Alfa Laval, a world leader in heat transfer, centrifugal separation and fluid handling, will supply membrane filtration systems to a food facility in Denmark for the production of healthy dietary fibre from crop leftovers. The company’s membranes will be used to extract fibres from sources such as brewers’ grains, corn stover and wheat straw, improving the circularity of the food chain.
The Alfa Laval membrane filtration systems will be used to recover and purify crop leftovers, mainly supplied from local farmers, and process it into prebiotic dietary fibre. These prebiotic fibres are not digestible by the human body but help ensure healthy bacteria growth in the stomach.
“This is an interesting order in a new and promising application for our membrane systems improving the circularity of the food chain,” says Nish Patel, President of the Food & Water Division at Alfa Laval “Our efficient membranes will be able to extract valuable fibres and thereby turn former waste into sellable ingredients, which will benefit our customers and the environment.”
https://fei-online.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2022/01/alfa_laval.jpg378640panglobalhttps://fei-online.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/06/fei-online-logo.pngpanglobal2022-01-25 11:11:222022-01-25 11:11:22Alfa Laval membrane filtration systems to turn crop leftovers into prebiotic dietary fibre for a Danish food facility
The Barry Callebaut Group, a Switzerland-based cocoa processor and chocolate manufacturer, has for the first time made the CDP’s prestigious A List as a leader in corporate action and transparency on deforestation. This comes the company ranked for four years in a row as a CDP global climate leader with a score of A- for their climate reduction efforts.
Barry Callebaut is one of 24 high-performing companies, securing a place on CDP’s prestigious ‘A List’, out of nearly 12,000 companies scored by CDP in 2021.
CDP’s annual environmental disclosure and scoring process is widely recognized as the gold standard of corporate environmental transparency. In 2021, over 590 investors with over US$110 trillion in assets and 200 major purchasers with US$5.5 trillion in procurement spend requested companies to disclose data on environmental impacts, risks and opportunities through CDP’s platform.
A detailed and independent methodology is used by CDP to assess companies, allocating a score on the comprehensiveness of disclosure, awareness and management of environmental risks and demonstration of best practices associated with environmental leadership, such as setting ambitious and meaningful targets.
“This is our fourth consecutive year of being recognized as a leader by CDP, which shows tremendous appreciation of our Forever Chocolate progress to make sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025. It is an enormous challenge, but the recognition by CDP is testimony to the dedication of our people, every day, to continue to innovate, scale and remain focussed on our sustainability efforts,” commented Pablo Perversi, Chief Innovation, Sustainability & Quality Officer; Global Head of Gourmet, Barry Callebaut Group.
Paul Simpson, CEO of CDP, commented: “Many congratulations to all the companies on this year’s A List. Taking the lead on environmental transparency and action is one of the most important steps businesses can make, even more so in the year of COP26 and the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report. The scale of the risk to businesses from climate change, water insecurity and deforestation can no longer be ignored, and we know the opportunities of action far outweigh the risks of inaction. Leadership from the private sector is essential for securing global ambitions for a net-zero, nature positive and equitable world. Our A List celebrates those companies who are preparing themselves to excel in the economy of the future by taking action today.”
Carbon reduction and identifying forests with high conservation value
The Barry Callebaut Group says that by 2025, their goal is to be carbon and forest positive. Their journey to reach this ambition began in 2016 with the launch of Forever Chocolate, their plan to make sustainable chocolate the norm.
One milestone on their road to reduce deforestation in 2021, was the development, after four years of work with EcoVision Lab, part of ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland) of a publicly available, industry-first, indicative High Carbon Stock (HCS) map, that identifies forests with high conservation value and areas where deforestation would cause the highest carbon emissions. This new innovative tool provides a highly automated, transparent, objective tool that generates HCS maps at global scale.
To become carbon positive Barry Callebaut have committed to assessing the carbon impact created by their own operations (scope 1), the impact generated by the energy they use (scope 2), and the impact of their entire supply chain (scope 3), which includes the production and processing of all the raw materials they source, and related Land Use Changes (LUC), which forms the biggest part of their carbon liability.
