Browsing by Author "Lehikoinen, Elina"

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Building a more resilient Finnish food system - From import dependence towards domestic natural resource use
(2020) Lehikoinen, Elina
School of Engineering | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
The global food system forms a complex network with conflicting demands and expectations from all levels of society. While more food per capita is produced today than ever before, resilience within some parts of the global food system has declined in recent decades. Even though global trade has enabled countries to secure their food supply through imports, it has equally made countries dependent upon global markets, which are susceptible to fluctuations and unpredictable shocks. Almost every country participates in the global food trade either as an importer, an exporter or both. Comprehensive country-scale studies are needed to detect blind spots within the complexity of the larger system and to discover the hidden potential within specific countries. Finland was chosen as a case study because it has an interesting portfolio—a northern country rich in natural resources and a small population with relatively high self-sufficiency in terms of food production, but at the same time a great dependence on imported agricultural inputs (such as energy, fertilisers, protein feed and agricultural machinery). The primary aim of this dissertation is to discover how Finland could positively impact on the global food system without weakening its own food system resilience. The most significant finding of the research indicates that Finland's overall food trade-related resilience has weakened as domestic food production diversity has decreased while its dependence on imported foodstuff has increased. Furthermore, international foodstuff trade has been centralised in terms of trading partners. However, Finland has the potential to replace some crop imports with domestic production and further increase certain animal product exports, while saving global natural resources and diminishing the outsourced environmental impacts of food production. Yet increasing domestic agriculture may lead to an amplified dependence on imported agricultural inputs. This may not be as detrimental to system reliance as its foodstuff dependence, since the number of import connections has increased over the past decades for agricultural inputs. Finally, consumers are often the key to influence in the food system. An analysis done based on a recent national questionnaire study reveals that Finns are most motivated to eat sustainably when they can combine health and environmental co-benefits in their everyday life. As a conclusion, the findings of this dissertation reveal that Finland's positive contribution to the sustainable use of natural resources might be relatively small on the global scale, but it is not insignificant. Thus it is vital that global knowledge is incorporated at the country-scale and case studies continue to discover the hidden potential to influence towards a more sustainable food system through the wise use of natural resources.
Cattle production for exports in water-abundant areas : The case of Finland
(2019-02-19) Lehikoinen, Elina; Parviainen, Tuure; Helenius, Juha; Jalava, Mika; Salonen, Arto O.; Kummu, Matti
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Water scarcity is a severe global threat, and it will only become more critical with a growing and wealthier population. Annually, considerable volumes of water are transferred virtually through the global food system to secure nations' food supply and to diversify diets. Our objective is to assess, whether specializing water-intensive production for exports in areas with an abundance of natural resources, would contribute to globally resource-efficient food production. We calculated Finland's virtual water net export potential (four scenarios) by reallocating the present underutilized agricultural land and combining that with a domestic diet change (three scenarios) to maximize the exports of cattle products. Assessed scenarios indicate that the greatest potential to net export virtual water (3.7 billion m 3 year -1 , 25-time increase to current) was achieved when local production was maximized with domestic and exported feed, and bovine meat consumption in Finland was replaced with a vegetarian substitute. This corresponds to annual virtual water consumption for food of about 3.6 million global citizens (assuming 1032 m 3 cap -1 year -1 ). Therefore our results suggest, that optimizing water-intensive production to water-rich areas, has a significant impact on global water savings. In addition, increasing exports from such areas by decreasing the domestic demand for water-intensive products to meet the nutrition recommendation levels, saves water resources.
Food Preferences in Finland: Sustainable Diets and their Differences between Groups
(2019-03-01) Lehikoinen, Elina; Salonen, Arto O.
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
The world is facing the great challenge of how to feed the increasing and wealthier population sustainably in the future, with already limited natural resources. The existing literature reveals the negative impacts of animal-based diets, and thus global diet changes are required to ensure future food availability. Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge that food consumption is more than caloric intake—it is based on personal preferences. We assessed how sustainable food choices vary among Finnish citizens. The respondents (n = 2052) answered nine statements about their consumption behavior. We applied quantitative and qualitative methods, and our results indicate that favoring plant-based diets was the highest among people under 30 and above 60 years old. Middle-aged men with high incomes was the most reluctant group to adopt sustainable diets. Health-related issues and origin of food were the most preferred reasons for food choices, while environmental awareness was ranked lower. The key to mainstream sustainable diets lies in the co-benefits —transition towards more sustainable diets among Finns could be possible, if people felt that they can combine the selfish, hedonistic factors (e.g., health, weight loss) and altruistic factors (e.g., ecological benefits) in their everyday diets.
