A Solution to the Coming Protein Crunch?
Then there’s the small matter of feeding everyone. Global demand for protein is soaring, just as wild fish stocks are, to put it mildly, under a bit of pressure. The old way of doing things, chucking a big net in the sea and hoping for the best, is hitting its natural limits. This is where sustainable aquaculture comes in.
I’m not talking about the murky fish farms of old. The technology has moved on. Think of land based, closed loop systems that use a fraction of the water and produce almost no pollution. Or consider companies like AquaBounty Technologies, which has developed salmon that grow faster on less feed. After a gruelling regulatory battle, they are now scaling up just as the world is waking up to a potential protein deficit. The timing, you have to admit, is rather neat. It’s a pragmatic solution to a very real, and very profitable, problem.