**5. Conclusions**

The practices here defined as practices of quiet sustainability are rooted in a traditional land managemen<sup>t</sup> system that was ecologically sustainable out of necessity. As they have coevolved in a society that has been increasingly connected to the global market economy and dominated and colonized by industrial social metabolism, they are also changing. Food provisioning practices such as sheep, livestock, and poultry rearing increasingly rely on imported animal feed, and the production of local feed, mostly straw fodder, is increasingly mechanized. The question of how a sustainable local food system can be organized in an open economy context requires a deepened and transdisciplinary understanding of how production is coupled to local ecosystems as well as to foreign ecosystems, and how this pertains to issues of resiliency, vulnerability, and sustainability. Chertow et al. [12] have explored these relevant themes in a discussion of four island societies that have consciously attempted to reconnect vital aspects of their economies to their natural systems. It is, however, crucially important that such processes are guided by adequate analytical insight into the complexity of sustainable coevolution as both a bio-physical process and a cultural process. While a recoupling of the natural system is always intended to enhance self-su fficiency and resilience, such e fforts are not necessarily sustainable in the long term. As an example, e fforts at reconnecting Faroese dairy production to the local natural system rather than to rely on imported feed could potentially entail a radical transformation of the Faroese cultural landscape into an agro-industrial landscape. Such transformation towards greater intensification and industrialization of agriculture would increase local production of feed, but considering the very limited land area suitable for mechanized cultivation, it would also contribute to the erosion and abandonment of what Tello et al. [87] (p. 52) have called "true biocultural landscapes," entailing a loss of crops, breeds, knowledge, practices, and people.

In conclusion, distinct modes of social metabolism are discernible in the Faroes. An unsustainable industrial metabolism, governed by ideologies of growth, is colonizing and homogenizing the Faroese landscape. Another mode, which is rooted in the traditional land managemen<sup>t</sup> system involves a direct metabolic connection between people and their landscape through food provisioning practices such as hunting and gathering, cultivation, and animal husbandry. It has been asserted here that these practices can be conceptualized as practices of quiet sustainability and that they should be acknowledged, guided, protected, and promoted, and in a concrete sense be given space in physical and land use planning, both in rural and urban settings. Rather than focusing too narrowly on sustainability transitions that are di fficult to overcome and require large restructuring of society and technological infrastructure, as well as behavioral change, practices of quiet sustainability are already in place and deeply meaningful for people to engage in [88]. In Faroese policy discourse, traditional and alternative food-provisioning practices are perceived at best as supplementary to the "real economy," but their dietary contribution has been shown to be significant in quantitative terms, and a considerable expansion of local food production could arguably be achieved within a quiet sustainability framework, particularly regarding fisheries and cultivation for direct human consumption. Such a trajectory would contribute to both human and ecological health, and would enhance biocultural diversity, resilience, food security, and food sovereignty. It would simultaneously expand the alternatives to the growth-oriented industrial production strategies currently dominating the islands. Further research into diverse and alternative food provisioning practices in the Faroes could provide important insight into how alternative modes and spheres of social metabolism are organized, maintained, and culturally negotiated, and how they can be expanded in order to reduce the social metabolism of human society without undermining human well-being. Thinking with this specific Faroese case and other cases of island metabolism(s), and through the metaphor of islanding, might also provide more general insight into how sustainable socio-metabolic spheres can be protected

and enhanced in a context of globalization and financial speculation in the struggle of forging less resource-intensive paths into the future.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.
