An Eco-Friendly Answer
Imagine the Earth’s landscape, rid of trees and flattened, a desolate crust of dry, cracked rock. This is the image of a world relying on agricultural, dry-land farming for food. Farming is crucial for humanity’s food safety, but at what cost? Our planet’s immense human population and massive need for food is, plainly, a direct relationship. An unavoidable result of this relationship is that demand for food increases pressure on Earth’s land ecosystems (think an increase in deforestation, pollution).
According to Volkert Engelsman of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, “‘We are losing 30 soccer fields of soil every minute, mostly due to intensive farming,’” and the UN reports that generating “three centimeters of top soil takes 1,000 years.” Farming of protein such as beef, pork, and chicken relies on agricultural feed crops, which utilize dry land space. A provable answer for feeding the world’s rapidly growing population is vital, one that has a smaller impact on our environment. That answer could be fish from sustainable aquaculture.
Why fish?
The wondrous biology of the fish makes it a more sustainable protein option than land-going animals. Since fish float, they do not burn as many calories as land animals. Take away gravity, and less work is needed to be completed internally to convert food into energy. According to the Global Aquaculture Alliance, “farming salmon is about seven times more efficient than raising beef.” Sustainable aquaculture feed options for fish have potential to positively impact environmental conditions—kelp, a type of macroalgae, for feed can be grown in the ocean, and these plants absorb detrimental greenhouse gases.
Sustainable farming of fish, hand-in-hand with ocean plant-based feed, takes some burden off of wild-caught resources. Instead of turning to finite ocean fish populations for food, fish farms can be used to grow protein. In addition, some current aquaculture methods rely on wild-caught forage fish populations to create feed for farmed species (like tuna, salmon or trout). If the aquaculture industry makes the switch to sustainable feed options, demand for forage fish could be reduced. This has a positive impact on wild predators and ocean ecosystems!
An important note: a healthy ocean is a crucial part of the Earth’s overall health. (This does make sense, as the Earth is covered by 71% ocean.) When biomass in the ocean increases, the temperature of our Earth decreases. This is due to carbon absorption by ocean creatures—when there is an abundance of life in the ocean (I mean, billions of organisms), the capacity for carbon metabolization is huge! A flourishing ocean ecosystem marks just the beginning of the chain of Earth-friendly (therefore, human-friendly) impacts.
The ability to grow fish in water, and more specifically, in the ocean, means that land resources need-not be destroyed for farming. As new aquaculture techniques and technologies appear on the market, the farming of fish has potential to become much more specialized and non-invasive. Companies like HATCH Blue are working to kick-start the development of sustainable, disruptive technologies in this industry.
As far as actually eating fish goes, fish are delicious and a wonderful source of protein. Fatty fish like salmon, trout, and sardines are high in nutrients like vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids. Studies have shown eating fish can help with memory and brain function, and reduce risk of autoimmune disease, heart attack, and stroke.
Turning to sustainable aquaculture practices for a source of food won’t eliminate all land-based protein sources. However, overall, seafood is a feasible pursuit in the name of resource efficiency and environmental consciousness.
P.S.
Don’t forget: aquaculture isn’t only about fish. Crustaceans and mollusks, like shrimp, crab, oysters, and clams, are part of the aquaculture world, too!