What it means to be restorative

23 % inclusion level of circular and/or restorative ingredients in BioMar feeds 2021

Agricultural feed ingredients, like soy and wheat, represent a large proportion of aquafeeds and are often associated with issues such as biodiversity loss, soil degradation and water use. But leading aquaculture feed companies like BioMar seek to decouple feed supply chain from environmental damage by increasing the use of plant ingredients produced using restorative practices.

Restorative practices are central to sustainable and responsible seafood. Feed represents approximately 80 % of the environmental impact of most farmed seafood. For the aquaculture feed company BioMar, feed raw materials, rather than feed production, are responsible for more than 95 % of the environmental footprint, and plant ingredients are primarily to blame.

The science is clear. Industrial agriculture cannot maintain its usefulness to society with the current rates of ecological damage and resource use. The key is to restore a balance between the societal benefits of agriculture with the societal benefits of healthy ecosystems. Therefore, restorative production is the first critical step to reversing the current trends and moving agriculture towards a more sustainable future. To encourage and stimulate restorative practices in our supply chain, companies must set ambitious targets for minimum inclusion levels of restorative ingredients.

Based on life cycle end-point methodology, which goes beyond carbon footprints and includes all impact categories, restorative ingredients should be defined as raw materials that significantly shift the balance between ecosystem impacts and human production systems. The goal is to drive net-positive environmental outcomes to time-bound relevant benchmarks. This includes working with suppliers to improve agricultural practices and developing next generation low-impact raw materials.