Telecouplings in a globalizing world : linking food consumption to outsourced resource use and displaced environmental impacts

Globalization has increased the interconnections between world regions. The distal socio-economic and environmental interactions, feedbacks and outcomes between land systems are called telecouplings. The increase in telecouplings is also true with agricultural production and food systems as food trade has intensified in the past decades. This change has contributed to many positive aspects of development for example by increasing food availability and creating employment in the production areas. However, it has also increased the spatial separation between consumption and production and consequently the displacement of environmental pressures as consumers from distant locations withdraw limited resources such as land or water from the production areas. Therefore, consumption can be a driver of environmental change also in geographically distant locations. In this dissertation the focus is on the quantitative analysis of the displaced environmental pressures through international trade related to Finnish food consumption, and the development of accounting methodologies to better account for the implications of trade. The dissertation consists of four research papers and a synthesis of them. The temporal dynamics in 1961-2007 (Paper I) and 1986-2011 (Paper II) of the displaced impacts of the Finnish food consumption are analyzed with a data from physical accounting applying land and water footprints and studying the related biodiversity impacts caused in the production areas. Paper III concentrates on analyzing the potential to replace some of the imported crops with domestic production and this way decreasing the imports of virtual water from water scarce production areas. Paper IV contributes to the methodological discussion presenting an analysis of the carbon footprints of the average diets in the EU countries using a novel framework that incorporates trade flows into carbon footprint accounting. Finland has become strongly connected to global agricultural market. Both the imports and exports of land use embedded in the Finnish agricultural trade expanded and the partner countries and products imported diversified during 1961-2011. This was particularly clear in the period of 1986-2011 when the land use embedded in the Finnish crop imports nearly doubled. Highest increase in imports was observed with crops that can be, and previously have been cultivated in Finland. The majority of the threats to global biodiversity caused by the Finnish food consumption were produced outside the Finnish borders highlighting therefore the need to account for these distant impacts. Trade relations are not always based on resource efficiency, and water abundant Finland also imports water intensive products from areas suffering from water scarcity. There is potential for substantial reductions in the Finnish virtual water imports replacing some of the imports with crops from domestic production. Animal products, especially beef and dairy consumption are related to the highest share of dietary carbon footprints of the average diets in the EU countries. Their production requires also higher land and water inputs compared to average plant based products. Therefore, a reduction of animal product consumption is an efficient way of reducing the environmental impacts of food consumption. The findings of this dissertation confirm and extend previous knowledge quantifying the globalization of the Finnish food system that is increasingly depending on the sustainability of also the food systems abroad. Therefore, comprehensive analyses integrating multiple indicators and different spatial scales are increasingly needed to support sustainable food systems locally as well as