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September 4, 2012
Eutrophication impacts of the food chain on the Baltic Sea
Yrjö Virtanen, Senior Research Scientist, MTT
FOODWEB -Baltic environment, food and health: from habits to awareness
2 Ecological impacts of the food chain on the Baltic Sea – How much and and why ? September 4, 2012
© MTT Agrifood Research Finland
Ecological impacts of the food chain
• Resource appropriation (land, abiotic and biotic resources)
• Emissions to air and water, climate change, acidification,
tropospheric ozone formation, stratospheric ozone depletion,
eutrophication, human health impacts, ecotoxic impacts
• Genetic impacts
• Changes in eco-system balances, biodiversity effects, human
health and welfare effects, evolution effects
3 Ecological impacts of the food chain on the Baltic Sea – How much and and why ? September 4, 2012
© MTT Agrifood Research Finland
Eutrophication impacts of the food chain - eutrophication
• A major problem in the Baltic Sea – expert evaluation of the
relative importance at about the same level as that of the
climate change impact (26%/30%) for Finland
• A state where high nutrient concentrations stimulate the growth
of algae, which leads to imbalanced functioning of the system.
• Algal blooms, slime formation, increase in water turbidity,
accelerated oxygen depletion
• Nitrogen and phosphorus loads are the main cause of the
eutrophication in the Baltic Sea
• Atmospheric deposition (NOx and NH3) contribute about 25%
4 Ecological impacts of the food chain on the Baltic Sea – How much and and why ? September 4, 2012
© MTT Agrifood Research Finland
Relative importances of different
environmental impact categories for Finland
Source: Nissinen, A., Grönroos, J., Heiskanen, E., Honkanen, A., Katajajuuri, J.-M., Kettunen, J., Kurppa, S., Mäkinen, T., Seppälä, J., Silvenius,
F., Timonen, P., Virtanen, Y., Voutilainen, P. 2005. Development of benchmarking for the environmental impacts of different products, services and
consumption patterns. In: Sustainable Consumption: The Contribution of Research, Workshop 10-12 February 2005, Gabels Hus, Oslo, p. 98-114.
Norwegian University for Science and Technology (NTNU), Industrial Ecology program, Report 1/2005, Trondheim, Norway. ISBN 82-7948-046-3.
Climate cahnge
30%
Eutrophication
26%
Primary energy
consumption
18%
Acidification
16%
Tropospheric ozone
formation
10%
5 Ecological impacts of the food chain on the Baltic Sea – How much and and why ? September 4, 2012
© MTT Agrifood Research Finland
Eutrophication impacts of the food chain – Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIOLCA) model
• Belongs to the family of Materials Flow Analysis (MFA) models
• Is a systematic approach used to explore how materials appear in
economic systems, and how they affect the environment
• Constitutes of the internal relationships of the economic system and
its interrelations with the environment
6 Ecological impacts of the food chain on the Baltic Sea – How much and and why ? September 4, 2012
© MTT Agrifood Research Finland
Eutrophication impacts of the food chain
– Flow chart of the food chain model
Imports of
industries
End-use of
domestic
production
End-use of
imports
End-use
Imports of
end-use
Domestic
production
Food chain Boundary condition
7 Ecological impacts of the food chain on the Baltic Sea – How much and and why ? September 4, 2012
© MTT Agrifood Research Finland
Eutrophication impacts of the food chain – Of
the domestic total of the national economy (Finland)
Impact Food chain Other economyFormation of troposhrecic ozone 24% 76%Acidification 20% 80%Climate cahnge 14% 86%Eutrophication 57% 43%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Formation of
tropospheric ozone
Acidification Climate change Eutrophication
Other economy
Food chain
8 Ecological impacts of the food chain on the Baltic Sea – How much and and why ? September 4, 2012
© MTT Agrifood Research Finland
Eutrophication impacts of the food chain
– Total, domestic and imported (Finland)
Environmental impacts of the food chain (Finland)
