun- ties ‘productivity on small farms is twice that of big farms’ according to a recent report pub- lished by GRAIN2 (May 2014).
In ‘The Ecology of Building Materials’ Bjørn
1 Berge, Bjørn. The Ecology of Building Mate- rials (New York : Taylor & Francis, 2009), p 54 2 GRAIN, http://www.grain.org/article/en- tries/4929-hungry-for-land-small-farmers-feed-the- world-with-less-than-a-quarter-of-all-farmland (May 2014)
Berge specifically mentions that this is the case in Sweden. “In Sweden they have discovered that the optimal size of a farm with cattle and pigs is the family-sized farm.”
The report published by GRAIN also reveals that contrary to popular belief small farms - which they’ve said on average are 2.2 Hectares - are “feeding the world”. They also point out is that although the majority of the food that the world actually eats are produced on small farms, this food is being grown on less than 25% of the world’s farmland.
This is also the case in Europe were 88.5% of the small farms own only 17.4% of the land.
What worries GRAIN is the rate at which these small farms are loosing land and dissapearing.
They say that between 2003 and 2010 six mil- lion farms were lost in Europe.
“In Western Europe, meanwhile, biased ag- ricultural policies coupled with large scale infrastructure, transportation and urbanisation projects have been taking a vicious toll. Large farms now represent less than 1% of all farms in the European Union as a whole, but control 20% of EU farmland. A recent report by the European Coordination of La Via Campesina and the Hands off the Land Alliance found that in the EU, farms of 100 hectares or more, which represent only 3% of the total number of farms, now control 50% of all farmed land.”
01. The Land
Economies of Scale
90% of the world’s farms exist on 25% of the world’s farmland
The Green sqaure shows the size of the world’s average ‘small’ farm (2.2Ha) on the footprint of Umeå.
lose the very basis of their existence, the world will lose
its capacity to feed itself”
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“One of the things that is most expensive for small- scale farmers is paying to store the food.”
___________________________________________________________
From a disscussion with Christina Hammarström, one of the founders of Umeå’s Farmer’s Market.
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Can not be stacked
Grains Beetroot Potato Kohlrabi Radish Swede Turnip Parsnip Carrots
Leeks Onions Beans Celery Herbs Peas Peppers Pears Strawberries Blueberries Tomatos
Fish Meat
Beetroot Potato Radish Swede Turnip Parsnip Carrots
Leeks
9-12months 9-12
months
Kohlrabi
9-12months
9-12months 9-12
months 9-12
months 9-12
months 9-12
months
9-12months Onions
9-12months Squash Cabbage Broccoili Brussel
Sprouts Cauliflower Apples
9-12months 6-9
months 2-3
months 3-6
months 3-4
months 9-12
months
Hung
Peas
2-4weeks
Celery
1-2weeks Summer
squash
2-4 weeks Green Tomatos
1-3 months
01. The Land
Storing food
Stored in a Root Cellar (1-100 ) Drying
10km 50km
Baggböle Gard
July June August
December
Febuary
March November
January
April
May Sep
October
Umeå
Familjen Hansens Charkuteri 2
Hagabröd bakery Jams
Älvåkerns Forslunda Gymnasiet Baggböle Gard
Torgny Berglund Nisses Conditori Bredvikens Fisk “Salteriet”
Haljegård ” Oxvikensgård Norumsfiskrokeri Eko Trädgård Gunnar
Mickelbogård Åbrånets Limousin
Glassbonden Fru Magdas Kamrose AB MaCo GröntÄlmeblads Bröd Åbrånets Limousin SwedFungi Hallnas Strömbergs Tunnbröd Kräkångers ekogård Goats Cheese Djuptjärn
This diagram shows what is being produced within a 100km radius of the city and by whom. I hope to continue the drawing so that it shows when in the year the produce is available - fresh and if
34
I first meet Arne Lindström in the Hansom and Hammer cafe, excited that such a busy person has enthusiastically agreed to come and talk to us. When Arne hears that we are from the UK, he tells us that he studied English Literature at Umeå University and one of his daughters now lives in London. On his visits, his favourite thing to do is to explore the food markets -his most cherished is the spectacular one in Borough.
