Environmental performance of blue foods
Jessica A. Gephart,Patrik J. G. Henriksson,Patrik J. G. Henriksson,Patrik J. G. Henriksson,Robert W. R. Parker,Alon Shepon,Alon Shepon,Alon Shepon,Kelvin D. Gorospe,Kristina Bergman,Gidon Eshel,Christopher D. Golden,Benjamin S. Halpern,Sara Hornborg,Malin Jonell,Malin Jonell,Marc Metian,Kathleen Mifflin,Richard Newton,Peter Tyedmers,Wenbo Zhang,Friederike Ziegler,Max Troell,Max Troell +23 more
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In this article, the authors provide standardized estimates of greenhouse gas, nitrogen, phosphorus, freshwater and land stressors for species groups covering nearly three quarters of global production and find that across all blue foods, farmed bivalves and seaweeds generate the lowest stressors.Abstract:
Fish and other aquatic foods (blue foods) present an opportunity for more sustainable diets1,2. Yet comprehensive comparison has been limited due to sparse inclusion of blue foods in environmental impact studies3,4 relative to the vast diversity of production5. Here we provide standardized estimates of greenhouse gas, nitrogen, phosphorus, freshwater and land stressors for species groups covering nearly three quarters of global production. We find that across all blue foods, farmed bivalves and seaweeds generate the lowest stressors. Capture fisheries predominantly generate greenhouse gas emissions, with small pelagic fishes generating lower emissions than all fed aquaculture, but flatfish and crustaceans generating the highest. Among farmed finfish and crustaceans, silver and bighead carps have the lowest greenhouse gas, nitrogen and phosphorus emissions, but highest water use, while farmed salmon and trout use the least land and water. Finally, we model intervention scenarios and find improving feed conversion ratios reduces stressors across all fed groups, increasing fish yield reduces land and water use by up to half, and optimizing gears reduces capture fishery emissions by more than half for some groups. Collectively, our analysis identifies high-performing blue foods, highlights opportunities to improve environmental performance, advances data-poor environmental assessments, and informs sustainable diets. A range of environmental stressors are estimated for farmed and wild capture blue foods, including bivalves, seaweed, crustaceans and finfish, with the potential to inform more sustainable diets.read more
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Aquatic foods to nourish nations
Christopher D. Golden,J. Zachary Koehn,Alon Shepon,Alon Shepon,Alon Shepon,Simone Passarelli,Christopher M. Free,Daniel F. Viana,Daniel F. Viana,Holger Matthey,Jacob G. Eurich,Jessica A. Gephart,Etienne Fluet-Chouinard,Elizabeth A. Nyboer,Abigail J. Lynch,Marian Kjellevold,Sabri Bromage,Pierre Charlebois,Manuel Barange,Stefania Vannuccini,Ling Cao,Kristin M. Kleisner,Eric B. Rimm,Goodarz Danaei,Camille DeSisto,Heather Kelahan,Kathryn J. Fiorella,David C. Little,Edward H. Allison,Jessica Fanzo,Shakuntala H. Thilsted +30 more
TL;DR: In this article, a model that unifies terrestrial foods with nearly 3,000 aquatic foods to understand the future impact of aquatic foods on human nutrition is presented. And the authors show that an increase in aquatic animal-source food production could reduce the inadequate intake of most nutrients.
Journal ArticleDOI
Blue food demand across geographic and temporal scales.
Rosamond L. Naylor,Avinash Kishore,U. Rashid Sumaila,Ibrahim Issifu,Blaire P. Hunter,Ben Belton,Ben Belton,Simon R. Bush,Ling Cao,Stefan Gelcich,Jessica A. Gephart,Christopher D. Golden,Malin Jonell,Malin Jonell,Malin Jonell,J. Zachary Koehn,David C. Little,Shakuntala H. Thilsted,Michelle Tigchelaar,Beatrice Crona,Beatrice Crona +20 more
TL;DR: This article analyzed the role of economic, demographic, and geographic factors and preferences in shaping blue food demand, using secondary data from FAO and The World Bank, parameters from published models, and case studies at national to sub-national scales.
Journal ArticleDOI
The contribution of fisheries and aquaculture to the global protein supply
TL;DR: The contribution of aquatic animal protein to the global, animal-source protein supply and the relative importance of aquaculture to capture fisheries in supplying this protein is relevant in assessments and decisions related to the future of aquatic food production and its security as discussed by the authors .
Journal ArticleDOI
Estimating the environmental impacts of 57,000 food products
Michael Clark,Marco Springmann,Mike Rayner,Peter Scarborough,Jason Hill,David Tilman,Jennie I. Macdiarmid,Jessica Fanzo,Lauren Kate Bandy,Richard A Harrington +9 more
TL;DR: In this article , the authors used publicly available information to derive first estimates of the environmental impact of >57,000 food products across four indicators: greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water stress, and eutrophication potential.
Journal ArticleDOI
Can we quantify the aquatic environmental plastic load from aquaculture?
Yi Chao Tian,Zongyao Yang,Xueying Yu,Zhen Jia,Massimiliano Rosso,Simon Dedman,Jingmin Zhu,Yuxiang Xia,Guangping Zhang,Jiaqi Yang,Jingzhen Wang +10 more
TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors developed a framework for estimating plastic litter from aquaculture by combining data from satellite remote sensing, drones, questionnaires, and in situ measurements, and applied this framework to assess the marine plastic load from oyster floating raft farming in the Maowei Sea, a typical mariculture bay in China.
References
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