Speaker
Description
Over the last few decades, Belgium has become the world’s largest exporter of processed potato products such as frozen fries. In 2023, the industry exported 3.5 million tonnes of these products to over 150 countries, with 49% of the volume destined for non-EU markets, such as Brazil, Colombia, Japan and China. To sustain its economic growth, the industry relies on expanding its production capacity both domestically and abroad, increasing the availability of natural resources, expanding export markets and implementing technological innovations to improve efficiency in the supply chain. However, with rising concerns about climate change, the limited availability of natural resources and environmental pressure due to the large-scale cultivation of potatoes in some regions, as well as a fall in exports, questions are being asked about the sustainability of the industry’s economic growth.
To evaluate and anticipate the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the industry’s growth, quantitative storytelling (QST) is used in this study to analyse the narratives that are used to justify policies and innovations that enable and sustain this growth. The method involves a multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM), testing the robustness of these narratives in terms of feasibility (within biophysical limits), viability (within socio-economic limits) and desirability (compatibility with societal norms and aspirations).
This approach makes bottlenecks, constraints and contradictions in these narratives explicit, providing support for stakeholder discussions and fostering dialogue about achieving climate neutrality and a just transition in Belgium’s potato industry.
| If your abstract is not accepted for an oral presentation, would you be interested in presenting it as a poster instead? | Yes |
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| If accepted by the Scientific Board, I agree to have my presentation/poster and abstract published on the Belgian Climate Centre websites and social media. | Yes |