He excitedly gets out his Iphone and shows us photographs of blobby-eyed fish and rails of cow carcasses hanging up ready to be loaded onto the stalls. We are already talking about food and it’s easy to continue.
Arne grew up in Röbäck, an expanding village a few km’s to the south-west of Umeå. Although historically Röbäck was an important farming village, not very many of the farms are active anymore. The majority of people who live there spend their time in the city and the newer parts feel more like suburb than a village in its own right.
Arne is an ideal person to talk to about the changing attitudes towards food and farming as his family have lived and run the same farm in Röbäck for over ten generations. He is full of stories about life since the 1500’s (escaping Christmas-dinner pigs, barley fights with his siblings...). He admits ‘I love the little secrets - I love my history!... “For every gravestone with
‘Röbäck’ on it - I know a story.” I ask him if his children share his interests, but he says no‘ they are interested in other things, its got to come from within you.”
Echoing his concerns that he expressed in a re- cent article in V.K Arne is worried that in Swe- den the majority of us are now so comfortable we are forgetting how vital agriculture and food are. “Why is Umeå here? Because this is where we can feed it!” he exclaims. Arne is the chair- man of the LRF, (the association of farmers) and seems to take on the tough job of trying to make people appreciate farming seriously, but also with a charismatic energy.
Arne Lindström
Hanson & Hammer 02.03.14
Photgraph: Sune Jonsson
“I was recently at a conference and a man asked
‘Does agriculture have a future?’ So I asked him
‘Do you have a future without agriculture?’ that shut him up!’
We discuss the strict regulations which seem to have got so costly and strict they block farmers from taking initiative. Sweden wants “more money for more controls... you can give so much money for controls that you will have no money left for food!” No wonder the Finnish are always asking ‘what can go wrong... What are you afraid of in Sweden?’
Arne seems to miss his dairy farm that he stopped running a few years ago. “My ancestors were very well-off to be able to live so close to Umeå.” The poorer farms lived further away from the city so had to bring cheese and butter to sell rather than milk. “It was the woman and children who brought the milk to their ‘milk places’ in Umeå everyday for 10am. In the win- ter they carried it in a container on the front of the sleigh.” I ask what they thought of his job and he tells us they were proud ‘it was a very important job!” Imagining the animals being walked in to be slaughtered and the children ar- riving with milk, Umeå sounds a very different city from today. Now food seems to just appear on the shop shelves as if by magic.
We ask him about his neighbours in Röbäck
‘Perhaps people 50 years ago would come and visit. Swedish people now, never just pop by.
Just the ‘foreigners.’ One of his favourite cus- tomers was a Palestinian man who came to his house to buy strangely large quantities of milk often. One day Arne asked the man ‘what do you need all this milkfor’ the next time he came:
“He brought a whole tradi- tional Palestinian breakfast with him! ‘Sheep’s cheese, bread... They had taken so much care to prepare the food... it was one of the best days of my life!’.
One of the problems with the supermarket shops is that they need to stock the same goods all year round so won’t buy seasonal produce from local farms. We ask him about the farmer’s market and other initiatives like Minfarm - a project set up with support from the LRF (The Federation of Swedish Farmers) that tries to make it easier for people to buy locally pro- duced food through an online ordering system.
“Minfarm, is a start but we also need something else.” We bring up the idea of a more permanent market. From our other discussions its obvious that farmer’s don’t have the time to come to a market everyday, but if there could be a way it was done for them it could work. Arne suddenly gets very excited, its obvious this is something that has been lingering at the back of his mind.
Pulling over a note book, we quickly hand him a pen. A rectangular room with different sections for the different farm’s produce, but with only one till. “Customers, pay at the till and then the money is split between the farmers.”.
“This is something that we have needed for a long time.
If you make a proposal, the LRF will back it!”
36Photograph taken on our visit to Hällnäs Handelsträdgård, Norrland Fieldtrip.
