What food requires no fresh water, produces little carbon dioxide, does not use any arable land, and provides healthy, lean protein at a cost accessible to the world’s poor?
WILD SEAFOOD.
This is the same question our very own CEO Andrew Sharpless will be asking audience members at The Economist’s “Feeding the World” conference this week in Amsterdam.
In addition to Oceana, other experts from agribusiness, policy, science, and the NGO community will join the conversation by discussing and debating the future of food security as the world population grows toward 9 billion by 2050.
Andy will contribute to this prestigious global conversation by presenting Oceana’s “Save the Oceans: Feed the World” initiative which details the benefits of wild fish as a food source. He’ll explain the many advantages wild fish has over traditional agriculture, especially in developing countries, as it’s cheap and accessible to anyone with a hook or a net and requires no ownership of land or access to fresh water.
The best part is that we already know how to maximize the ocean’s potential as a food source. It requires the same steps we’re already taking to preserve biodiversity, such as reducing bycatch, protecting habitat and enforcing scientific quotas. We just have to do it in the right places.
If managed effectively in the 25 countries that control 75% of the world’s fish stocks, wild fish will be abundant enough to feed 12 billion people by 2050, which far exceeds the current population projections. Andy will explain that by protecting our dwindling fish stocks and focusing on effective fisheries management in the top fishing nations, fish can become the perfect protein of the future.
Andy has discussed Oceana’s efforts in previous presentations, but The Economist’s conference is especially timely given the European Union’s recent action to curb overfishing in its waters.
Learn more about how saving the oceans can feed the world.
