Food Preparedness and Total Defence – SLU’s Role in a Changing Global Landscape

Campus Total Defence is a strategic collaboration between Swedish universities, aimed at strengthening Sweden’s total defence through research and education. The initiative seeks to enhance collaboration across academia in areas related to total defence, and to contribute the knowledge required to address the many challenges we face.

The increasingly uncertain global situation has brought renewed focus to the need to build resilience and preparedness in times of crisis, both nationally and internationally. The programme for the coming days is certainly compelling, featuring discussions and presentations on topics such as how to safeguard academic freedom in a geopolitically unstable world, how Swedish universities can build resilient operations, and how higher education institutions can respond to emerging needs within total defence.

SLU is primarily engaged in CTF’s thematic area “Food Supply Preparedness”, and within SLU, the Future Food platform acts as a hub connecting CTF with researchers. The valuable expertise that SLU holds in these areas has recently been highlighted through the latest call for Strategic Research Areas (SFO), administered by the Swedish Research Council. SLU was awarded an SFO within the field of “Crisis Preparedness and Total Defence” for a project entitled “Prepared for Food Crisis (BeReady)”, coordinated by researchers from the NJ Faculty.

To say that food supply and crisis preparedness are pressing issues would be something of an understatement. We are living in a time when fuel prices are soaring and access to mineral fertilisers has become a tangible threat to Swedish agriculture. At the same time, the ongoing international crisis has underscored just how vulnerable our society becomes when energy supplies and critical transport systems are disrupted. This highlights the importance of building sustainable and resilient food systems across the country. Here, it is essential that SLU contributes the knowledge and expertise of our researchers in several key areas that are vital to strengthening sustainable food systems and improving food security throughout Sweden.

Another important aspect in this context is skills provision and education. To meet future needs in food preparedness and sustainable production systems, we must ensure that our educational programmes remain relevant, attractive, and closely aligned with societal challenges. There is significant potential to further integrate issues such as crisis preparedness, resilience, and sustainability into our programmes, as well as to strengthen collaboration with industry and public authorities. Overall, SLU is well positioned, but continued collaboration, long-term commitment, and a clear focus on the societal challenges where our expertise can make the greatest impact will be essential.

Pelle Ingvarsson, Deputy Dean at the NJ Faculty