To illustrate, Barry Callebaut notes: “The use of animal feed additives is widely recognized as an effective means of reducing methane emissions in dairy cattle. To establish the most effective method to reduce our emissions, we worked in collaboration with Gold Standard and Agolin to develop a new methodology to quantify and certify carbon insetting for dairy within our chocolate supply chain. By developing this methodology we can also work more closely with our dairy suppliers to produce low carbon milk.”
https://fei-online.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2022/01/CDP-Forests-stamp.jpg969960panglobalhttps://fei-online.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/06/fei-online-logo.pngpanglobal2022-01-25 11:06:412022-01-25 11:06:41Barry Callebaut makes CDP’s prestigious A List as a leader in corporate action and transparency on deforestation
The Uelzena Group has published its sixth sustainability report with the title “Designing the future together”. Progress, measures and key successes were also reported in the 2020 business year within the five action fields of company, products, production, employees, and social and regional responsibility. Data was collected in accordance with the international GRI standard.
Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions
The Uelzena Group says it is continually working on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in production. To reduce emissions along the value-added chain, the Group says it is essential to focus on the upstream processes – specifically milk production. A pilot project was initiated with the aim of decreasing avoidable emissions in this area. It looks at the carbon footprint of diary farming and milk production and demonstrates options for dairy farmers to reduce their own emissions.
Focus on togetherness
The Covid-19 pandemic turned the working and business world upside down, the company notes, pointing out that lockdown measures and their economic impact also affected employees of the Uelzena Group in a variety of ways. Positive effects included a stronger team spirit and the expansion of digital possibilities, while negative effects were caused by the many necessary process adjustments. Ensuring the health and safety of the employees whilst also sustaining the business processes as a milk-processing company was a major challenge that Uelzena was able to handle successfully.
Sustainable milk production
Incorporating sustainability aspects with regard to the primary ingredient of milk holds an especially high priority for Uelzena as a milk-processing company. In 2020, the volume of raw milk supplied rose by further seven percent. 76 percent of this milk is VLOG certified, which means that no genetically modified crops are used in the cattle feed.
In order to investigate aspects of sustainability at the level of milk production, Uelzena participates in the QM sustainability module milk.
Tetra Pak – the world’s leading food processing and packaging solutions company – has been recognised as one of the world’s “50 Sustainability and Climate Leaders” – a docu-series project developed by the international business community to encourage businesses to take effective action in the fight against climate change.
Adolfo Orive, President & CEO at Tetra Pak, said: “Our company was founded on the philosophy that a package should save more than it costs. Sustainability has always been at the core of everything we do, as such it is also a fundamental building block of our 2030 strategy, so we are proud to receive industry recognition for our work to date.
“We are the world’s leading food processing and packaging supplier and provide food safely to billions of people in more than 160 countries.
“We have already taken great strides on our journey to pioneer a sustainable future. However, with the current climate crisis and the potential food security challenges, we believe that the food packaging industry needs a major step change in its evolution. Our ambition is to deliver the world’s most sustainable food package. This means creating cartons that are fully made from renewable or recycled materials, are fully recyclable and carbon neutral. We see this as the only way to protect what’s good – food, people and the planet.”
The video features interviews with members of Tetra Pak’s Global Leadership Team, highlighting how the role of food sector in tackling climate change is becoming even more imperative. They explain why accelerating de-carbonisation and collaborations is critical to lead the sustainability transformation of the food packaging industry – addressing complex and multi-faceted challenges such as global warming, circularity and biodiversity.
Food overlooked in climate change
Food is a critical but often overlooked element of climate change. The global food system accounts for 26% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [1], while 8% of total emissions are caused by food waste [2]. In other words, if food waste were a country, it would be the world’s third largest producer of emissions. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the weaknesses of the world’s food system, which will only be further amplified by the expected growth of the world population to 9.1 billion by 2050 [3].
Feeding the world
High-performance food packaging plays a critical role in feeding the world, but it must do so sustainably, so that food availability does not come at the cost of the planet. This lies behind Tetra Pak’s purpose: To commit to making food safe and available, everywhere, in a way that protects what’s good – protecting food, protecting people as well as protecting the planet. To minimise climate impact while helping to ensure food security for the future, the company takes a full life cycle view of its solutions. Always working collaboratively. This means:
Maximising the use of renewable materials, and sourcing them responsibly in a way that protects biodiversity
Minimising the carbon impact of its operations as well as the one created by its value chain, for instance by accelerating the switch to renewable energy and by stepping up investment to develop low carbon processing and packaging solutions
Enabling greater access to safe food while reducing food waste: the aseptic filling technology, that Tetra Pak introduced to the food industry in the early 1950s, allows for ambient distribution and storage, without requiring energy intensive refrigeration
Driving an active agenda to develop sustainable recycling value chains
https://fei-online.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/07/tetra_1_web.jpg11611701panglobalhttps://fei-online.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/06/fei-online-logo.pngpanglobal2021-07-20 11:45:232021-07-20 11:45:23Tetra Pak selected as one of the Top 50 Sustainability and Climate leaders
The 2021 World Food Prize was awarded 11 May to leading nutrition expert Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted for her work in pioneering fish-based food systems to improve nutrition, health and livelihoods for millions of people around the world.
