The Evolution of Sustainability Metrics for the Marine Ingredient Sector: Moving Towards Holistic Assessments of Aquaculture Feed

Abstract

A range of sustainability metrics have been proposed over the years that calculate the various efficiencies (and inefficiencies) of the use of feed in animal production (terrestrial livestock and aquaculture) and more specifically the utilization of the marine ingredient content of that feed. Like all metrics though, they come with some assumptions and are only as good as the reliability of the data feeding into them. The ones commonly used in the marine ingredients sector include eFIFO, FFDR, FIFO and FCR. In this review the basis of each of these metrics, aspects of their origins and each of their short comings is discussed. It is noted that many of these metrics fail to recognize the foundational role that marine ingredients play in supporting global “blue-food” production when misapplied. Subsequently an alternative strategy is proposed to assess the sustainability of marine ingredients based on a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. With this shift we provide the reasoning behind this move toward a more transparent assessment process and how this will better support aquaculture to move forward by being able to assess the sustainability of the use of all feed ingredient resources on an equivalent basis.