**1. Introduction**

On a global scale, and in a long-term perspective, current levels of resource use in human economies are not sustainable. As natural capital is spent at a faster pace than it is replenished, the capabilities of the earth system to provide vital ecosystem service are undermined, and critical planetary boundaries for a safe human operating space are transgressed [1–4]. The scale of global environmental change is unprecedented in human history [5] and the consequences on the climate and other crucial ecosystem functions have long been reported. More recently, this research is synthesized by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). Achieving a high quality of life for more than seven billion people without destabilizing planetary processes and undermining fundamental ecosystem services remains a formidable challenge, and it requires a reduction in absolute resource use and thereby a reduction in social metabolism [6].

Islands are "good to think with" [7], and the paper addresses the above mentioned challenge thinking with the case of the Faroe Islands, or the Faroes, a small island nation in the North Atlantic. As boundaries are more easily discernible on islands, they o ffer grea<sup>t</sup> potential in the study of crucial issues pertaining to sustainability such as biocultural diversity, and the social organization of material and energy flows [8–11].

This particular case study o ffers an opportunity to think about sustainability and human well-being by looking at social metabolism in the Faroes in a long-term perspective. It traces the emergence of an ecologically sustainable land managemen<sup>t</sup> system from the time of settlement around 300 AD and identifies economic practices carried out by Faroese people today rooted in this system. It also briefly traces the emergence and development of industrial metabolism during the twentieth century. As has been shown to be the case for other island societies [12], the Faroes experienced substantial transformations after the 1950s, which entailed increased resource dependence beyond the islands' geographical borders. The Faroese trajectory can be compared with the metabolic profiles of other small island states such as Iceland and Trinidad and Tobago, which have been described by Krausmann et al. [11] as examples of high-income island economies with very specific resource use patterns. In the case of the Faroes, an export-oriented fishing industry (and in later decades also aquaculture) is driving very high, and increasing, levels of material and energy use per capita [13]. The geographical isolation combined with a metabolic profile of high-level resource extraction, and high dependence on imports, makes island societies vulnerable to economic and ecological flux. One extreme case to illustrate this point is Nauru, where phosphate mining devastated local ecosystems to a very large degree and where the social and cultural consequences of such devastation are evident [14]. To counter this development of increasing dependency, many island societies have consciously sought to reconnect their island economies to their natural systems, but such recoupling presents several challenges related to questions of resilience, vulnerability, and sustainability [12].

#### *Social Metabolism, Biocultural Diversity, and Diverse Practices of Quiet Sustainability*

Reversing the trend of growing social metabolism without compromising human well-being is arguably the key challenge for sustainability science. While much focus remains on technological solutions, the cultural dimensions of sustainability are often neglected, together with the realization that the process of increasing social metabolism is also a process of increasing biodiversity and cultural loss. In other words, increasing social metabolism is very often a process of decontextualization [15] and of biocultural homogenization [16,17] often entailing environmental and social injustices and tradeo ffs [18]. As Rozzi [16] has argued, in the context of global socio-environmental change, the world views, knowledge, and practices of sustainable cultures should be respected and eventually adapted through intercultural exchange. This article explores how practices rooted not in other cultures, but in an ecologically sustainable cultural past may be adapted, or reevaluated and enhanced in a modern, high-resource use context. In a recent review of Pacific small island knowledge-practice-belief systems, McMillen et al. [19] argue that such systems include valuable insights on ecological processes and managemen<sup>t</sup> of biocultural diversity relevant for resilience and adaptability, particularly regarding the e ffects of climate change. The argumen<sup>t</sup> put forward here is that such knowledge systems are not only crucial for adaptability to climate change, but also in mitigation. The recognition of the importance of traditional and indigenous knowledge in land and resource managemen<sup>t</sup> is not new [20] and is visible, for instance, in article eight in the Convention of Biological Diversity and the accompanying Akwé: Kon guidelines, but in most policy context it remains at the margin of mainstream development discourse. However, as the consequences of mainstream "development" become evident, the importance of nurturing and conserving local and culturally specific economic practices and habits is increasingly recognized.

In the following analysis, economic practices in the Faroes, rooted in the traditional land managemen<sup>t</sup> system, are identified as practices of "quiet sustainability." Smith and Jehlicka [21] have defined quiet sustainability as long-standing forms of food self-provisioning, i.e., the growing and sharing of food as common practices carrying environmental and social benefits, ye<sup>t</sup> it receives little consideration in academic literature and policy discourse on sustainability. Practices of quiet sustainability are everyday practices with low environmental impacts. Such practices, in the Faroese context, can also be conceptualized as a form of diverse or alternative economic practice, as defined by Gibson-Graham [22]. From a physical perspective they are rooted in a traditional socio-economic

system where nutrients and biomass were recycled, and which was primarily oriented towards local consumption and self-provisioning. From an ideological perspective, they are rooted in land managemen<sup>t</sup> traditions, which were governed by a so-called limited-good world view [23]. These characteristics distinguish them from the economic practices and moral principles characterizing and organizing the growth oriented industrial metabolism of the Faroes.