Dr. Thilsted was the first to establish that many small fish species commonly eaten across Southeast Asia are an important source of essential micronutrients and fatty acids and improve the absorption of nutrients in plant-based foods. Her work has reshaped scientific understanding of the benefits of fish in diets. This knowledge has helped prioritize increases in fish consumption and production, transforming the diets and incomes of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.
The 2021 Laureate announcement featured pre-recorded remarks from the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas J. Vilsack and UN Nutrition Chair Naoko Yamamoto, with World Food Prize Foundation President Barbara Stinson announcing the name of the Laureate.
“Dr. Thilsted figured out how these nutrient-rich small fish can be raised locally and inexpensively,” said Blinken. “Now, millions of low-income families across many countries, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Burma, Zambia, Malawi are eating small fish regularly, dried and fresh, in everything from chutneys to porridge, giving kids and breastfeeding mothers key nutrients that will protect children for a lifetime. That is all thanks to her.”
Small-scale aquaculture
Much of Dr. Thilsted’s success in expanding small-scale aquaculture is due to the development of pond polyculture systems, in which small and large fish species are farmed together in water bodies and rice field ponds. Dr. Thilsted led research revealing that raising different fish varieties together increases total production and the nutritional value of the production.
“I am truly honuored to receive the 2021 World Food Prize, and I am deeply humbled to be placed in such distinguished ranks as those of past Laureates,” Dr. Thilsted said. “This award is an important recognition of the essential but often overlooked role of fish and aquatic food systems in agricultural research for development. Fish and aquatic foods offer life-changing opportunities for millions of vulnerable women, children and men to be healthy and well-nourished.”
Cost-effective at supplying nutrients
In Bangladesh, where her research on fish began with long-term support from Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA), Dr. Thilsted’s fish-based approach is now recognized as more cost-effective at supplying nutrients than vegetable gardening, prompting the government to promote pond polyculture as a means of tackling malnutrition.
This approach has also helped Bangladesh become the fifth largest aquaculture producer in the world, supporting 18 million people and increasing productivity threefold since 2000. Women in particular have also benefited from the greater economic opportunities through increased fish production, as women account for 60 percent of Bangladesh’s smallholder fish farmers.
Nutrition-sensitive food systems
“Dr. Thilsted is the seventh woman to be awarded the World Food Prize and the first woman of Asian heritage,” said Stinson. “She is at the helm of our global progress in the UN Decade of Action and continues to stand at the forefront of innovation, pushing the boundaries of nutrition-sensitive food systems, truly changing the conversation from not just feeding populations but nourishing them.”
Dr. Thilsted’s trailblazing approach also extends throughout the entire chain of producing, processing, transporting, selling and consuming aquatic food. For instance, her research has led to the development of a highly nutritious fish chutney, inspired by her own grandmother’s recipe, and fish powder, helping improve the diets of millions of pregnant and breastfeeding women and their children.
Source of low-emission, high-nutrition foods
“As our global population grows, we will need diverse sources of low-emission, high-nutrition foods like aquaculture,” said Secretary Vilsack. “It is going to be crucial in feeding the world while reducing our impact on the climate. Dr. Thilsted has been a leader in this effort and certainly a worthy recipient of the World Food Prize this year.”
Dr. Thilsted, the Global Lead for Nutrition and Public Health at WorldFish, a CGIAR research centre headquartered in Malaysia, has worked across disciplines and united international partners to scale up this nutrition-sensitive approach in countries across Asia and Africa.
“The choice of Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted as the 2021 World Food Prize Laureate by the Selection Committee precisely meets the qualities envisioned by the award’s founder and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Norman Borlaug, increasing and improving food production through scientific discovery,” said Paul Schickler, Chairman, World Food Prize Council of Advisors. “Dr. Thilsted has improved the production of small fish species and enabled fish delivery from the farmer to the consumer. The Council of Advisors congratulates Dr. Thilsted.”
