When the FAO was created back in 1945, the ambition was to defeat hunger. 10 to 15% of the world’s people were found undernourished and up to half suffering from hunger, malnutrition or both. Progress has been made since then, however, in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 8.9% of the global population - almost 690 million people - were still undernourished. According to the latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, published in 2020, “the COVID-19 pandemic may add an additional 83 to 132 million people to the ranks of the undernourished in 2020.” Should no decisive step be taken to act boldly, the number of undernourished people will exceed 840 million by 2030.
In a rapidly changing landscape with political instability, climate change, resource scarcity, social inequality, not mentioning zoonotic diseases such as Covid-19, sustainability must become the norm whilst ensuring predictability in order to guarantee food security.
In 2025, the world’s population will reach 8.1 billion. Robust solutions to feed people are needed. No matter whether they are novel solutions or existing ones – most likely a combination. Key requirements are quality, quantity and sustainability. The latter criteria should be understood according to its original definition, taking economic, environmental and social considerations into account.
Bearing this in mind, getting more food from the sea seems increasingly sensible: the dietary profile and carbon footprint of seafood is better than livestock production’s, not mentioning biodiversity loss resulting from deforestation. The Future of Food from the Sea, a paper recently published in Nature, provided an economic roadmap for sustainable ocean food production to meet food requirements. A 36-74% increase compared to the current yield of 59 million tons of food currently sustainably provided by the ocean could be expected by 2050. What is crucial is that this calculation reflects the economic realities of growing and harvesting food in the ocean.
So, what is needed to sustainably increase food from the sea? The authors identified four key steps:
- Improve fishery management
- Implement policy reforms to address mariculture
- Advance feed technologies for fed mariculture
- Shift consumer demand
We should support positive changes to achieve this vital goal; innovation – not only technical innovation – should be embraced as a means to this end. Fishery management has proven efficient to rebuild stocks.
Regulation on food safety provides protection to consumers based on demonstrated scientific evidence that consumption has been safe throughout a few years (25 years in the case of countries from the European Union for instance). Provided this precautionary approach is respected, regulation should be adjusted / complemented / changed to reflect the society in which we are living.
Consumer demand can be volatile. Shifting consumers’ perceptions requires consistency and perseverance and are not always successful.
As for improving feed technology, trade-offs shouldn’t be overlooked, and the Future of Food from the Sea paper provides a balanced analysis whilst warning against additional pressure on terrestrial ecosystems that could result from a shift in feed ingredient sourcing: “Replacing fishmeal and fish oil from wild caught fish with alternative feed ingredients may compromise some of the aspects that make food from the sea a uniquely promising contributor to food security” the authors of the Future of Food from the Sea paper underlined.
Petter Martin Johannessen