Local Seal or Imported Meat? Sustainability Evaluation of Food Choices in Greenland, Based on Life Cycle Assessment
Achieving a sustainable global food chain is becoming particularly acute as modern Western diets are adopted in a growing number of countries and cultures around the world. Understanding the consequences that this shift has on health and sustainability is important. This exploratory study is the fir...
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MDPI AG
2021
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:63b9594d5a6b49228763d40d7628efa4 2023-05-15T16:27:36+02:00 Local Seal or Imported Meat? Sustainability Evaluation of Food Choices in Greenland, Based on Life Cycle Assessment Friederike Ziegler Katarina Nilsson Nette Levermann Masaana Dorph Bjarne Lyberth Amalie A. Jessen Geneviève Desportes 2021-05-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10061194 https://doaj.org/article/63b9594d5a6b49228763d40d7628efa4 EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/10/6/1194 https://doaj.org/toc/2304-8158 doi:10.3390/foods10061194 2304-8158 https://doaj.org/article/63b9594d5a6b49228763d40d7628efa4 Foods, Vol 10, Iss 1194, p 1194 (2021) Greenland greenhouse gas emissions hunting life cycle assessment livestock seal Chemical technology TP1-1185 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10061194 2022-12-31T05:28:58Z Achieving a sustainable global food chain is becoming particularly acute as modern Western diets are adopted in a growing number of countries and cultures around the world. Understanding the consequences that this shift has on health and sustainability is important. This exploratory study is the first to apply the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology to analyze the sustainability implication of ongoing dietary shifts in Greenland, where locally hunted seal meat is increasingly being replaced by imported livestock products, primarily pig and poultry produced in Denmark. This dietary shift, indirectly driven by international trade bans such as the EU seal product ban, has sustainability implications. To inform and support more comprehensive analyses and policy discussions, this paper explores the sustainability of these parallel Greenlandic food supply chains. A quantitative comparison of the greenhouse gas emissions of Greenlandic hunted seal and Danish pig and poultry is complemented by a qualitative discussion of nutrition, cultural food preferences, animal welfare, and the use of land, pesticides and antibiotics. Although the variability in the life cycle inventory data collected from Greenlandic hunters was considerable, greenhouse gas emissions of seal meat were consistently lower than those of imported livestock products. Emissions of the latter are dominated by biogenic emissions from feed production and manure management, while these are absent for seal meat, whose emissions instead are dominated by fossil fuel use. The implications of these results for sustainable national food policies in a modern global context as well as important areas for additional research are discussed. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland greenlandic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Greenland Foods 10 6 1194 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Greenland greenhouse gas emissions hunting life cycle assessment livestock seal Chemical technology TP1-1185 |
spellingShingle |
Greenland greenhouse gas emissions hunting life cycle assessment livestock seal Chemical technology TP1-1185 Friederike Ziegler Katarina Nilsson Nette Levermann Masaana Dorph Bjarne Lyberth Amalie A. Jessen Geneviève Desportes Local Seal or Imported Meat? Sustainability Evaluation of Food Choices in Greenland, Based on Life Cycle Assessment |
topic_facet |
Greenland greenhouse gas emissions hunting life cycle assessment livestock seal Chemical technology TP1-1185 |
description |
Achieving a sustainable global food chain is becoming particularly acute as modern Western diets are adopted in a growing number of countries and cultures around the world. Understanding the consequences that this shift has on health and sustainability is important. This exploratory study is the first to apply the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology to analyze the sustainability implication of ongoing dietary shifts in Greenland, where locally hunted seal meat is increasingly being replaced by imported livestock products, primarily pig and poultry produced in Denmark. This dietary shift, indirectly driven by international trade bans such as the EU seal product ban, has sustainability implications. To inform and support more comprehensive analyses and policy discussions, this paper explores the sustainability of these parallel Greenlandic food supply chains. A quantitative comparison of the greenhouse gas emissions of Greenlandic hunted seal and Danish pig and poultry is complemented by a qualitative discussion of nutrition, cultural food preferences, animal welfare, and the use of land, pesticides and antibiotics. Although the variability in the life cycle inventory data collected from Greenlandic hunters was considerable, greenhouse gas emissions of seal meat were consistently lower than those of imported livestock products. Emissions of the latter are dominated by biogenic emissions from feed production and manure management, while these are absent for seal meat, whose emissions instead are dominated by fossil fuel use. The implications of these results for sustainable national food policies in a modern global context as well as important areas for additional research are discussed. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Friederike Ziegler Katarina Nilsson Nette Levermann Masaana Dorph Bjarne Lyberth Amalie A. Jessen Geneviève Desportes |
author_facet |
Friederike Ziegler Katarina Nilsson Nette Levermann Masaana Dorph Bjarne Lyberth Amalie A. Jessen Geneviève Desportes |
author_sort |
Friederike Ziegler |
title |
Local Seal or Imported Meat? Sustainability Evaluation of Food Choices in Greenland, Based on Life Cycle Assessment |
title_short |
Local Seal or Imported Meat? Sustainability Evaluation of Food Choices in Greenland, Based on Life Cycle Assessment |
title_full |
Local Seal or Imported Meat? Sustainability Evaluation of Food Choices in Greenland, Based on Life Cycle Assessment |
title_fullStr |
Local Seal or Imported Meat? Sustainability Evaluation of Food Choices in Greenland, Based on Life Cycle Assessment |
title_full_unstemmed |
Local Seal or Imported Meat? Sustainability Evaluation of Food Choices in Greenland, Based on Life Cycle Assessment |
title_sort |
local seal or imported meat? sustainability evaluation of food choices in greenland, based on life cycle assessment |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10061194 https://doaj.org/article/63b9594d5a6b49228763d40d7628efa4 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland greenlandic |
genre_facet |
Greenland greenlandic |
op_source |
Foods, Vol 10, Iss 1194, p 1194 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/10/6/1194 https://doaj.org/toc/2304-8158 doi:10.3390/foods10061194 2304-8158 https://doaj.org/article/63b9594d5a6b49228763d40d7628efa4 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10061194 |
container_title |
Foods |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
1194 |
_version_ |
1766016996759044096 |