globally.Globalisaation myötä maantieteellisten alueiden väliset yhteydet ovat lisääntyneet. Kaukaisia ympäristö- ja yhteiskunnallis-taloudellisia vaikutuksia, takaisinkytkentöjä sekä seurauksia maantieteellisten systeemien välillä kutsutaan termillä telecouplings. Tällaisten yhteyksien kasvu näkyy myös maataloustuotannossa ja ruokasysteemeissä, sillä ruoan maailmankauppa on kasvanut voimakkaasti viime vuosikymmenten aikana. Tämä muutos on vaikuttanut positiivisesti kehitykseen mm. lisäämällä ruoan saatavuutta sekä luomalla työllisyyttä tuotantoalueilla. Muutos on kuitenkin myös lisännyt kulutuksen ja tuotannon maantieteellistä eriytymistä ja tämän seurauksena ympäristön käytön paineen ulkoistamista, kun myös maantieteellisesti kaukana olevat kuluttajat käyttävät tuotantoalueen rajallisia resursseja, kuten vettä tai maa pinta-alaa. Tämän takia kulutus voi aiheuttaa ympäristövaikutuksia myös maantieteellisesti kaukana sijaitsevilla alueilla. Tässä väitöskirjassa keskiössä on analyysi suomalaisten ruoankulutuksen aiheuttamasta ulkoistetusta ympäristön käytön paineesta sekä ruoankulutuksen hiilijalanjälkilaskennan kehittäminen niin, että kaupan materiaalivirrat otetaan siinä paremmin huomioon. Väitöskirja koostuu yhteenveto-osasta sekä neljästä osa-julkaisusta. Työssä analysoidaan Suomen ulkomaankaupan kautta ulkoistettujen ympäristövaikutusten ajallista muutosta vuosina 1961–2007 (osajulkaisu I) sekä 1986–2011 (osajulkaisu II) käyttäen kansainvälisen kaupan fyysisten materiaalivirtojen analyysidataa sekä maa- ja vesijalanjälki-indikaattoreita, ja analysoimalla näiden resurssien käytön aiheuttamaa biodiversiteettikadon uhkaa tuotantoalueilla. Osajulkaisussa III tutkitaan Suomen potentiaalia vähentää kasvituotteiden tuonnin kautta virtuaalivettä vesipulasta kärsiviltä alueilta korvaamalla tuotteita kotimaisella tuotannolla. Osajulkaisussa IV kehitetään ruoan kulutuksen hiilijalanjälkilaskentaa ja analysoidaan EU maiden keskimääräisten ruokavalioiden hiilijalanjälkiä sisällyttäen kaupan materiaalivirta-analyysit mukaan laskentaan. Suomi osallistuu yhä vahvemmin globaaliin maataloustuotteiden kauppaan. Sekä maankäytön tuonti että vienti Suomen maataloustuotteiden ulkomaankaupassa laajeni ja tuojamaat sekä tuodut elintarviketuotteet monipuolistuivat vuosien 1961–2011 aikana. Tämä oli erityisen voimakasta ajalla 1986–2011, jolloin tuonnin kautta ulkoistettu maankäyttö lähes kaksinkertaistui. Suurin kasvu oli nähtävissä tuotteilla, joita voidaan kasvattaa ja joita on aiemmin tuotettu Suomessa. Suuri osa suomalaisten ruoan kulutuksen aiheuttamista uhista lajien monimuotoisuudelle aiheutuu Suomen rajojen ulkopuolella, mikä korostaa näiden ulkoistettujen vaikutusten huomioimisen tärkeyttä. Kauppasuhteet eivät aina perustu resurssitehokkuuteen ja mm. vesivaroiltaan runsaaseen Suomeen tuodaan paljon vettä vaativia tuotteita kuivuudelta kärsiviltä alueilta. Suomella on potentiaalia toteuttaa huomattavia vähennyksiä veden tuonnissa korvaamalla osa tuonnista kotimaisella tuotannolla. Eläinperäiset tuotteet, erityisesti naudan liha ja maitotuotteet, aiheuttavat suurimman osan keskimääräisen ruokavalion hiilijalanjäljestä. Niiden tuotanto vaatii myös suuremman määrän maata ja vettä verrattuna kasviperäisiin elintarvikkeisiin. Tämän takia eläinperäisten tuotteiden kulutuksen vähentäminen on tehokas keino vähentää ruoan ympäristövaikutuksia. Tämän väitöskirjan tulokset vahvistavat ja laajentavat aikaisempaa ymmärrystä Suomen ruokajärjestelmän globalisaatiosta, jonka kestävyys on yhä voimakkaammin riippuvainen myös ulkomaisten ruokajärjestelmien kestävyydestä. Tämä takia tarve kokonaisvaltaisille, useampia indikaattoreita sekä erilaisia maantieteellisiä mittakaavoja yhdistäville analyyseille on kasvanut ja niitä tarvitaan tukemaan sekä paikallisesti että globaalisti kestäviä ruokajärjestelmiä

