As the international community continues to grapple with the future of humanity, most recently at this month’s UN Summit of the Future, the question of how to feed and nourish a growing population without destroying the planet have become increasingly pressing.An additional 150 million people went hungry last year compared with 2019, with more than 730 million people undernourished worldwide, and the outlook remains precarious. At the same time, food systems are under growing pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with evidence that they are responsible for approximately a third of all human-caused emissions, two-thirds of which are generated by land-based systems.
Sustainably meeting future global nutritional needs will therefore increasingly rely on fish and other aquatic foods, which have a lower environmental impact than terrestrial animal-sourced foods, yet provide the same – if not greater – nutritional returns.
Aquatic foods already make a significant contribution to global nutrition. The fish currently landed by small-scale fisheries globally represent half of the recommended nutrient intake of omega-3 fatty acids of 987 million women. And farmed bivalves like oysters and mussels, for example, require limited freshwater and land, while providing 76 times more vitamin B-12 and five times more iron than chicken.
But protecting and maintaining fish stocks and aquatic ecosystems to sustain the necessary production and supply also requires more investment and innovation. As of 2017, about a third of global fish stocks were overfished, while the impacts of climate change have undermined production through changing ocean temperatures, salinity levels and excessive algal growth, or eutrophication.
Despite the enormous potential of aquatic food systems to feed the world more sustainably, a significant financing gap persists in research and development. The investment gap in African aquaculture alone amounts to $12bn annually. Addressing this gap is essential for reco …