In order to illuminate the distinctions between industrial social metabolism and the social metabolism of quiet sustainability, the analysis draws on theoretical discussions on socio-metabolic constellations/configurations, and the implications for long-term sustainability. Additionally, the analysis draws on theoretical insights from long-term socio-ecological research, environmental history, and historical political ecology, such as the concept of landesque capital [24–31], in order to investigate how di fferent socio-metabolic configurations produce distinct forms of capital stocks, and the role of these capital stocks in resource flow path dependencies [32–34]. One key insight gained from this body of research and literature is that humans can organize society and social metabolism in ways that contribute to both sustainability and equality. Accepting this proposition avoids the analytical confinement to the idea that there is a fundamental contradiction between human society and the natural environment [35]. Humans, however, can also organize social metabolism in ways that undermine the very ecological and social foundation of their (or others') society. Endeavors to establish and maintain balanced relations between environmental sustainability and social and economic equality are a central question in (historical) political ecology [36], and the urgency of this question is becoming ever more apparent as both social metabolism and economic inequality are increasing [37,38]. Such endeavors towards ecological sustainability and economic equity may arguably be seen as processes of "islanding" [39]: of perceiving, discerning, and negotiating the boundaries that define human–human and human–nature interrelations. One way of doing this, in practice, is to organize economies into separate spheres of exchange. The principle of separate spheres of exchange has been identified ethnographically in many cultures, and it has been suggested as a way to "insulate local sustainability and resilience from the deleterious e ffects of globalization and financial speculation" [40]. Departing from this point, the aim here is to identify and delineate distinct spheres or modes of social metabolism co-occurring on the Faroes. The implication is a deliberate emphasis on the fact that distinct modes of social metabolism do not only belong to certain historical time periods defined as metabolic regimes [41,42], but that such modes co-occur, and that people, in their daily practices, switch between socio-metabolic modalities [43,44]. The fact that they are coeval is of relevance for sustainability science because it demonstrates that alternatives to unsustainable resource use patterns and strategies are already (quietly) present in society.

One of the traits defining practices of quiet sustainability is that they contribute to sustainability but without explicitly seeking to do so. These practices are thus already contributing to sustainability but are not counted as such. The main contribution of this article is to count some of these practices, and thereby make them count. In other words, to quantify the contribution of the people practicing "quiet sustainability" in the Faroes to highlight the relevance of these activities as already existing and potential forces of sustainability, and their importance to food security and food sovereignty in an island context.

#### **2. Materials and Methods**

The Faroe Islands are an island nation in the North Atlantic Ocean comprising 18 islands, 17 of which are inhabited. The population is approximately 51,000, and the land area is 1399 square kilometers. Ocean territory or EEZ (exclusive economic zone) is almost 274,000 square kilometers. The Faroes were probably first settled around 300 AD and became part of the Norwegian Kingdom in the 13th century. Together with Greenland and Iceland, the Faroes were under the Norwegian and later the Danish crown but gained Home Rule in 1948 and are a self-governing nation with extensive autonomous powers and responsibilities within the kingdom of Denmark. The Faroes are often popularly described as a welfare society of the so-called Nordic model, and GDP per capita ranks

among the highest in the world [45]. Fish has been the main export item for the past century, and fish products make out 90–95% of the export value.

As the primary ambition with this paper is an investigation of social metabolism in the Faroe Islands, it draws on methods and methodology in the field of social metabolism [46,47]. While the official statistics agency of the Faroes produces much relevant statistical material, physical statistics are not prioritized, and this makes more established methods of material and energy flows, such as MEFA and MFA, less feasible. Regarding informal economic practices that would fall under the definition of "quiet sustainability," even those that contribute significant volumes of food, these are often classified as "hobbies" within Faroese administration [48], and statistics are not available.

The methods used in this analysis have therefore been adapted to the specific context of the field and the aim of the study. To provide a metabolic profile and a schematic assessment of Faroese industrial metabolism, relevant statistical material has been collected from peer-reviewed literature and publicly available statistical records. The method used to make quantitative estimates of quiet sustainability practices has been to conduct searches in peer-reviewed literature, gray literature, and statistical records. In some cases, o fficial statistics are available, for instance statistical records on the Faroese pilot whale catch go back to the year 1584 and are therefore among the best documented hunting practices in the world. For other alternative and traditionally rooted economic practices, information is more obscure and most of the data has been found in gray literature, mostly from governmen<sup>t</sup> and agency reports. Data on fowling has been obtained through personal communication with experts in the field. The practices included in the analysis are therefore those where data were found to base estimates on. These practices were sheep rearing, potato cultivation, fowling, and whaling. This selection and methodological approach means that many other practices are excluded, such as the raising of geese, ducks, and chicken, other forms of hunting and gathering, and more.

The methodology also implies a gendered approach to the economy, emphasizing the male sphere and excluding food items that are mostly produced by women, such as various kinds of sausages made from the parts of sheep that are not meat. Likewise, limiting practices of quiet sustainability to food provisioning practices means excluding other traditional and essential provisioning strategies such as the production of yarn and clothes through the practices of spinning, weaving, and particularly knitting, which many Faroese women continue to engage in on a daily basis.
