Steven Hawking has once told that “Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge.” This time our colleague Karina Balina went long way to Lima in Peru to participate in the LCA FOODS conference (October 12-14, 2022) and to present some of the results from the life cycle assessment (LCA) study that was carried out in the Waste2Surf project.
LCA is currently one of the most commonly used and scientifically robust environmental management methodologies to determine the environmental profile of products and services. Although its applicability is vast, with notable research in most productive sectors, the agri-food sector has benefited undoubtedly thanks to LCA-related research. This has justified the celebration of this biennial conference linked exclusively to the advances in the field of food LCA. In this context, food security arises as one of the major global challenges for the 21st century. Objectives such as zero hunger and the reduction of poverty and extreme poverty will only be attained if humanity is capable of improving the sustainability of diets, combining environmental issues with social and health needs. For this to be possible, dietary patterns should continue their transition to low-carbon choices in the developed world, but changes are also needed in developing and emerging nations. This implies that improvements in terms of environmental impact mitigation must be attained in a number of sectors, including livestock, fisheries, aquaculture and agriculture, but also in the increasingly complex processing and freighting supply chains that have developed through globalization*.
The conference aimed to create a space for the LCA community to share and discuss their advancements, and foster networking between research groups and industries on a global scale. Provide a space for LCA practitioners and developers to exchange ideas on methodological developments. Introduce policy-makers and industries in the Latin America – Caribbean region to the world of LCA, allowing them to meet the LCA community.
Poster "Environmental Impact Of The Food Waste Utilization Instead of Raw Material: The Potential And Limitations"
Karina would also like to thank the Baltic University Programme for their financial support by awarding her PhD thesis as the best dissertation of 2020 (The Baltic University Programme PhD Award 2020) and funding her travel expenses to Peru.
*Reposted from: https://perulca.com/lcafoods-lima2022/about.html
This research has been supported by the European Regional Development Fund within the project No. 1.1.1.1/19/A/047 “Sustainable Microbial Valorisation of Waste Lipids into Biosurfactants”
