Levenscyclus analyse voor een duurzamere voedselketen op Aruba

Many countries, including small Caribbean islands, have become increasingly dependent on a global food system that is under growing pressure from human activities such as plastic pollution, the conversion of nature to agricultural land, and climate change. While agriculture itself is a major driver of harm to the Earth's ecosystems. The food system causes almost a third of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and drives almost 90% of global deforestation, mainly due to livestock production. The goal of this dissertation was to apply the method Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) - used to quantify the environmental impact (e.g., CO2 emissions, land use) of products or services - to foods in an island context. Throughout the PhD project, an increased interest from policymakers and citizens in food security and in increasing local food production was observed, as well as numerous research outputs related to food. Therefore, the focus expanded to exploring other approaches to research food in Aruba and the neighbouring islands Bonaire and Curacao (the ABC islands in the Dutch Caribbean). This dissertation explored the question: What is the environmental impact of an island's food imports, and how can its food system be studied through diverse analytical approaches? To answer this question, two case studies were performed on the environmental impact of Aruba's food imports, on a product level (Chapter 2 on canned tuna imports from three different brands), and on a product category level (Chapter 3 on vegetable imports from 25 product-country combinations). The case studies were chosen due to their diversity in supply chains, production methods, and their importance to the scientific field of food and LCA as well as the Aruban diet. Then, a first-time overview of published research on food production, supply, and consumption was created (scoping review in chapter 4). In two case studies, impacts from sea and air transport were calculated in detail, for two reasons. First, although it is generally known that sea transport contributes relatively little to total GHG emissions of food imports, this has been understudied for islands, which are situated further away from main maritime transport routes. Therefore, food imports to islands may require longer transport distances, longer sailing times, and smaller vessel sizes, especially for the final part of the sailing trip, while the vessels may not always sail at maximum cargo capacities. Also, the environmental impact per kilogram product is higher for smaller vessels compared to larger vessels. Second, airfreighted foods are often imported to islands (and other tourist destinations) using passenger aircrafts. GHG emissions of imports by passenger aircrafts vary dependent on aircraft characteristics and may be different compared to general estimates. Results showed a generally low contribution of sea transport (despite a detailed modelling approach) and a high contribution of air transport to total GHG emissions of food imports. However, GHG emissions from specific passenger aircrafts attending Aruba were lower compared to generic data, which are used by many LCA practitioners. At the product level, results from the three canned tuna brands showed similar environmental impacts because the main contributing supply chain stages were the same for the three brands and a detailed modelling of processing and transport stages did not generate large differences in environmental impact. As expected, canned tuna in large cans had a lower environmental impact per kilogram tuna compared to small cans. At the product category level, vegetables that were transported by sea had much lower GHG emissions compared to airfreighted vegetables, especially when road transport was relatively short. Finally, research related to food supply, production, and consumption in the ABC islands was mapped for the first time. Nine databases were searched: academic databases, local university repositories, local knowledge repositories, and global knowledge repositories. Based on predefined inclusion criteria, 117 publications from 2000 - March 2025 were included. Results showed a growing research field, a diverse, local and international research community, a strong Dutch Kingdom and EU orientation in collaboration and funding, and a diverse coverage of topics and aspects of the food system studied. Challenges and solutions to increase local food production and improving food security are well recorded. LCA may assist in specific aspects of food security planning, as part of a greater puzzle. Future projects, laws, regulations, and research should contribute to increasing food security, as well as provide insight in promoting locally acceptable dietary changes aimed at climate change mitigation and health.