The Politics Of Aquaculture

Aquaculture is increasingly complementing global fisheries and is relevant to ocean and freshwater health, biodiversity and food security, as well as coastal management, tourism and natural heritage. This book makes the case for treating the governance of this industry as meriting attention in its own right, abandoning the polemic discussions of fish farming and opening up new ways for debating its past, present and future. Developing and applying an original analytical framework for studying fish farming aquaculture, embedded into larger theory about the changing political system, the author generates and compares new data on the governance of aquaculture. Detailed case studies are presented of Scottish salmon, Aquitaine trout in France and seabass and seabream in Greece. The book shows how ecological issues are related to economic and social issues, as well as interdependences between territories, public and private regulation and different knowledge forms, demonstrating that these are creating alternative approaches for sustainability governance. It provides a deeper understanding of the political aspects of governing European aquaculture, including how it both is structured by and is structuring politics. It is aimed at advanced students, researchers and professionals in aquaculture and fisheries, as well as those with a broader interest in sustainability politics and sustainability governing practices.

The farming of aquatic organisms is one of the most promising but controversial new industries in Canada. The industry has the potential to solve food supply problems, but critics believe it poses unacceptable threats to human health, local communities, and the environment. This book is not about the methods and techniques of aquaculture, but it is an exploration of the controversy itself. The authors present the controversy as a multi-layered conflict about knowledge, rights, and development. Comprehensive and balanced, this book addresses one of the most contentious public policy and environmental issues facing the world today.

Aquaculture may not be the panacea for the world's food problems, but It has the potential to make important contributions to diet and incomes in some areas. This book, intended to improve planning for further development of aquaculture, examines the factors that can determine the success or failure of aquaculture projects in developing countries.

Keith Culver and David Castle Introduction Aquaculture is at the leading edge of a surprisingly polarized debate about the way we produce our food. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, aquaculture production has increased 8. 8% per year since 1970, far surpassing productivity gains in terrestrial meat production at 2. 8% in the same period (FAO 2007). Like the ‘green revolution’ before it, the ‘blue revolution’ in aquaculture promises rapidly increased productivity through technology-driven - tensi?cation of aquaculture animal and plant production (Costa-Pierce 2002; The Economist 2003). Proponents of further aquaculture development emphasize aq- culture’s ancient origins and potential to contribute to global food security d- ing an unprecedented collapse in global ?sheries (World Fish Center; Meyers and Worm 2003; Worm et al. 2006). For them, technology-driven intensi?cation is an - dinary and unremarkable extension of past practice. Opponents counter with images of marine and freshwater environments devastated by intensive aquaculture pr- tices producing unsustainable and unhealthy food products. They view the promised revolutionasascam,nothingmorethanclever marketingbypro?t-hungry ?shfa- ers looking for ways to distract the public from the real harms done by aquaculture. The stark contrast between proponents and opponents of modern aquaculture recalls decades of disputes about intensive terrestrial plant and animal agriculture, disputes whose vigor shows that the debate is about much more than food production (Ruse and Castle 2002).

Although the United States and other affluent nations havemore than an adequate food supply, other nations daily facethe specter of starvation. The world now has a critical population/food dilemma of potentially major proportions. Production fromthe sea and the land is not keeping pace with a world populationthat is doubling every thirty-five years. Unless this age-oldMalthusian problem is solved, millions face starvation and ultimatelydeath.The situation has stimulated substantial international interestin the sea as a source of food and raw materials. The potentialof the sea-not as a panacea, but as an important source of proteinto augment the world's food supplies and thereby as a meansof mitigating the crises we face-is a continuing theme throughoutthis book. At present, fish provide approximately 9 percentof the world's protein. Fish are sought not only for food butalso for recreation and pleasure. What forces determine the presentsupply and demand for fishery products? More important,what steps are needed to utilize the full potential of the sea asa source of food and recreation? This book explores these forcesand thus provides an insight into food potential from the sea.

Winner of the 2017 Paul Sweezy Marxist Sociology Book Award from the American Sociological Association Although humans have long depended on oceans and aquatic ecosystems for sustenance and trade, only recently has human influence on these resources dramatically increased, transforming and undermining oceanic environments throughout the world. Marine ecosystems are in a crisis that is global in scope, rapid in pace, and colossal in scale. In The Tragedy of the Commodity, sociologists Stefano B. Longo, Rebecca Clausen, and Brett Clark explore the role human influence plays in this crisis, highlighting the social and economic forces that are at the heart of this looming ecological problem. In a critique of the classic theory “the tragedy of the commons” by ecologist Garrett Hardin, the authors move beyond simplistic explanations—such as unrestrained self-interest or population growth—to argue that it is the commodification of aquatic resources that leads to the depletion of fisheries and the development of environmentally suspect means of aquaculture. To illustrate this argument, the book features two fascinating case studies—the thousand-year history of the bluefin tuna fishery in the Mediterranean and the massive Pacific salmon fishery. Longo, Clausen, and Clark describe how new fishing technologies, transformations in ships and storage capacities, and the expansion of seafood markets combined to alter radically and permanently these crucial ecosystems. In doing so, the authors underscore how the particular organization of social production contributes to ecological degradation and an increase in the pressures placed upon the ocean. The authors highlight the historical, political, economic, and cultural forces that shape how we interact with the larger biophysical world. A path-breaking analysis of overfishing, The Tragedy of the Commodity yields insight into issues such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, pollution, and climate change.

With aquaculture operations fast expanding around the world, the adequacy of aquaculture-related laws and policies has become a hot topic. This much-needed book provides a three-part guide to the complex regulatory landscape. The expert contributors first review the international legal dimensions, including chapters on law of the sea, trade, and access and benefit sharing. Part Two offers regional perspectives, discussing the EU and regional fisheries management organizations. The final part contains eleven case studies exploring how leading aquaculture producing countries have been putting sustainability principles into practice.

"Food has emerged as a political topic par excellence. It is increasingly involved in controversies at a transnational level, in relation to issues of access, dominance, trade and control in a shared global environment. At the same time, innovations in biotechnology and animal domestication have brought ethics to the forefront of food debates. Thus, we live in an era when the ethics and the politics of food must come together. This book addresses the ethics and the politics of food from a broad range of academic disciplines, including sociology, philosophy, nutrition, anthropology, ethics, political science and history. The chapters expose novel problem areas, and suggest guidelines for approaching them. Topics range from fundamental issues in philosophy to sustainability, from consumer trust in food to ethical toolkits. Transparency, power and responsibility are key concerns, and special attention is given to animal welfare, emerging technologies in food production and marine domestication. Together, the chapters represent a wide range of academic responses to the fundamental dilemmas posed by food production and food consumption in the contemporary world."