Towards sustainable food systems

QC 20260930

Abstract

Hunger, climate change and biodiversity loss are among the largest global challenges of our time. These challenges are also deeply interlinked as the production of food is a major driver of climate change and biodiversity loss and the climate and biodiversity crisis in turn threatens food production. Two essential strategies to tackle these challenges are improving the efficiency of food production and shifting food consumption towards foods with low environmental footprint and high nutritional quality. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method widely used to compare the environmental impacts of foods and production methods and is therefore an important tool to guide these actions. Yet, many foods and production methods have not been evaluated in LCAs and in addition, approaches for assessing effects on global sustainability challenges such as aquatic biodiversity impacts from foods are largely missing.

The aim of this thesis was therefore to contribute to more comprehensive sustainability assessments of food systems by evaluating the environmental performance of underexplored seafood products and by exploring opportunities to better capture biodiversity impacts in LCAs of seafood and other food products.

Papers 1 and 2 focused on two underexplored seafood products: seaweed farmed at a commercially relevant scale and in a region representative of global production, and single cell protein as a novel fish feed ingredient. Both were found to generally have lower environmental impacts than other comparable foods or protein feed ingredients and to have potential to reduce impacts further through identified improvement actions.

Paper 1 found that existing LCA biodiversity methods were inadequate for capturing the impacts of seaweed aquaculture. Papers 2 and 4 revealed new sustainability perspectives by including rarely assessed biodiversity impacts, showing that this addition can change outcomes and shift hotspots. Paper 3 provided a comprehensive overview of biodiversity concerns and available LCA assessment methods for seafood and found that aquatic biodiversity impacts remained largely overlooked in LCAs due to both current LCA practice and methodological gaps. Papers 3 and 4 identified key methodological gaps and hurdles for biodiversity-inclusive diet evaluations and offered recommendations for improved LCA practice and future research priorities. 

In conclusion, the findings of this thesis can contribute to more efficient seafood production and more comprehensive food and diet evaluations that take into account additional foods and aspects of sustainability, thereby enabling more well-informed interventions towards a sustainable food system.

Link to DiVA