Impact Domestic Imports TotalTropospheric ozone formation 37 (68%) 17 (32%) 55 Milj. person ppm hour
Acidification 18 (61%) 12 (39%) 30 Milj. AEeq
Climate change 9108 (61%) 5814 (39%) 14922 Milj. kg CO2 eq
Eutrophication 23 (61%) 14 (39%) 37 Milj. kg PO4- eq
Per person and day
Tropospheric ozone formation 0.019 0.009 0.028 person ppm hour
Acidification 0.009 0.006 0.015 AEeq
Climate change 4.7 3.0 7.7 kg CO2 eq
Eutrophication 0.012 0.007 0.019 kg PO4- eq
9 Ecological impacts of the food chain on the Baltic Sea – How much and and why ? September 4, 2012
© MTT Agrifood Research Finland
Eutrophication impacts of the food chain
– By loads (Finland)
NOx
1%NH3
4%
Ptot
31%
Ntot
64%
Load 1000 kg/year
NH3 23548
NOx 17912
Ntot 34679
Ptot 2321
10 Ecological impacts of the food chain on the Baltic Sea – How much and and why ? September 4, 2012
© MTT Agrifood Research Finland
Eutrophication impacts of the food chain
– By product groups (Finland)
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
Gra
in
Cate
ring a
nd b
ar
serv
ices
Beer
and
bevera
ges
Milk
Meat
Vegeta
ble
s
Fis
h
Fru
its a
nd
berr
ies
Alc
ohol
Oth
er
1000 k
g P
O4-
eq
Import transports
Import manufacture
Domestic
11 Ecological impacts of the food chain on the Baltic Sea – How much and and why ? September 4, 2012
© MTT Agrifood Research Finland
Eutrophication impacts of the food chain
– Per kg of raw material (Finland, Estonia, Latvia)
Finland Estonia Latvia
Beef 51.5 61.9 60.5
Pork 15.4 17.5 12.7
Poultry 7.1 8.0 6.0
Eggs 16.1 18.3 13.3
Milk 3.3 3.9 3.9
Cereals 5.0 5.7 4.0
Potato 0.7 0.7 0.8
NOTE: Values are computed with the Finnish food chain model (KETJUVASTUU). Estonian and
Latvian values are thus rough estimates.
12 Ecological impacts of the food chain on the Baltic Sea – How much and and why ? September 4, 2012
© MTT Agrifood Research Finland
Eutrophication impacts of the food chain
– Options to reduce them?
1) Change the diet, choose foodstuffs of lower eutrophication
intensity
2) Reduce the eutrophication intensity of the food raw materials
3) Increase the consumption of the imported foodstuff
13 Ecological impacts of the food chain on the Baltic Sea – How much and and why ? September 4, 2012
© MTT Agrifood Research Finland
Eutrophication impacts of the food chain
– Change the diet
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
0.40
0.50
Vegetables
Protein foodsCarbihydrate foods
2006 average
Food plate model
Eutrophication
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
2006 average Food plate model
1000 t
n P
O4 e
q
Climate change
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
2006 average Food plate model
1000 t
n C
O2 e
q
14 Ecological impacts of the food chain on the Baltic Sea – How much and and why ? September 4, 2012
© MTT Agrifood Research Finland
Eutrophication impacts of the food chain – Reduce the eutrophication intensity of the raw materials
Average nitrogen run-off intensity
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
2006 2007 2008 2009
Year
g/k
g, g
rain
Average phosphorus run-off intensity
0.00
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.10
2006 2007 2008 2009
Year
g/k
g, g
rain
15 Ecological impacts of the food chain on the Baltic Sea – How much and and why ? September 4, 2012
© MTT Agrifood Research Finland
Eutrophication impacts of the food chain
– Increase the consumption of the imported foodstuff
• Would be an effective reduction measure for the food production
based eutrophication impacts on the Baltic Sea
• Imports should come from outside the Baltic Sea catchment region
• Would not reduce the impacts of food consumption
• Could introduce new sustainability risks in the long run through the
trade-off effects, for example those related to global food availability
16 Ecological impacts of the food chain on the Baltic Sea – How much and and why ? September 4, 2012
© MTT Agrifood Research Finland
Eutrophication impacts of the food chain
– Global ecological footprint 1967-2010
Source: GLOBAL FOOTPRINT NETWORK. ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT ATLAS 2010
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