Giving legs to handprint thinking : foundations for evaluating the good we do
(2020-06-01) Guillaume, Joseph H. A.; Sojamo, Suvi; Porkka, Miina; Gerten, Dieter; Jalava, Mika; Lankoski, Leena; Lehikoinen, Elina; Lettenmeier, Michael; Pfister, Stephan; Usva, Kirsi; Wada, Yoshihide; Kummu, Matti
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
In environmental management and sustainability there is an increasing interest in measurement and accounting of beneficial impact-as an incentive to action, as a communication tool, and to move toward a positive, constructive approach focused on opportunities rather than problems. One approach uses the metaphor of a "handprint," complementing the notion of environmental footprints, which have been widely adopted for impact measurement and accounting. We analyze this idea by establishing core principles of handprint thinking: Handprint encourages actions with positive impacts and connects to analyses of footprint reductions but adds value to them and addresses the issue of what action should be taken. We also identify five key questions that need to be addressed and decisions that need to be made in performing a (potentially quantitative) handprint assessment, related to scoping of the improvement to be made, how it is achieved, and how credit is assigned, taking into account constraints on action. A case study of the potential water footprint reduction of an average Finn demonstrates how handprint thinking can be a natural extension of footprint reduction analyses. We find that there is a diversity of possible handprint assessments that have the potential to encourage doing good. Their common foundation is "handprint thinking."
Importance of trade dependencies for agricultural inputs : a case study of Finland
(2021-06-01) Lehikoinen, Elina; Kinnunen, Pekka; Piipponen, Johannes; Heslin, Alison; Puma, Michael J.; Kummu, Matti
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Approximately 80% of the world's population lives in countries that are dependent on food imports to sustain an adequate food supply. Besides these food imports, further dependencies also arise due to the requirements for agricultural inputs, including energy, fertilisers, feed and agricultural machinery. While the trade of agricultural inputs is relatively well represented in economic analysis, the quantification is often in terms of monetary values, and thus the assessments of the actual input quantities are very limited. In this paper, we develop a framework for analysis of the traded input quantities at the country-level and demonstrate its utility through an in-depth analysis of Finland's dependency on agricultural inputs. Further, we assess the importance of these inputs for domestic food production from a resilience perspective. We find that Finland, a country with relatively high food self-sufficiency but also a great dependency on imported agricultural inputs, experienced an increase in its dependency over the period 1996-2016. In case of trading partners, the story is more mixed: while trading partners for soybeans increased, those decreased in case of electricity while no significant change was observed in other commodities. In Finland, the rapeseed dependency on imports (ratio of net imports and consumption) grew from around 0% to almost 50% between the years 1987-2013. Changes for electricity remained substantially smaller, with dependency only slightly growing during the study period. Crude oil and soybean supplies are totally dependent on imports as neither is produced in Finland. Interestingly, the highest dependencies for agricultural inputs were on different countries than that for foodstuff imports. Thus, when identifying and assessing approaches to increase resilience to trade-related shocks, it is essential to understand both foodstuff and agricultural input dependencies within the global food system.
Interplay of trade and food system resilience : Gains on supply diversity over time at the cost of trade independency
(2020-03-01) Kummu, Matti; Kinnunen, Pekka; Lehikoinen, Elina; Porkka, Miina; Queiroz, Cibele; Röös, Elin; Troell, Max; Weil, Charlotte
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Rapidly increasing international food trade has drastically altered the global food system over the past decades. Using national scale indicators, we assess two of the resilience principles that directly reflect the effects of global trade on food systems – namely, maintaining diversity and redundancy, and managing connectivity. We perform our analysis for four nutritional components: dietary energy, proteins, fat, and quantity of vegetables & pizza – the key pillars of the WHO dietary recommendations. Our results indicate that, between 1987 and 2013, food supply diversity increased significantly for most of the world's population at the cost of an elevated dependency upon food imports. Food production diversity, particularly in terms of dietary energy and vegetables & pizza, increased for a large proportion of the world population, with the exception being major exporting countries, where it decreased. Of particular note is our finding that, despite a growing number of people being heavily dependent upon imports, the number of import partners decreased more often than it increased, except for the case of vegetables & pizza. This combination of increased dependency on imports and a reduced number of import partners indicates a potential vulnerability to disruptions in linked food systems. Additionally, it is alarming that we found many countries where the studied resilience aspects systematically declined, elevating their exposure to future shocks in the food system.