April 2014
38
01. The Land
Hinterland
Road Trip March 2014
Älmeblads Bröd
Kamrose AB Baggböle Gard
Glassbonden
Hällnäs Handelsträdgård Swedfungi AB
* * *
* *
*
Marstorp
*
Ekoringen
Nyttogården
*
*
Umeå
How are people farming in Våsterbotten?
In the last thirteen months I have visited four of the Case Study farms in this section. I have decided to include the other three farms, because I think they are interesting examples to learn from them and their different approaches help to illustrate the variety of farms that can be found in and around Väster- botten.
Out of all the farms that I’ve chosen to look at Hällnäs is the most commercial- ly oriented. By ‘commercially oriented’ I mean that decisions on how the farm is run are weighted heavily on economic factors - what will make the most profit for the company. Hällnäs is also by far the largest in terms of physical size, number of employees and annual turnover. It has also been running the longest, so has a more established relationship with the supermarkets.
Marstorp, Glassbonden Ice-Cream, Kamrose Berries AB and Nyttogården are all either family-run or mostly run by one person. These four farms are all relatively new (all have been set up in the last ten years) and set-up with the intention of operating ‘differently’ from conventional food production. The reasons for this choice are often environmental, reasons of taste and quality and because by being small the farmers have more control over the way that they work. Financially it is also easier to start a farm that requires less invest- ments in large amounts of land and equipment. Particularly in the ca se of Marstorp, the main reason to farm the way they do is because its enjoyable.
Much of this enjoyment comes from working with nature rather than against it, which is harder in conventional agriculture where working methods are geared towards speed and maximising profit at all costs.
Ekoringen was included because of its particular social agenda, although because it is a not-for-profit organisation that relies on funding and help from volunteers it can’t really be compared to the other farms, who need to make a livelihood from their work.
What strikes me in all of the cases is that each one is made possible because of a very particular set of conditions, so although we can learn from them it is not necessarily possible to apply their formula anywhere and get the same result.
Älmeblads Bröd Swedfungi AB
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Arne Lindström
Retired Dairy Farmer and regional manager of the LRF
Niklas Makie
Farmer, Nyttogården, Resele
Ingela Hansson
Farmer, Baggböle Gård, Baggböle
“I was recently at a con- ference and a man asked
‘Does agriculture have a future?’ So I asked him
‘Do you have a future without agriculture?’
that shut him up!... If you make a proposal, the LRF will back it!”
“I prefer to sell my products directly to groups of people like you.”
“Sweden needs 1,000,000 new farmers... Sweden needs to build a new type of [farm- ing] education!”
Information from my own conversations with farmers & food producers.
Kamala Karlsson Kamrose Berries AB.
Helena Ågren
Dairy Farmer & Ice-cream maker, Glassbonden.
Representative for small businesses in for the LRF Västerbotten.
Älmeblads Bröd Family-run bakery in Robertsfors
would enable me to expand my range of products and be able to employ a few of the skilled immigrant woman.”
money per loaf if we sold bread directly to customers. But then we would have to em- ploy someone to sell that bread...”
discussing the need for a permanent mar- ket for a long time, but no-one has the time or skills to actually make it happen!”
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Hällnäs Handelsträdgård AB
Salad Factory
Hällnäs, Sweden
http://www.hallnas.nu/index.php What? Hällnäshas been going since 1956
Who? Björn Isacsson inherited Hällnäs Handelsträdgård AB from his father who established the company. Björn now employs people to run the busi- ness side such as accountants and IT staff as well as Eastern Europeans who work in the greenhouses.
Where? An eighty hectare site on the edge of Hällnäs, 71kms north of Umeå. (80500m2).
Approach? Decisions, like basing the company in Lithuania seem to be based on maximising profit though in its marketing the company prides itself on its sustainable approach.
Conditions that make it possible
• As shown in the diagram on the opposite page, the current location of the factory means that the company has a lot of freedom to expand, buy houses etc. for its workers as the density in the this part of the country is so low.
Difficulties
• How long can a company that relies on cheap oil and a con- tinuous supply of empty houses remain profitable? Björn did say that he was thinking about starting to also grow crops more suited the environment like berries.