Now a Danish citizen, Dr. Thilsted descends from a family of Indian Hindu migrants to Trinidad and Tobago, and she began her career as the first and only woman stationed in Tobago’s Ministry of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries.
Later, while working at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh, Dr. Thilsted established a kitchen garden at the malnutrition rehabilitation centre where more than 6,000 children were admitted every year. Alongside an outreach programme for the families and communities of discharged children to help improve diets, these measures helped bring down readmittance rates by two thirds.
Human health and the environment
Motivated by a desire to prevent malnutrition with earlier interventions, Dr. Thilsted began researching the role of fish and aquaculture, working with international organizations including UNICEF, the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Bank and, since 2010, WorldFish. She also holds leadership roles in the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 and the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition.
“Nutrition is everybody’s business,” said Yamamoto. “Every country, every sector has a role to play. Good nutrition can improve human capital and drive sustainable development. We are proud Dr. Thilsted’s work is highlighting how aquatic foods can benefit both human health and the environment.”
“Dr. Thilsted is credited for developing an innovative farming system through fisheries, aquaculture, and related value chains to dramatically impact the food supply, nutrition, and health of poor people living in vulnerable environments,” said Gebisa Ejeta, Chair, World Food Prize Laureate Selection Committee. “The Selection Committee recognized her remarkable research and development achievement that is shaping food systems to be more sustainable, resilient and equitable for everyone.”
https://fei-online.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/05/thilstead.png12981090panglobalhttps://fei-online.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/06/fei-online-logo.pngpanglobal2021-05-25 08:15:232026-01-22 13:31:21Aquatic foods researcher awarded the 2021 World Food Prize for pioneering work with small fish
Marine fisheries employ millions of people around the world and play an essential role in aquatic food systems. However, while there is a strong push for achieving biological sustainability in global fisheries, is not enough to ensure the well-being of fishers and their families, according to a new paper published in Fish and Fisheries.
The research, with collaborators at the University of British Columbia, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and UC Santa Barbara, finds that while sustainable fisheries are essential for ocean health and a “Blue Economy”, they are insufficient to ensure a living-wage for many fishers around the world. Instead, the authors find, even if fisheries were perfectly managed to meet maximum sustainable yield, a common goal for fisheries management, up to 70% of fishers worldwide would still not make the minimum wage in their country.
Laura Anderson speaks to co-lead authors of the paper Alfredo Giron-Nava and Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor about the importance of social well-being in fisheries and future efforts toward a resilient blue economy.
A Blue Economy is made up of one or more ocean industries established and run in a way that is socially equitable, environmentally sustainable, and economically viable. The focus on social equity is what really sets a blue economy apart from other types of development, because the overall goal is to make sure that benefits go to frontline communities and people that are most vulnerable or historically marginalized.
Can you explain how this research builds on current strategies for sustainable fisheries management?
For over 50 years, the most common goal for fisheries management has been to maximize the catch we can take sustainably from a given fishery, a concept known as the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY). The idea behind the MSY is that if more fish are available to fishers, this will generate more food and money and more people will benefit from it. Our research questions this basic set of assumptions and highlights that we have to directly address inequitable distribution of fish and revenues within seafood value chains. Often the people actually doing the fishing and processing are the ones getting the least share of economic benefits and rarely have a true voice in management goals.
What motivated you to explore these questions?
Giron-Nava: Early in my career as a fisheries scientist, I realized that any plan to manage a fishery is inherently tied to a community that gets impacted, and that the effective enforcement of regulations to preserve ecosystems relies on communities that care and recognize the value of conservation. With this in mind, it’s important to recognize the limit that fisheries productivity has to support coastal communities and face the challenge that we need to think more holistically about good fisheries management that also pursues societal goals.
Cisneros-Montemayor: In addition to being a fisheries scientist and economist, I grew up in a fishing town in Mexico. Throughout my life, I’ve seen how our focus on the biology and ecology of fisheries management simply hasn’t worked for supporting the well-being of fishers and their families, which is supposed to be the ultimate goal. Ecology is still really important, but we have to start recognizing that the underlying issues that lead to poverty and unsustainable practices are social, not ecological.
What did you discover about the connection between fisheries management and fishers livelihoods?
We found that there isn’t a strong relationship between the state of fish stocks in terms of the MSY and the income level of fishers relative to the minimum living wages in their countries. Of course, healthy fish stocks can produce more fish and more money, but there are many other factors that play a more important role when it comes to well-being.
