Organic food is produced in a way that strives towards maintaining and improving natural resources. The welfare of both producers and consumers is central, also taking both animals and the environment into account. The Swedish government finds this important and in 2006 they made a resolution that the consumption of organic food should be stimulated. The goal was that 25 % of the municipalities? consumption of food should be organic in 2010.The municipality of Ludvika reached the government's target in 2011 and is currently increasing their proportion of organic food by one new product every year.  Ludvika is a member of The National Association of Swedish Eco-municipalities and the town of Ludvika is also a Fairtrade city.

The organic farmland is increasing all the time and the goal is that 15 % of the Swedish farmland will be in organic production in year 2010. The organic production needs new and more effective ways to control weeds, and there is the row harrowing coming as a good complement to the conventional weed harrowing. In this experiment is weed harrowing whit different row spaces and row harrowing with a spacing of 25 cm compared. Then are the weed picked and the weight taken of them. The yield is compared in the 7 different ways of treatment. The results is not showing any significant differences in yield even when the row spacing is 25 cm instead of 12,5 cm. Even the spring wheat that is a sensitive crop and has bad tillering is doing well in this experiment. Now with modern technology where the row harrow is controlled by a camera that making the row harrow to follow the rows is it the soil coverage of the crop that is the limit for the speed. With wide machinery is the very good coverage even with a row harrow..

CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility, has become increasingly important in a globalised world where the responsibilities of companies and governments are somewhat blurry. The textile industry is an industry where long supply chains and raw material production in developing countries are factors adding to the complexity and difficulties of solving ethical issues. Cotton production faces many environmental, social and financial challenges in the value chain. Therefore this case study takes a closer look at five Nordic home textile companies, Ikea, Hemtex, S Group, Moko and Finlayson, and how these companies choose their cotton related CSR tools and communicate their work on this area. These companies are of various sizes and therefore the resources for CSR work are also different, as well as the perceived values for working with CSR.

Out of totally 1862 hectares of the Swedish fruitacerage, only 142 hectares are cultivated according to the EU-standards for organic farming. Only 73 hectares are connected to the Swedish control organisation KRAV. Therefore only fruit from this acreage can be sold as organic. The aim of the study was to further investigate the organic fruit production regarding cultivation, market and firm strategy. Through interviews with 36 fruitproducers the situation for organic fruit and the companies were examined.

To understand the motives, and perhaps more importantly the barriers, for farmers to convert from conventional to organic farming is of great interest for policy makers as well as for academics. In Sweden and in other EU countries, proposed targets of the area in organic farmland have failed to be reached in spite of different kinds of policy measures. Most studies agree that the average profitability seems to be comparable to or better in organic than in conventional farming. This would indicate that there must be other factors of importance which can explain the low particiapation rate. A higher perceived risk in organic farming with respect to yield and price is frequently brought up as a potential explanation within a qualitative framework.

Organic layers and broilers will according to (EEG) no 2092/91 be fed 100 % organic feeds in year 2012, which is expected to present problems associated with the specific protein requirements of poultry. This document aims at describing the feedstuffs that possibly may constitute a part of the solution to these problems. Peas, field beans, naked oats, canola, hempseed and sunflower come out as interesting feedstuffs. Biproducts from the milling and dairy industry together with marine protein supplements may be brought to the fore, provided that the demand for organic products will rise further..

In coastal wetlands carbon/organic matter can be stored for long periods of time thanks to, among other things, the presence of water which slows down the decomposition. Because of this, restauration and management of such habitats have the potential to decrease the emission of greenhouse gasses and help mitigate climate. Internationally these environments are called ?blue carbon? ecosystems. In Sweden, alder (Alnus glutinosa and Alnus incanata) covered wetlands along the coast is a nature type that potentially could function as a ?blue carbon? habitat.

Syftet med undersökningen är att undersöka, beskriva och analysera kring hur vida det finns ett bra substitut till bomull. Undersökningen kommer att belysa hur marknaden ser ut i dag och vilka material som används. Vidare utreds parametrarna funktion, kundnytta och hållbarhet, som kan komma att spela roll i valet av material för producenter av yrkeskläder. I dagsläget finns det inget solklart val av material som skulle kunna mäta sig med bomullen gällande de parametrarna som uppsatsen tar upp. Vad man väljer att använda istället för bomull beror mycket på hur företagen väljer att fokusera gällande just funktion, kundnytta och hållbarhet.

