Over the next four years, this Horizon2020 Research and Innovation project, will review key food sectors including beef and dairy, farmed fish and cereals to improve the understanding of the different links in these food chains as well as their capacity to foster the sustainability and resilience in the food system as a whole.
Dr. Maitri Thakur from SINTEF Ocean will lead WP4 on Food System Case Study Groundwork and will look into the seafood case in particular. SINTEF Ocean will develop a framework for data collection, analyse the information and material flows and conduct the environmental impact assessment for the seafood case. WP4 will focus on integrating value chain data from specific case studies and focusing on the critical points along the value chains where relevant key indicators need to be recorded and quantified. The WP4 will also estimate environmental and social impacts of food chains using a holistic approach based on life cycle assessment modelling. The life cycle assessment model will zoom into all the stages of the specific food supply chain to identify hotspots associated with key stakeholders. The groundwork on these case studies will form the basis for further analysis and model development in the later stages of the project.
As part of the WP3, SINTEF Ocean is currently assessing the existing regulations, guidelines and policies within the food industry in Norway. This task aims at identifying the main policy interventions and governance initiatives that promote the operation and better functioning of food supply chains in terms of fair trading practices, chain integrity, and collaborative sustainability advances and improved resilience.
Through development of integrated models for analysis, building future scenarios and by exploring the impact of public regulations, the VALUMICS project aims to improve the knowledge of food chains and their underlying drivers and improve the capacity to model the sustainability and resilience of these food chains.
