Torsåker Farm

Torsåker Farm is Axfoundation’s center for future food. Here we aim to help accelerate the transition to sustainable food systems, for the sake of the climate, the environment and public health. Together with researchers and practitioners, we take on complex challenges and develop concrete solutions – both in the fields and in the water, as well as in Ladugården’s (“the Barn’s”) test kitchens, restaurant kitchen and bakery.

From soil to soil

At Torsåker Farm, we evaluate sustainable farming and aquaculture methods, test-grow both new and old crops, identify waste streams to create circular solutions, and take the results straight from the fields and water to processing in Ladugården’s test kitchens, restaurant kitchen and bakery. Here we can pressure test new ideas and remove infrastructural obstacles, before the solution is scaled up. The ambition is to increase the pace of sustainable food innovation.

Sustainable food systems

The global production and consumption of food drastically affects the climate, the environment and human health. We eat far beyond the planetary boundaries. To safeguard our food supply, more initiatives are needed that make concrete contributions to the transition to sustainable food systems.

Practical innovation

At Torsåker Farm, actors from throughout the food chain – researchers, farmers, fishermen, processors, chefs, entrepreneurs, and trade and wholesaler representatives – meet to exchange knowledge and engage in practical innovation. As an independent and non-profit organization, Axfoundation brings together both industry and academia to jointly test-grow, breed, refine and develop new methods, new foods and new meals. Our only competitor is the unsustainable production and consumption of food.

About Torsåker Farm

Torsåker Farm is a test farm and a practical center for the sustainable food systems of the future. The farm is located in Upplands Väsby, about 30 km north of Stockholm, Sweden. It comprises:

  • Fields, meadows, woodlands, and an experimental garden for open field cultivation
  • Ladugården, with four test kitchens, a restaurant kitchen, a bakery, packaging facilities,
    and a seminar room

At Torsåker Farm, projects are run together with researchers and practitioners. For this reason, the farm is not open to the public.

”We hope that Torsåker Farm will be a catalyst that contributes to the development of future food through knowledge transfer and sustainable innovations in everything from primary production to consumption.” – Madeleine Linins Mörner, Program Director for Future Food, Axfoundation

At Torsåker Farm, researchers are given the opportunity to conduct practical tests in the fields together with farmers. For example, Axfoundation and SLU is currently adapting and refining perennial wheat at Torsåker farm, for cultivation in a northern climate.

At Torsåker Farm, researchers are given the opportunity to conduct practical tests in the fields together with farmers. For example, Axfoundation and SLU is currently adapting and refining perennial wheat at Torsåker farm, for cultivation in a northern climate.

In the fields

Torsåker Farm has fields, woodlands and an experimental garden for open field cultivation. This gives us the opportunity to practically test methods, techniques and crops that contribute to a sustainable transformation of agriculture. Together with practitioners and researchers, we evaluate, for example , sustainable cultivation methods with a low climate impact, test cultivation techniques for increased biodiversity, and experiment with new and old crops to contribute to a Swedish protein shift. Torsåker Farm also conducts research aimed at developing perennial crops for a Nordic climate.

Torsåker Farm develops attractive, sustainable and nutritious seafood products. For example, a production chain for underutilized fish species has been developed, the result of which is a minced bream product made from bycatch from Swedish lakes.

Torsåker Farm develops attractive, sustainable and nutritious seafood products. For example, a production chain for underutilized fish species has been developed, the result of which is a minced bream product made from bycatch from Swedish lakes.

In the water

To contribute to a blue protein shift, Axfoundation is running several seafood projects with researchers, fishermen and fish farmers. At Torsåker Farm, we then evaluate the results together with chefs and entrepreneurs, with the aim of developing attractive, sustainable and nutritious seafood products that suit people’s everyday lives. Axfoundation has for example collaborated with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences to develop a pilot-scale infrastructure to convert vegetable-based waste streams into a high-protein feedstock for farmed fish. The result is Sweden’s first green rainbow trout, bred on a circular-based feed made mainly of insects raised on a diet of food waste.

The test kitchen operations enable innovators to make the leap from sustainable idea  to finished solution. For example, tests are currently being conducted in the kitchens to examine how we can tap into the potential of unused waste streams from the food industry and contribute to circular solutions.

The test kitchen operations enable innovators to make the leap from sustainable idea to finished solution. For example, tests are currently being conducted in the kitchens to examine how we can tap into the potential of unused waste streams from the food industry and contribute to circular solutions.

In the test kitchens of Ladugården

Ladugården at Torsåker Farm houses four test kitchens, a restaurant kitchen, a bakery, and packaging facilities. The test kitchens are Axfoundation’s innovation arena, providing practical support for researchers and entrepreneurs from throughout the food chain. The goal of the test kitchen operations is to sow the seeds for the sustainable, nutritious and tasty foods of the future and make it possible to evaluate solutions in practice before they are scaled up. Our ambition is to work together to accelerate sustainable food innovation.

The Innovation Support provides access to Torsåker Farm’s test kitchens and is designed to help further develop your sustainable innovation.

The Innovation Support provides access to Torsåker Farm’s test kitchens and is designed to help further develop your sustainable innovation.

Innovation Support for Sustainable Solutions

At Torsåker Farm we also offer practical innovation support to entrepreneurs and researchers who want to further develop innovative, transformative solutions within sustainable food systems or related areas. A prerequisite for the support is that your innovation has the potential to positively contribute to a more sustainable society, locally and/or globally. Learn more at axfoundation.se/en/innovation-support

“We want to help more sustainable, tasty and nutritious products and meals find their way onto grocery store shelves and restaurants. We believe in raising the bar for all the foods we consume, and exploring innovations that work in ordinary people’s everyday lives.” – Anna Henning Moberg, Manager for Project Development and Test Kitchen Operations at Torsåker Farm

Initiatives at Torsåker farm

Updates from Torsåker farm

Contact

Want to know more about Torsåker Farm? Contact one of us who works with the Future Food program and with the operation on the farm.