Kadun vastavalmistuneiden huleveden biosuodatusalueiden toimivuus Vantaalla
(2015-06-08) Lehikoinen, Elina
Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu | Master's thesis
Työn tavoitteena oli selvittää kahden erilaisen biosuodatusalueen rakentamisen jälkeistä käyttäytymistä niin toimivuuden kuin kunnossapidon näkökulmasta. Biosuodatusalueet sijaitsevat Vantaalla ja niiden tutkimuksen lähtökohtana olivat Etelä-Suomen kylmät ilmasto-olot. Vantaan kaupunki rakennutti Tikkurilantien uuden katualueen rakennustöiden yhteydessä ajoradan ja kevyenliikenteenväylän väliin pitkän kadunsuuntaisen biosuodatusalueen. Biosuodatusalue muodostuu seitsemästä tarkkailukohteesta, joissa pintakasvillisuus ja rakennekerrokset muodostavat erilaisia kombinaatioita. Tikkurilantien lisäksi Vantaan kaupunki rakennutti Meiramitien peruskorjauksen yhteydessä ajoradan ja kevyenliikenteenväylän väliin viisi biosuodatusaluetta ja kaksi viheraluetta, joissa kasvillisuus on monipuolista ja vaihtelee biosuodatusalueittain. Tikkurilantiellä biosuodatusalueen tutkimus keskittyi tarkkailukohteiden keskinäiseen vertailuun ja ajalliseen muutokseen sekä parhaimman kombinaation löytämiseen laboratorioanalyysien avulla. Lisäksi biosuodatusalueiden toimintaa mallinnettiin sadanta-valunta ‒mallilla (Storm Water Management Model, SWMM). Työssä selvitettiin, mitä lähtötietoja biosuodatusalueiden mallintamiseen tarvitaan ja miten mallintamista voidaan hyödyntää biosuodatusalueiden suunnittelussa. Meiramitiellä biosuodatusalueiden toimivuutta ja kunnossapidon vaatimuksia selvitettiin haastattelemalla Vantaan kaupungin kuntatekniikan keskuksen henkilöstöä sekä tekemällä maastokäyntejä erilaisten sääolosuhteiden aikaan. Työn tulokset osoittivat, että vastavalmistuneet biosuodatusalueet ovat erityisesti ravinteiden päästölähteitä, mutta osittain lisäävät heti valmistuttuaan myös kiintoainetta, sameutta sekä raskasmetalleja poistuvaan huleveteen. Suurimmaksi kuormittajaksi todettiin kasvualusta, mutta toisaalta pelkkä hiekkasuodatus antoi heikkoja tuloksia etenkin ravinteiden pidättymisessä. Tarkkailujakson aikana biosuodatusalueiden laadullisessa toimivuudessa oli havaittavissa positiivista muutosta sekä määrällisesti biosuodatusalueet toimivat hyvin koko tarkkailujakson ajan luoden viihtyisän maisemakuvan. Haastatteluissa korostettiin biosuodatusalueiden suunnittelun monitieteisyyttä ja avointa kommunikaatiota eri osapuolten välillä. Kadunpidon ja virhealueyksikön kunnossapidon vaatimusten huomioinen jo luonnosvaiheessa osoittautui erittäin tärkeäksi. Jatkotutkimuksia tarvitaan selvittämään, miten vastavalmistuneiden biosuodatusalueiden toimivuus tasaantuu, ja biosuodatusalueiden haitta-aineiden pidätyskyky muuttuu pitkän ajan kuluessa. Vastaavasti tarvitaan myös lisäselvitystä biosuodatusalueiden kasvillisuuden ja rakennekerrosten kunnossapitovälistä, jotta biosuodatusalueiden toimintaan pystytään arvioimaan pitkän aikavälin kokonaistoimivuuden perusteella.
Large-scale land deals and deforestation in sub-Saharan Africa
(2019-01-28) Toiviainen, Veli-Pekka
Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu | Master's thesis
Replacing Imports of Crop Based Commodities by Domestic Production in Finland: Potential to Reduce Virtual Water Imports
(2018-10-17) Sandström, Vilma; Lehikoinen, Elina; Peltonen-Sainio, Pirjo
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Global water scarcity is a severe threat facing humanity today and it is expected to become even more alarming in the future. Agriculture is the biggest user of freshwater and large volumes of embedded virtual water in food products are traded through the global food system annually. Although Finland has vast water resources, it imports large quantities of virtual water–partly from countries suffering from water scarcity. In this article, we present a novel combination of the virtual water study together with an analysis of the potential reallocation of the outsourced production of rice, soybeans and rapeseed, from the water resource-efficiency point of view. To assess how Finland could reduce the outsourced water consumption by these three crops, we evaluated Finland's potential to replace their imports with local comparable products: domestic barley and oats, field peas and faba beans, and rapeseed, respectively. This replacement would both potentially ease the global pressure on already stressed regions and increase the agricultural diversity of the local agricultural systems. We found that by replacing the imports of the selected crops, considering the realistic potential in Finland, up to 16% of the blue water and almost 30% of the green water embedded in crop imports could be reduced. Although Finland is a minor player in the global food markets, our study presents a highly relevant case of how an industrialized country, with a relatively small population, can contribute to the sustainability of food systems globally.