To use all functions of this page, please activate cookies in your browser.
Is your seafood climate friendly?
Scientists outline the benefits of marine aquaculture
As a major source of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, food production has long occupied an important place in the climate-change discussion. Writing in BioScience, Alice Jones of the University of Adelaide, and an international team of scientists from the University and The Nature Conservancy, discuss the potential of marine aquaculture, or mariculture, to sustainably feed a growing human population.
Mariculture already constitutes 52% of the aquatic animal products people consume, say the authors, and these products may offer a way to deliver high-protein foodstuffs without the high carbon footprint of equivalent terrestrial products. "The GHG emissions per unit of protein produced by aquaculture generally compare favorably with most livestock production," say Jones and colleagues. A major contributor to mariculture's climate-friendly profile is that, unlike livestock grazing, it doesn't require substantial land-use change such as the razing of rainforest to make room for cattle.
To further improve mariculture's sustainability advantage, the authors describe ways that its emissions could be reduced. For instance, say Jones and colleagues, there are opportunities for supply chain improvements that would permit the transport of mariculture products to consumers with a considerably improved GHG footprint. Regional markets for mariculture would help, too, with the added benefit of greater food security. At the mariculture sites themselves, opportunities to improve the carbon profile abound, for instance by "cofarming bivalves with seaweed, which can lead to a net reduction in CO2 emissions, and cofarming fed finfish with seaweed or bivalves." Such measures, say the authors, would result in greater absorption of excess nutrients, reducing eutrophication and, ultimately, the degradation habitats that already store carbon.
The authors conclude with the hope that their efforts to integrate mariculture with its related environmental benefits, such as GHG abatement programs, can "support the development of climate-friendly mariculture practices that generate sustainable ecological, social, and economic outcomes."
- emissions
- aquaculture
- supply chain
- sustainability
- seaweed
- Nature Conservancy
- food security
- cattle
- climate change
- carbon footprint
- food
- CO2 emissions
- absorption
- carbon
- 13 drink trends to watch-out for in 2022
- 2Tequila, verjus and more: trend drinks 2022
- 3A plant-based replacement for dairy and eggs in foods
- 4How to ruin the taste of a cookie with just 2 words
- 5Kroger Announces 10 Food Trend Predictions for 2022
- 6Beyond cows: 3 strategies for milk from other animals to compete with cow and plant based diary
- 7Food prices on record course
- 8Consumption of pistachios is associated with a variety of health benefits
- 9More beer in the glass with physics
- 10Ecological coating for bananas
- Digital dietician can help people make better choices
- Gene-edited tomatoes could be a new source of vitamin D
- New strategies to save the world’s most indispensable grain
- consumers associate higher-pitched commercials with healthier food products
- Microplastics: a food contamination that would harm the functioning of our i ...
- Digital dietician can help people make better choices
- Coca-Cola North America Anchors Prioritized Tea Strategy with Fast-Growing Gold Peak and Peace Tea
- New strategies to save the world’s most indispensable grain
- USA fly in more baby food via Ramstein due to shortages
- How fast-growing algae could enhance growth of food crops