This study examines how farmers certified by KRAV face proposed regulations on organic soils put forward by KRAV economic association among others, and how they are affected economically. These soils are, from an environmental perspective, interesting as a target for production regulations as they cause greenhouse gas emissions through decomposition of organic material when cultivated. The regulations advocate that organic soils should be grown with pasture where soil cultivation is only allowed every fith year which implies that possible adjustments of cultivation have to be made in order to fulfill the regualtions. Collection of data have been made through a questionnaire sent out to 574 farmers certified by KRAV. The answers have been analysed using a decision making model and statistical findings suggest that proportion of organic soils, type of production, economic conditions and farmers? goals and values have an influence on whether the regulations and potential cultivation adjustments have been considered or not.

Title: Food companies' work with CSR and its impact on consumer purchases of organic productsLevel: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business AdministrationAuthor: Maria Nilsson and Mikaela JaredalSupervisor: Agneta SundströmDate: June 2015Aim: The study aims to understand and describe how food chains affect consumer choice to buy organic food and how it affects their buying behaviour.Method: Firstly a qualitative study was conducted. It consisted of six semi-structured interviews with store managers and employees on Willys and Coop in Sala and in Nyköping. Secondly a quantitative study was performed in the form of a questionnaire with 80 consumers in Willys and Coop stores located in Sala and Nyköping.Result & Conclusions: We have seen that price is important when consumers decide whether to buy organic food or not. This has been noticed by the food chains who work actively with being able to offer organic food at lower prices. Other factors that affect the consumers choice to buy organic products are offers, displaying and advertising.

This paper evaluates the prospects for utilizing aquaculture effluents as a nutrient source in organic hydroponic, as is the case in aquaponics. The development of organic hydroponics is dependent on replacing synthetic fertilizers with organically derived nutrients, such as those found in aquaculture effluents. Also, in hydroponic cultivation the establishment of a plant pathogen suppressive micro flora is part of the plant protection strategy. Therefore, both nutritional and microbial qualities of aquaculture water and organic hydroponic nutri-ent solution were analyzed and compared. Results showed both aquaculture water and or-ganic hydroponic solution to be deficient in a number of essential elements, although or-ganic hydroponic solution was closer to recommendations.

With a starting point in the legislation for organic production set up by the Swedishcertification organization KRAV, the reasons to why these regulations are important isexplained and how pigs are affected by these rules. The study also shows how well the pigscope in the organic environment considering the origin of the genetic material; from theconventional pig population. The conclusion is that pigs do function fairly well in the organicproduction environment and the traits affecting their functionality involve: motheringabilities, strong legs, good meat quality, good sow durability and longevity, capacity to eatmuch roughage and dark skin color. There are however still many ways of improving theorganic population of pigs to make them more adjusted to the organic environment; forexample different traits brought into the breeding goals and the choice of good parent animals..

The behaviour of consumers has changed rapidly during the last decade, and a healthy lifestyle and an environmental mindset has become part of everyday life. This is also something that has become prominent in the supermarkets, where the organic products are increasingly winning shelf space. Several consumer behaviour studies have shown that the attitudes towards organic products and labels are predominantly positive. According to traditional marketing theory, these kind of attitudes should affect consumers? purchase intentions in a positive manner, as well as the actual purchase behavior.

The aim of this thesis is to discuss and analyse the American cotton subsidies? effect on the world market in general and developing countries in particular. The amount of U.S. subsidies is substantial compared to most other countries, but a great deal of the effect is due to the USA?s significant share of the market.

This study includes a life cycle assessment, LCA, on an ecological produced cotton shirt for the company Reflective Circle, which designs ethical and ecological clothes.Initially were cotton farming and textile production studied to gather basic knowledge about the processes. Since this shirt is being ecological produced in the whole production chain, we studied what an ecological production means, but also how a conventional production works. When this was done we could start to discuss the differences and similarities between the production of the shirt and general conventional production.When the LCA was first initiated, the main focus was on the green house gas emissions from the manure at the cultivation. Thereafter the process steps such as picking, ginning, carding, spinning, weaving and sewing were being studied. The picking is done by hand, but the rest of the processes are handed by machines which consumes energy.