Thread by @jagephart

Our new @BlueFoodFutures paper is now out in @nature. We compare the environmental performance of #bluefoods to prioritize sustainable blue food production and consumption 🧵(1/10)
@AmericanU @AUResearch @sthlmresilience @oceansolutions @eatforum @DalhousieU

Did you know food systems emit 1/3 of all greenhouse gases, occupy 1/2 of ice-free land & are responsible for 3/4 of freshwater use and eutrophication?

Yet, many studies aiming to reduce these pressures largely overlooked blue foods, so we dove into them here (2/10)

We used data from studies covering >2,500 #fisheries & #aquaculture farms to estimate the #greenhousegas, nitrogen & phosphorus emissions, and freshwater & land use to produce standardized estimates for 23 species groups, representing >70% of blue food production 🐟🦐🦪 (3/10)

We found farmed seaweeds & bivalves like mussels performed the best across all stressors. Capture fisheries use negligible land/water and emit little N/P, but GHG emissions vary widely, with small pelagic fish like sardines producing the lowest GHG emissions (4/10)

Blue foods generating the highest greenhouse emissions include wild caught flatfish and lobsters, while farmed silver and bighead carps use the most water and milkfish use the most land (5/10)

We also find that farmed salmon, trout, fed carps, catfish, and tilapia all perform similarly or better than chicken. That's important because chicken is considered one of the most efficient types of meat. So how can we improve the performance of more blue foods? (6/10)

There are huge opportunities to further improve the environmental performance of capture #fisheries 🎣 Optimizing fishing gear and improving fisheries management can reduce fuel use and lower fishery greenhouse gas emissions (7/10)

The biggest opportunity for improving environmental performance in #aquaculture is reducing the amount of feed needed to produce a pound of farmed fish. Shifting feed ingredients can lower greenhouse gas emissions, while improving yield reduces land and water use (8/10)

While we estimated key food system environmental pressures, these do not cover all stressors or measure impacts on ecosystems, such biodiversity loss. Incorporating these impacts is crucial to fully realizing the potential contributions of blue foods to sustainable diets (9/10)

📘 Read the paper for more on how the environmental performance of blue foods compare and how they can contribute to more sustainable diets
In Nature:🔗tinyurl.com/bf-enviro-perf… &
BFA: 🔗tinyurl.com/bfa-environment
(10/10)

+ Check out all BFA papers🔗tinyurl.com/BFA-collection
and the Nature story about the opportunities, challenges and trade-offs of blue foods 🔗nature.com/articles/d4285…