The recent peer reviewed paper by Froehlich et al., “No Free Lunch”, rightly underscores a fundamental truth: all food production carries an environmental footprint, and aquaculture is no exception. What resonates strongly from an IFFO perspective is the authors’ call to acknowledge decades of scientific progress, particularly around feed sustainability.

Criticism of aquaculture’s reliance on marine ingredients often hinges on obsolete metrics, ignoring changes in feed formulation. Today, fishmeal and fish oil are no longer bulk commodities but strategic feed ingredients used at critical life stages to ensure optimal growth, health, and quality of farmed species. Their unique nutritional profile remains unmatched by terrestrial alternatives. Moreover, the sector is truly circular: 34% of fishmeal and 55% of fish oil now originate from by-products (IFFO’s 2024 data), improving resource efficiency and helping keep nutrients within the food chain.

The paper’s emphasis on comparative assessment is crucial. Marine ingredients consistently outperform many terrestrial feed sources in terms of carbon footprint, land use, and water consumption. Substituting them entirely with crops or novel proteins could inadvertently increase environmental pressures elsewhere. Scalability remains a challenge, and marine resources will continue to play a pivotal role in meeting the nutritional needs of a growing aquaculture sector.

Looking ahead, sustainability must be framed as a multi-ingredient strategy, not a binary choice. Marine ingredients are part of the solution.

Froehlich et al. remind us that there is “no free lunch.” For IFFO and its stakeholders, this means keeping the focus on responsible sourcing, transparency, and science-based decision-making.