Replacing Imports of Crop Based Commodities by Domestic Production in Finland : Potential to Reduce Virtual Water Imports

Global water scarcity is a severe threat facing humanity today and it is expected to become even more alarming in the future. Agriculture is the biggest user of freshwater and large volumes of embedded virtual water in food products are traded through the global food system annually. Although Finland has vast water resources, it imports large quantities of virtual water – partly from countries suffering from water scarcity. In this article, we present a novel combination of the virtual water study together with an analysis of the potential reallocation of the outsourced production of rice, soybeans and rapeseed, from the water resource-efficiency point of view. To assess how Finland could reduce the outsourced water consumption by these three crops, we evaluated Finland’s potential to replace their imports with local comparable products: domestic barley and oats, field peas and faba beans, and rapeseed, respectively. This replacement would both potentially ease the global pressure on already stressed regions and increase the agricultural diversity of the local agricultural systems. We found that by replacing the imports of the selected crops, considering the realistic potential in Finland, up to 16% of the blue water and almost 30% of the green water embedded in crop imports could be reduced. Although Finland is a minor player in the global food markets, our study presents a highly relevant case of how an industrialized country, with a relatively small population, can contribute to the sustainability of food systems globally.Peer reviewe

Forest resources of nations in relation to human well-being

A universal turnaround has been detected in many countries of the World from shrinking to expanding forests. The forest area of western Europe expanded already in the 19th century. Such early trends of forest resources cannot be associated with the rapid rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide nor with the anthropogenic climate change, which have taken place since the mid 20th century. Modern, most recent spatial patterns of forest expansions and contractions do not correlate with the geography of climate trends nor with dry versus moist areas. Instead, the forest resources trends of nations correlate positively with UNDP Human Development Index. This indicates that forest resources of nations have improved along with progress in human well-being. Highly developed countries apply modern agricultural methods on good farmlands and abandon marginal lands, which become available for forest expansion. Developed countries invest in sustainable programs of forest management and nature protection. Our findings are significant for predicting the future of the terrestrial carbon sink. They suggest that the large sink of carbon recently observed in forests of the World will persist, if the well-being of people continues to improve. However, despite the positive trends in domestic forests, developed nations increasingly outsource their biomass needs abroad through international trade, and all nations rely on unsustainable energy use and wasteful patterns of material consumption.Peer reviewe

Dependency on imported agricultural inputs : global trade patterns and recent trends

Industrial food production systems depend on inputs such as fertilisers, pesticides, and commercial animal feeds that are highly traded commodities in global markets. Disturbances in international trade can threaten the local food production if the imports of the key agricultural inputs were drastically reduced. However, despite the importance of the topic, a comprehensive analysis focusing on the import dependency of multiple agricultural inputs at the global level and thus revealing the vulnerability of regions and individual countries does not exist. Here, we analyse the temporal trends of agricultural input trade globally at the national scale from 1991 to 2020 by applying statistics of the use and trade of synthetic fertilisers (N, P, and K), pesticides and livestock and aquaculture feeds (grouped into oilseed feeds and other feed crops). The results show that the import dependency of agricultural inputs has increased over the past 30 years, but there is high variation between countries. Countries with high import dependency combined with high use of these inputs, such as many industrial agricultural producers in South America, Asia as well as Europe, show high vulnerability to trade shocks. Also, our findings highlight that potential agricultural intensification in Sub-Saharan African countries—currently with low use of the inputs per cropland area but high import dependency—can lead to higher dependency on imported agricultural inputs. Therefore, understanding of the past trends and current risks associated with the dependency on imported agricultural inputs should be highlighted to mitigate the risks and build more resilient and sustainable food systems

Quantifying Earth system interactions for sustainable food production via expert elicitation

Several safe boundaries of critical Earth system processes have already been crossed due to human perturbations; not accounting for their interactions may further narrow the safe operating space for humanity. Using expert knowledge elicitation, we explored interactions among seven variables representing Earth system processes relevant to food production, identifying many interactions little explored in Earth system literature. We found that green water and land system change affect other Earth system processes strongly, while land, freshwater and ocean components of biosphere integrity are the most impacted by other Earth system processes, most notably blue water and biogeochemical flows. We also mapped a complex network of mechanisms mediating these interactions and created a future research prioritization scheme based on interaction strengths and existing knowledge gaps. Our study improves the understanding of Earth system interactions, with sustainability implications including improved Earth system modelling and more explicit biophysical limits for future food production

Systems perspective reveals interconnections in nitrogen and phosphorus flows

| openaire: EC/H2020/819202/EU//SOS.aquaterra Funding Information: Work was funded by Academy of Finland (project TREFORM; grant number 339834) and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (project SOS.aquaterra; grant number 819202).Non peer reviewe

