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Aquaculture: The missing contributor in the food security agenda

Domestic aquatic food consumption is positively associated with aquaculture.
Aquaculture producers show comparably larger increases in per capita consumption.
Aquaculture plays an increasing role in aquatic food security.
Fish farming
Fish consumption
Poverty
Seafood

Taryn Garlock, Frank Asche, James Anderson, Adams Ceballos, David C. Love, Tonje C. Osmundsen, and Ruth Beatriz Mezzalira Pincinato “Aquaculture: The missing contributor in the food security agendae,” Global Food Security 32 (March 2022): 100620, doi: 10.1016/j.gfs.2022.100620

Authors
Affiliations

Taryn Garlock

School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

Frank Asche

School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA & Food Systems Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA & Department of Safety, Economics and Planning, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway

James Anderson

Food Systems Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA & Food and Resource Economics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

Adams Ceballos-Concha

Food and Resource Economics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

David C. Love

John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, John Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

Tonje C. Osmundsen

NTNU Social Research, Trondheim, Norway

Ruth Beatriz Mezzalira Pincinato

University of Stavanger Business School, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway

Published

February 2022

Doi

10.1016/j.gfs.2022.100620

Abstract

Aquaculture’s rapidly increasing contribution to global aquatic food supply is masked by rhetoric on sustainability and international trade. We examine the association of country-level aquaculture production and per capita consumption of aquatic food in 163 countries. We find a positive association between aquaculture production and aquatic food consumption at the national scale where a 1% increase in domestic aquaculture production is associated with a 0.9% increase per capita consumption. The results corroborate previous case studies showing consumption of aquatic food has increased among the poor as domestic aquaculture has expanded. The findings provide important insight to the role of aquaculture in global food security and highlight the significance of advancing aquaculture development in regions with high rates of malnutrition and food insecurity.

Important figures

Figure 2. Mean annual per capita consumption of aquatic food (kg) by aquaculture production (mt in 2018) and aquaculture production per capita (mt/1000 persons in 2018). Figure 2. Mean annual per capita consumption of aquatic food (kg) by aquaculture production (mt in 2018) and aquaculture production per capita (mt/1000 persons in 2018).

The left panel indicates that countries with developed aquaculture industries (production over 10,000 metric tons) have higher per capita consumption of aquatic food, and those with higher per capita aquaculture production also experienced significant increases in per capita consumption from 1975 to 2018. The right panel shows that countries with per capita aquaculture production below 0.09 metric tons per 1000 persons did not exhibit a clear trend in consumption during the same period, while those with production between 0.09 and 2.9 metric tons per 1000 persons saw a notable increase in per capita consumption, despite having lower overall consumption levels.

Figure 4. Estimated relationship of per capita aquatic food consumption and aquaculture production. Black points indicate no significance, orange points indicate significance at 0.05, and red points indicate significance at 0.001. A time of zero indicates the year in which the treatment begins (i.e., aquaculture production exceeds 10,000 metric tons). Figure 4. Estimated relationship of per capita aquatic food consumption and aquaculture production. Black points indicate no significance, orange points indicate significance at 0.05, and red points indicate significance at 0.001. A time of zero indicates the year in which the treatment begins (i.e., aquaculture production exceeds 10,000 metric tons).

Citation

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@article{GARLOCK2022100620,
title = {Aquaculture: The missing contributor in the food security agenda},
journal = {Global Food Security},
volume = {32},
pages = {100620},
year = {2022},
issn = {2211-9124},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2022.100620},
url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211912422000116},
author = {Taryn Garlock and Frank Asche and James Anderson and Adams Ceballos-Concha and David C. Love and Tonje C. Osmundsen and Ruth Beatriz Mezzalira Pincinato},
keywords = {Fish farming, Fish consumption, Poverty, Seafood}
}