Industry-based primary data from fish feed producers provides more accurate carbon emissions measurements than secondary sources, revealing that some marine ingredients like fishmeal and fish oil may have lower carbon footprints than previously reported in LCA databases.
- Feed accounts for 65% of aquaculture's carbon footprint, making low-carbon ingredient selection essential for industry credibility
- IFFO's four-year initiative expanded the Global Feed LCA Institute database from 50 to 370 datasets covering 52 marine ingredients using primary data
- Atlantic mackerel fishmeal emits 1,190 kg CO2-equivalent per metric ton—less than one-quarter of soy protein concentrate's emissions
- Energy use during rendering can account for up to 25% of fishmeal production emissions, but varies minimally between producers
- Aquaculture could potentially cut its current carbon footprint in half through improved efficiency and supplier collaboration
With 65% of the the industry's carbon footprint coming from feed, choosing low-carbon ingredients is critical for aquaculture to earn a “license to operate,” according to David Robb, sustainability director for Cargill's aqua nutrition business. But finding quality carbon data can be tricky.
The Global Feed LCA Institute offers an independent database with standardized emissions and environmental data for feed formulators. But when the Marine Ingredients Organisation, IFFO, first reviewed the database, IFFO Technical Director Brett Glencross noticed some of the database’s marine ingredient data was clearly incorrect. Sprat, for example, supposedly had a carbon footprint six times larger than that of Atlantic salmon.
“Often … you can see that someone has had a good first go at the story, but they don't really understand the industry well enough to do something accurate. When you get figures like that, you know that's really weird — that can't be right,” Glencross told attendees at an October 21 side event held alongside IFFO's annual conference in Buenos Aires.
Glencross explained that the data informing a life cycle assessment, or LCA, of a product's environmental impact can come from two types of sources. Data collected directly from the product's producer is called primary data. Data from other sources, such as public databases, is secondary data. In the early days of the Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI), most of its figures came from secondary sources.
So IFFO launched a four-year, industrywide initiative asking its members to provide primary emissions data using a set of standardized templates. The results, according to IFFO, improved the database's accuracy and expanded its offerings from 50 datasets representing 32 marine ingredients to 370 datasets covering 52 marine ingredients.
The IFFO-led analysis put the carbon footprint of fishmeal from Atlantic mackerel at 1,190 kg CO2-equivalent per metric ton, and fish oil at 1,760 kg CO2-equivalent per metric ton — less than one-quarter of the carbon emissions associated with soy protein concentrate, according to GFLI figures. Sourcing fishmeal or fish oil from Atlantic mackerel byproducts could further reduce the carbon footprint to 490 kg and 706 kg per metric ton, respectively.
This level of granularity allows feed formulators to see what drives differences between similar feed ingredients, Glencross said.
Higher oil yield, for example, is associated with a lower carbon footprint, but higher meal yield is not. Energy use during the rendering process can account for as much as 25% of the emissions associated with fishmeal production, but doesn't vary significantly between fishmeal producers, according to the IFFO analysis.
Glencross noted that some of the data for other ingredients in the GFLI database, such as insect meal, also come from primary sources. But for other ingredients, like soy, the data does not. That means the impact of these feed ingredients could be overstated.
Cargill, Robb said, collected data directly from its own soy suppliers to come up with a carbon footprint that was roughly one-seventh the reported average of Brazilian soy. Even so, he said, the carbon footprint of soy still exceeds that of marine ingredients in most cases.
Although LCAs can be used to avoid higher-emission ingredients, Robb argued that working with suppliers to reduce carbon emissions is a better long-term strategy. While other agricultural sectors may struggle to achieve significant reductions, an analysis by Cargill suggests aquaculture still has room to cut its current carbon footprint in half.
“I think it's a selling point for aquaculture that there's a lot of room to improve — more energy efficiency in the vessels, in the factories,” Robb said. “Keep telling your story and passing that information on to us so we can pass that information through the value chain.”
