Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumWe’re now farming more fish than cattle globally
By Lauren Alix Brown
For the first time in history, the world is farming more fish than cattle. According to a recent report from the Earth Policy Institute, the output of farmed fish reached 66 million tons (60 million tonnes) in 2012, more than the 63 million tons of beef production.
This is not to say that meat production has slowed; it has actually increased by 600% since 1950 due to population growth. But more consumers are turning to healthier forms of protein, and fish farming, or aquaculture, has skyrocketed as natural fish reserves have declined. Meanwhile, rising soybean and grain prices needed to sustain cattle have contributed to meats decline. This year may be the first time that people eat more farmed fish than fish caught in the wild, according to the report.
China, which accounts for 62% of the worlds aquaculture, raises fish like silver carp, which can survive on cheaper inputs like grass and plankton. But farmed shrimp and salmon survive on fishmeal and fish oil from anchovies, sardines, and herring, which are greatly over-harvested from the seas. Our rising consumption of fish cant continue, then, unless we find more sustainable ways to farm them.
http://qz.com/96368/were-now-farming-more-fish-than-cattle/
Scuba
(53,475 posts)GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)It's what we do...
ConcernedCanuk
(13,509 posts).
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after the White Man discovered them.
after we eat ourselves out of momma nature's blessings we'll resort to cannibalism.
And we're practicing how to bomb ourselves back into the Stone Age.
We're getting good at it.
CC