Cows, trees and flights

When growing up in Sweden in the 1980s, the dairy industry was very visible in otherwise non-commercial schools, indoctrinating kids into believing that consuming large amounts of cold cow’s milk was absolutely essential for their health. Despite the dubious scientific basis, the message was remarkably successful in presenting a particular commercial interest as neutral, almost self-evident, public-health advice.

Something similar seems to have happened in Swedish forest politics. It is surprising to what extent the forest-industrial complex has been able to cast itself as an apolitical force for environmental protection, rather than as an industry with obvious material interests in how forests are managed and used. Despite the increasing polarization of forest politics, the industry’s own vision of intensive forestry, continued harvesting and expanding biomass use is still routinely presented not as one contested political position among others, but as an almost natural contribution to the green transition. This was particularly striking today at the Bio+ conference in Stockholm, where several of the projects presented were funded directly by the forest industry.

Now at Pontus on my way back to Halmstad, I have picked up Lisa Röstlund’s Skogslandet: en granskning from 2022, which examines precisely some of these relationships between the forest industry, science, public authorities and politics. Röstlund approaches Swedish forestry from a clearly critical perspective, but the book seems particularly interesting for its attempt to understand how certain claims about forests and sustainability have acquired scientific and political authority. Given today’s conference, it feels like timely reading as I wait for my biofueled flight (yes, I am once again buying biofuels for my flights, more on that in another post) down to Halland.