Master thesis: Crisis diet - what do we eat in a crisis situation and how does it affect agriculture and the environment?

For a long time, Sweden had preparedness plans for agriculture and the food system, and crisis diets were developed, i.e. plans and advice about how to produce food and what to eat in the event of a crisis or war. Swedish preparedness was to a large extent dismantled during the 1990s, but the issue has now become relevant again, as the climate crisis, the covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine have highlighted the vulnerability of the Swedish food supply system. Last year, for example, the Länsstyrelsen published the book ”Mat härifrån - recept för vardag och krisberedskap”.

How is the food production and consumption affected in a crisis - what can we produce, and what is the production capacity in relation to the nutritional needs of the population? What should a crisis diet look like, considering what we can produce in a crisis, the environmental impact and the nutritional composition? How much imported mineral fertilizers is needed to produce an emergency diet for the Swedish population?

Who are you?

We are looking for a student who wants to help us sort out one or more of these questions in a master's thesis. The orientation of the work can be partially adapted to your educational background and interests. A a cross-disciplinary orientation, for example in nutrition, environmental science, agriculture, and/or food is an advantage.

Some calculations will be included, so you should master Excel or a programming language such as R or Python. You can choose to write in Swedish or English. The work will include reading about past and present crisis preparedness, and it is therefore highly advantageous if you can read Swedish.