Environmental impacts of plant-based salmonid diets at feed and farm scales

• Published in: Aquaculture
• Main Authors: Boissy, Joachim, Aubin, Joël, Drissi, Abdeljalil, van Der Werf, Hayo, Bell, Gordon, Kaushik, Sadasivam
• Other Authors: Sol Agro et hydrosystème Spatialisation (SAS), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-AGROCAMPUS OUEST, Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, Nutrition, Aquaculture et Génomique (NUAGE), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), This work was funded by the EU FP6 Aquamax project. The authors gratefully thank Yann Marchand (Le Gouessant cooperative), Francisco Frindt (Viviers de France SA.) and industry contacts for data and advice. We also thank the team members of the INRA LCA research group (UMR SAS, Rennes, France) for their helpful collaboration.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2011
• Subjects: environmental impact; life cycle assessment; vegetable feed; vegetable protein; marine and freshwater biology; fisheries; trout; salmon; vegetable; food intake; truite; saumon; légume; alimentation; impact de l'environnement; [SDV.SA.STP]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Agricultural sciences/Sciences and technics of fishery; Norway; Atlantic salmon; Salmo salar
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01460925; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2011.08.033

The environmental consequences of replacing fish meal and fish oil with plant-based sources in salmonid feeds were investigated using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Two scenarios of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) farming were compared. The first scenario used a Standard Diet (STD) with high levels of fish meal and fish oil, and the second a Low Marine-Fishery-Capture Diet (LFD) in which fish meal and fish oil were replaced by plant protein and oil sources. Environmental impacts assessed were: acidification, eutrophication, climate change, terrestrial ecotoxicity, net primary production use (biotic resource use), water use, land occupation and total cumulative energy demand. The assessment confirmed the substantial contribution of feed to the environmental burdens of fish production and the LFD scenario led to a significant decrease in biotic resource use compared to the STD scenario with the same total energy demand. Environmental impacts of feeds depended highly on the geographic origins of feed ingredients from fishery (e.g., fish oil from Norway or Peru) and from terrestrial agricultural crop species (e.g., palm oil or rapeseed oil). This study demonstrated the importance of a multicriteria method to give stakeholders the most accurate information on the potential consequences of replacing fishery products with plant-based sources in aquafeeds.