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Industrial Farm Animals Consume 17 Percent of Wild-Caught Fish
Fish and pigs and chickens, oh my!
By Erik Hoffner, Guest Contributor
GRIST, June 27, 2008
SIX TIMES MORE FISH FED TO LIVESTOCK THAN TO HUMANS
According to the UBS Fisheries Centre in Vancouver, B.C., despite rampant over-fishing and depletion of world fish populations, globally, we are now feeding 14 MILLIOIN TONS of edible wild-caught fish to factory farm animals, like pigs and chickens, each year. That amounts to over six times the amount of fish the entire U.S. population eats annually. Wild fish fed to animals on a massive scale include perfectly edible anchovies, sardines, mackerel, and herring, which are ground into a cheap fishmeal and sold for animal feed. In other words a protein source is being fed to animals on corporate farms with a 90% energy loss. Given the global food crisis and the over-harvesting of many of the ocean's commercial fish varieties, careful analysis of resource use by the global industrial food complex is becoming a life or death imperative.
Here's a guest post from Jennifer Jacquet of the Sea Around Us Project and the UBC Fisheries Centre in Vancouver, B.C. ----- It is one thing to grind up wild fish to feed to farmed fish, but it is quite another to grind up these perfectly edible fish to feed factory-farmed pigs and poultry. After all, when is the last time you saw a chicken catch a fish?
In the not-so-distant past, pigs and chickens ate grass, some grains, and food scraps. Today, in the throes of a perverse industrial food system that favors cheap protein and quick growth (with often astonishing results such as Mad Cow disease), we now feed farm animals lots of small, tasty fish.
LOTS.
Each year we feed 14 million tons of wild-caught fish (including anchovies, sardines, mackerel, and herring) to pigs and chickens around the globe. That amounts to 17 percent of all the wild fish we catch. Pigs and chickens eat double the amount of fish that Japan consumes annually and six times more seafood than the entire U.S. population eats each year.
Is it efficient to feed these fish to pigs and chickens? Moreover, with rampant overfishing a global problem, is it ethical? This is not the same question of whether we should feed grains to cattle, which leads to an overall loss in energy but also a conversion of carbohydrates to protein. In the case of fishmeal fed to pigs and poultry, a perfectly edible (and rather scarce) protein source is being consumed and converted (with an energy loss of ~90 percent) by simply another protein source.
It's messed up.
What to do? In Peru, home to a large fishmeal industry, scientists and chefs came together to initiate a program to "discover the anchovy" and turn fishmeal into a meal of fish. But much of this program's success hinges on government action.
"We have the best oceanographer in the country at the Marine Research Institute and he insists we have to leave 5 million tonnes of anchovies in the water," explains Patricia Majluf, the architect of the Peruvian anchovy initiative. "The government also now insists on establishing the anchovy quota at the beginning of the season rather than the old way telling the fishermen when to stop, which led to lots of overfishing."
In places where government action is unlikely due to the mantra of free markets, it is more likely we would see some sort of awareness program, such as a seafood wallet card for pigs and chickens (who don't read).
"Better yet, we will tell pigs and chickens they can eat only what they catch," says Daniel Pauly, Director of the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre.
Maybe we should feed pigs and poultry (literally) Michael Pollan's advice: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
And we should do the same. Fish and pigs and chickens, oh my! By Erik Hoffner, Guest Contributor GRIST, June 27, 2008 ... more -
Stolen Ocean: The true cost of illegal fishing!
"There is a kind of theft that happens every day in a majority of the world's poor countries - and in many of the richer ones too...Yet many people would turn their noses up if they chanced upon a trove of this treasure.
Because these jewels are fish.
The amount that Africa is losing, if new figures from David Agnew of Imperial College London are right, is about $1bn per year - the cost of licences that illegal fishers should have paid to catch what they are catching.
The ecological cost may, in the long run, be much higher.
"The immediate ecological impact is damage to habitat, because they are using trawls, and trawls are not always good for the ecosystems - they damage habitat for fish," says Dr Diallo.
"The second thing is pollution, because they are discharging at sea, and they can do anything they want."
This week, ministers from southern African nations are meeting in Namibia to discuss what they can do, and what assistance they need." "There is a kind of theft that happens every day in a majority of the world's poor countries - and in many of the richer one... more -
Cocaine and Lobster
As the number of lobsters decline, divers on the Miskito Coast are forced to dive deeper. Many have been crippled or killed. And as the region's traditional economy begins to run dry, some are turning to an even riskier shadow economy, known locally as the "white lobster".
Current TV's Mariana van Zeller travels to this remote corner of Nicaragua to examine some very visible effects of overfishing and dwindling ocean resources. As the number of lobsters decline, divers on the Miskito Coast are forced to dive deeper. Many have been crippled or killed. And as t... more -
Deep Sea Trawling Destroys Everything
Environmentalists and concerned citizens around the world a calling for a moratorium on deep sea trawling immediately. The undiscerning practices destroys everything in it's wake as it collects fish up to a hundred and fifty years old. Coral reefs -- destroyed, fish populations -- depleted, but fisherman argue they have few choices since they already decimated their own fisheries close to shore. As long as their is a demand for wild fish, it seems the ocean will be raided. Environmentalists and concerned citizens around the world a calling for a moratorium on deep sea trawling immediately. The undiscerni... more
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Seas of Slime
One theory is that pollution, perhaps linked to industrialization in China, is helping create more algae in the sea. The algae are food for plankton, which is food for jellyfish. A fear among scientists is that the creatures are multiplying in a "jellyfish spiral." The overfishing off China has led to fewer plankton-eating fish, leaving more plankton for the jellyfish to suck up. This growing army of jellyfish then also eats fish eggs, resulting in even fewer fish. Check out the video on the WSJ link above. One theory is that pollution, perhaps linked to industrialization in China, is helping create more algae in the sea. The algae are foo... more
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100,000 salmon wiped out in jellyfish massacre
More than 100,000 salmon have been killed by jellyfish off the coast of Northern Ireland in a single attack.
The pink jellyfish, which also caused Mediterranean beaches to be closed over the summer because of the fear of its potent sting, has arrived in Ireland in it's billions.
The tiny jellyfish, covering an area of up to ten square miles and up to 35ft deep, swamped fish-farm cages belonging to Northern Salmon Co and killed more than 100,000 salmon valued at more than £1 million.
The salmon died from their wounds and from the stress of the jellyfish stings.
The managing director of the company Mr Russell said: In 30 years, Ive never seen anything like it. It was unprecedented absolutely amazing. The sea was red with these jellyfish and there was nothing we could do.
He went on to say We are still assessing the full extent, but its a disaster,
Scientists attributed the increase in swarms of the jellyfish to the warming of the seas and the decline in their predators, including sunfish and trigger fish, through over-fishing. More than 100,000 salmon have been killed by jellyfish off the coast of Northern Ireland in a single attack. ... more
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Over Fishing
