The project SocialFeed starts from the premise that existing social sustainability standards, certification schemes and tools lack national context and need to be improved to capture the real social impacts of a complex system like the feed system in Norway consisting of both local production and significantly large import.
Norwegian feed system includes both the green and the blue sector, involving several actors and requiring large amounts of bulk proteins, carbohydrates, and oils produced and transported through national and global trade networks.
For this international value chain, it is important to investigate how Norwegian consumption can impact food security in other regions of the world. Furthermore, Norway has played an important role in accelerating the production of deforestation-free soya and the positive socio-economic impacts it has on the livelihood of farmers in Brazil and other countries.
Three main cases, i.e. cattle, chicken and salmon, and their current feed ingredients along with the most promising new feed ingredients of the future, will be evaluated using methods like Social Life Cycle Assessment, Power mapping and Product chain organization. An improved set of indicators will be developed to capture both the positive and negative social impacts and can be further used to assess whether the Norwegian feed system has a 'Net Positive Social Footprint'.
To meet this challenging goal and provide a more comprehensive assessment of the social impacts, SocialFeed will work closely with the stakeholders to acquire the necessary data to implement the adequate set of indicators.
Stakeholders like feed ingredient suppliers, feed producers, farmers, NGOs and branch organizations will be actively involved through workshops, interviews and pilot testing to provide proof of concept. Furthermore, an analysis of the institutional policy framework surrounding domestic production and imports will be conducted to explore policy options that result in more sustainable solutions.
SocialFeed will produce a firm foundation for social sustainability assessments towards the agri- and aquaculture industries in Norway and fill the knowledge gaps that exists today. Lastly, the project will act as a communication platform to bring both the green and blue sectors together to co-create a common understanding of social sustainability for the Norwegian feed system.