What can researchers and policymakers learn from fishing communities?
A lot of things, but probably the most important one is that what researchers and policymakers see as the most important goals and aspects of well-being may be different than those of the communities themselves. We need to start by listening and making sure that we are all on the same page as far as what the challenges and likely best solutions are.
How might this research apply to on-the-ground policy action?
Cisneros-Montemayor: One really direct way is by encouraging fisheries scientists, who, in my experience, absolutely value fisher perspectives, to connect with social scientists and frontline workers. Hopefully this can lead to cooperation at higher levels, like among institutions that may have different mandates but all have a role to play in complex systems of fisheries and social well-being.
Giron-Nava: Another way is by starting a debate on what other strategies exist to ensure the social well-being of fishing communities. Should we be developing strategies to increase the value of the catch? Can we redesign fisheries subsidies to target some of these deficits? Is it mostly that wealth is concentrated by a few individuals who own the vessels and fishing permits? We hope that our work will inspire these questions and get managers talking to communities.
It sounds like there is still a lot to learn. What additional research is needed to inform just transitions to sustainability?
It’s important to find better ways to account for income and benefits beyond just the landed value of fisheries. Alternative sources of income, contributions of other household members, the role of the processing sector — which in most places is overwhelmingly led by women — and non-market benefits are just a few things that we didn’t include in our analysis because there isn’t enough data right now, but are super important to explore going forward.
Why is it important to understand sustainable ocean management holistically?
Giron-Nava: The value of the ocean goes way beyond the money generated for fishing. It is also about the deep cultural connections that coastal communities have with it. Sustainable ocean management has to recognize these other values when thinking about ‘maximizing’ fishing revenues. This means bringing to the table not only ecologists and fisheries scientists, but also anthropologists, sociologists, communicators and others who may be able to place those values front and center when designing management plans.
Cisneros-Montemayor: A lot of people really want to have vibrant communities and a healthy ocean, but the evidence tells us that we need to put much more focus on the social issues than we have been if we want to achieve either of those goals.
https://fei-online.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/04/fisher_2.jpg12791920panglobalhttps://fei-online.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/06/fei-online-logo.pngpanglobal2021-04-14 11:25:302021-04-16 10:11:20Sustainable fisheries and the well-being of fishers — a Q&A with Alfredo Giron-Nava and Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor
We may ask you to place cookies on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience and to customise your relationship with our website.
Click on the different sections for more information. You can also change some of your preferences. Please note that blocking some types of cookies may affect your experience on our websites and the services we can provide.
Essential Website Cookies
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary to provide the website, refusing them will affect the functioning of our site. You can always block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and block all cookies on this website forcibly. But this will always ask you to accept/refuse cookies when you visit our site again.
We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies, but to avoid asking you each time again to kindly allow us to store a cookie for that purpose. You are always free to unsubscribe or other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies, we will delete all cookies set in our domain.
We provide you with a list of cookies stored on your computer in our domain, so that you can check what we have stored. For security reasons, we cannot display or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser's security settings.
.
Google Analytics Cookies
These cookies collect information that is used in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customise our website and application for you to improve your experience.
If you do not want us to track your visit to our site, you can disable this in your browser here:
.
Other external services
We also use various external services such as Google Webfonts, Google Maps and external video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data such as your IP address, you can block them here. Please note that this may significantly reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will only be effective once you reload the page
Google Webfont Settings:
Google Maps Settings:
Google reCaptcha settings:
Vimeo and Youtube videos embedding:
.
Privacy Beleid
U kunt meer lezen over onze cookies en privacy-instellingen op onze Privacybeleid-pagina.
Much of Dr. Thilsted’s success in expanding small-scale aquaculture is due to the development of pond polyculture systems, in which small and large fish species are farmed together in water bodies and rice field ponds. Dr. Thilsted led research revealing that raising different fish varieties together increases total production and the nutritional value of the production.
Dr. Thilsted, the Global Lead for Nutrition and Public Health at WorldFish, a CGIAR research centre headquartered in Malaysia, has worked across disciplines and united international partners to scale up this nutrition-sensitive approach in countries across Asia and Africa.
“Nutrition is everybody’s business,” said Yamamoto. “Every country, every sector has a role to play. Good nutrition can improve human capital and drive sustainable development. We are proud Dr. Thilsted’s work is highlighting how aquatic foods can benefit both human health and the environment.”