As part of the LIAI Norrland trip we visited Hällnäs Handelsträdgård, a company owned by Björn Isacsson that produces a range of salads, herbs and potted plants all year round. The scale of Hällnäs is huge compared to the other farms that I’ve been using as case studies and has over fifeteen industrial-sized greenhouses, that are supplied with energy-intensive artificial heat and light throughout most of the year.
Hällnäs products are a popular choice in the supermarkets, mostly I imagine because of their ‘local’ and ‘organic’ appeal. However, visiting their factory revealed another more ugly side. (This has been explored in detail by former LIAI student Audingas Sumskas ‘Norrlands Produc- tive Hinterland’ in 2012. )
Land, labour and electricity all come cheap in Hällnäs. In order to maximise profit Björn Isacsson has registered the company in Lith- uania meaning that not only does he minimise tax costs, but he can also employ Eastern Europeans willing to work for a higher wage than they would in their own country, but one that is very low compared to the Swedish minimum wage. According to Audingas, the workers are expected to work up to seventeen hours a day, with only one-and-a-half hours of break in total. As we saw on our visit, the work is physically demanding and workers are usually on their feet for most of that time.
Low demand for housing in the area means that house prices are so low that is more economical for Häll- näs to continually buy new houses rather than fix their existing ones for employees to live in.
Compared to the profit that Hällnäs makes, electricity is relatively cheap. This allows to heat and light the green- houses even when its -20 degrees outside and dark
Refridgerated lorries are used to transport Hällnäs produce long distances to where they are packaged and sold.
The staff that work in the greenhouses are all Eastern European (mostly from Lith- uainia). As the company is registered outside Sweden, Swedish regulations re- garding minimum pay, work hours etc. do not apply.
Cheap Housing Cheap Electricity Cheap Transportation Cheap labour
Low demand for land in the area means that Hällnäs is able to continually expand their business.
Cheap Land How to maximise profit?
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Umeå Marstorp
54km
“We did not so much move out of town we moved into a strong com- munity.”
Albin works full-time for most of the year as an Architect at Umeå municipality, but then during the summer goes part-time to work on setting up his family smallholding in Tvärålund that he bought a few years ago after some persuasion from his wife. He admits on his blog ‘Malstorp’ that he before moving to the country he’d not thought much about where his food came from, never mind actually producing food himself! However after experiencing the delight of digging up his first ‘small’ potato and getting help from his neigh- bours - ’things that seemed overwhelming... alone...was festive and easy when we did it with them.” - he’s become an enthusiastic and creative farmer producing everything from chillies in his basement to countless varieties of winter vegetables and kohlrabi. On his blog, he reflects on the delights and challenges of his experiences.
Highlights include making true friends with neighbours, enjoy- ing the bustle and chatter at their summer shop and now being almost food-self-sufficient. Things that seem to get in the way include strict regulations that make it hard to decide what is best in a certain situation. Albin sees it as more ethical to slaughter his pigs close to home, though if he wants to sell the meat he would required to transport them tens of miles to a registered slaughter house. Again, it seems clear that the current regulations are geared to favour large, corporate farms.
Part-time Farmer
Marstorp, Sweden
http://marstorp.albinholmgren.se/
What? Smallholding consisting of 2 acres of grassland, 7 pigs, chickens, vegetables and a small shop that sells spare harvest produce on Satur- day afternoons during the summer.
Who? Albin Holmgren and his family live on Malstorp but share pigs and run the shop business with their neighbours Clara and Jacob.
Where? A former 2 acre dairy farm, 54km inland from Umeå.
Approach? Setting up the farm has been a learning process - mainly experimenting, learning from neigh- bours and taking advice from books and movements like permaculture.
His farming isn’t primarily to make money, its more about improving the quality of his family’s life and being more food self-sufficient. Its important that the work is reward- ing, mostly through the satisfaction of working with nature enjoying the reflections and constant creative challenges.
Conditions that make it possible
• Doesn’t have to rely on a farming for main source of income
• Supportive and helpful
• neighbours
• Creativity, perseverance Difficulties
• The conflict between what Albin considers ethical and the de- mands of strict regulations.
Dreams for the future
• Expand the farm to include cows for dairy & sheep.