Towards circular food systems in Europe

| openaire: EC/H2020/819202/EU//SOS.aquaterra Funding Information: Work was funded by Academy of Finland (project TREFORM; grant number 339834) and European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (project SOS.aquaterra; grant number 819202).Peer reviewe

Perceived impact on motivation in distance university studies during the pandemic Covid-19

Pandemin Covid-19 hade en stor påverkan på mänskligheten under år 2020, förutom social distansering på allmänna platser fick dessutomarbete och studier ändras till distans för att undvika smittspridning i samhället. Forskningsfrågan var om denna ofrivilligt distansförlagdautbildning vid universiteten påverkade studenternas upplevdamotivation till studierna samt om det fanns ett samband mellanmotivationen och stresshantering. Vid en kvantitativ studie påstudenter vid Örebro Universitet som besvarades via frågeformulärutifrån studenternas egen uppskattning undersöktes upplevdmotivation och stresshantering. Resultaten visade att det verkade finnas en koppling mellan studenternas inre motivation ochmaladaptiv copingstrategi under de ofrivilligt distansförlagdastudierna 2020, samt att studenter upplevde en lägre nivå påmotivation i förhållande till året innan. Slutsatsen blev följaktligen attdet fanns ett samband mellan stresshantering och inre motivation hosstudenter samt att distansstudierna i samband med pandemin Covid-19 har bidragit till sänkt studiemotivation. Möjliga förklaringar till skillnaderna i resultaten jämfört med tidigare studierdiskuteras.Pandemic Covid-19 had a major impact on humanity in 2020, inaddition to social distancing in public places, work and studies had tobe changed to distance in order to avoid the spread of infection insociety. The research question was whether this involuntary distancelearning at the universities affected the students' perceived motivationfor their studies and whether there was a connection between themotivation and stress management. In a quantitative study of studentsat Örebro University by way of questionnaires that were answeredbased on the students' own assessment, perceived motivation andstress management were examined. Results showed that there seemedto be a link between students' inner motivation and maladaptivecoping strategy during the involuntary distance studies in 2020, andthat students experienced lower levels of motivation relative to theyear before. The conclusion was therefore that there was a connectionbetween stress management and internal motivation in students andthat the distance studies in connection with the Covid-19 pandemichave contributed to reduced study motivation. Possible explanationsfor the differences in the results compared to previous studies are discussed

The role of trade in the greenhouse gas footprints of EU diets

International trade presents a challenge for measuring the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission footprint of human diets, because imported food is produced with different production efficiencies and sourcing regions differ in land use histories. We analyze how trade and countries of origin impact GHG footprint calculation for EU food consumption. We find that food consumption footprints can differ considerably between the EU countries with estimates varying from 610 to 1460 CO2-eq. cap−1 yr−1. These estimates include the GHG emissions from primary production, international trade and land use change. The share of animal products in the diet is the most important factor determining the footprint of food consumption. Embedded land use change in imports also plays a major role. Transition towards more plant-based diets has a great potential for climate change mitigation.Peer reviewe

Evaluating effectiveness of open assessments on alternative biofuel sources

Biofuels have raised controversy regarding their environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The complexity of biofuel decisions and investments by both industry and society requires integration of scientific knowledge, public information, and values from a diversity of sources. Environmental assessments can identify multiple impacts of different options. Open and collaborative knowledge creation can support decisions in two ways: by building trust and credibility and by developing more robust understanding of key issues. Open assessment is a decision-support method that allows widespread participation in a transparent and freely accessible process. In this article, we evaluate two open assessment case studies concerning biodiesel production. The evaluation compiles the participants’ views regarding the potential of the assessment process to influence decisions in terms of quality of content, applicability, efficiency, and openness. According to the evaluation, openness can be feasibly implemented and is much appreciated by participants. More experience using broad and active participation is needed for further development of methods and tools. However, the currently common practices of closed and disengaged processes limit decision making. In addition, suitable tools and practices, as well as the inclusion of participants with appropriate skills, are needed to facilitate open collaboration.Peer reviewe