Local Food Production—Why Aquaculture Makes Sense

Presentation Abstract

Aquaculture is likely to supply most of the projected increased need for seafood over the next few decades. With available land and freshwater becoming scarce, marine aquaculture (finfish, shellfish, and seaweeds) will be an increasingly important contributor to the world’s future food supply. Aquaculture is well established in many countries and continues to grow worldwide. Aquaculture creates jobs and supports working waterfronts. Aquaculture helps to maintain working waterfronts by relying on common infrastructure (docks, boats, processing facilities) and supports industries throughout the seafood supply chain such as equipment, supplies, feeds, processing, wholesaling, retailing, and food services. Aquaculture is one of the most resource-efficient ways to produce protein. Marine aquaculture is a sustainable method to produce food (relative to beef and pork production) from the standpoint of resource efficiency (e.g., use of water, land, feed, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions) and in terms of environmental effects. Research and data show that aquaculture is sustainable if properly managed. U.S. and Canadian marine aquaculture is characterized by smart design, evolved management practices, effective monitoring capabilities, and strict regulatory requirements. Much environmental concern expressed about marine aquaculture stems from outdated domestic practices that have since been improved or practices in other countries, which may have varying environmental protection standards. Growing seafood locally makes sense to maintain regulatory oversight and economic benefits, as well as reducing carbon footprint from storage and transport, and generating healthy high quality protein for our communities.

Session Title

Local Food Production: Aquaculture in the Salish Sea

Conference Track

Food and Food Security

Conference Name

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2016 : Vancouver, B.C.)

Document Type

Event

Location

2016SSEC

Type of Presentation

Oral

Genre/Form

presentations (communicative events)

Contributing Repository

Digital content made available by University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.

Subjects – Topical (LCSH)

Sustainable aquaculture--Environmental aspects--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Sustainable aquaculture--Economic aspects--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)

Geographic Coverage

Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)

Comments

This presentation is designed to be the 1st presentation during the local food production session.

Rights

This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws. For more information about rights or obtaining copies of this resource, please contact University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9103, USA (360-650-7534; heritage.resources@wwu.edu) and refer to the collection name and identifier. Any materials cited must be attributed to the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Records, University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.

Type

Text

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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Local Food Production—Why Aquaculture Makes Sense

2016SSEC

Aquaculture is likely to supply most of the projected increased need for seafood over the next few decades. With available land and freshwater becoming scarce, marine aquaculture (finfish, shellfish, and seaweeds) will be an increasingly important contributor to the world’s future food supply. Aquaculture is well established in many countries and continues to grow worldwide. Aquaculture creates jobs and supports working waterfronts. Aquaculture helps to maintain working waterfronts by relying on common infrastructure (docks, boats, processing facilities) and supports industries throughout the seafood supply chain such as equipment, supplies, feeds, processing, wholesaling, retailing, and food services. Aquaculture is one of the most resource-efficient ways to produce protein. Marine aquaculture is a sustainable method to produce food (relative to beef and pork production) from the standpoint of resource efficiency (e.g., use of water, land, feed, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions) and in terms of environmental effects. Research and data show that aquaculture is sustainable if properly managed. U.S. and Canadian marine aquaculture is characterized by smart design, evolved management practices, effective monitoring capabilities, and strict regulatory requirements. Much environmental concern expressed about marine aquaculture stems from outdated domestic practices that have since been improved or practices in other countries, which may have varying environmental protection standards. Growing seafood locally makes sense to maintain regulatory oversight and economic benefits, as well as reducing carbon footprint from storage and transport, and generating healthy high quality protein for our communities.