World Aquaculture Magazine -December 2021

WWW.WA S .ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • DECEMBER 2021 21 in sub-Saharan Africa and South America, and “half is concentrated in just seven countries (Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Sudan, Argentina, Colombia, Bolivia).” These countries are expanding industrial agriculture for food and non-food exports, e.g., oil palm, biofuels and soybeans. Agriculture analysts continue to rely upon the concept of “sustainable intensification” of agriculture to prevent additional conversion of the Earth‘s last remaining invaluable terrestrial ecosystems to farms. Crist et al. (2017) state that “it appears questionable whether sustainable intensification can prevail over biodiversity-encroaching food production trends.” Tillman et al. (2001) conclude that sustainable intensification cannot meet rising food demands and would not work as a global strategy anyway because it would have to be implemented everywhere globally to make a difference. There have been numerous high-level and very well-funded studies by technologists, geographers and food policy professionals on how to meet the world’s current and future food needs. However, until very recently, nearly all of these cogent analyses regarding the future of food consider food to be terrestrial foods. Foley (2015) proposed five important steps to increase food production: 1) freeze agriculture’s footprint, 2) growmore on farms, 3) use resources more efficiently, 4) shift diets and 5) reduce waste. These are all reasoned and admirable goals to change the trajectory of agriculture. Reforming agriculture is vital but this five-step solution and the concept of sustainable intensification of agriculture will not be enough to save our planet from ourselves. Pretty (2018) claims sustainable intensification increases overall food system performance without unacceptable environmental costs but fails to mention the greatest opportunity to improve healthy food production at the lowest environmental costs— the rapid expansion of aquaculture. Aquaculture, by its very nature, has the ability to be integrated into and be restorative of oceans, lakes and water systems throughout the world (TNC 2021) and is therefore most worthy of radical transformative opportunities for the future of food (Naylor et al. 2020). or social structures make the existing systems untenable.” Radical transformation involves vigorous debates on the abilities of aquaculture to make fundamental changes to societies. Application of transformation thinking and processes occur in aquaculture. Culver and Castle (2008) were one of the pioneers. They “intentionally engineered a clash of cultures” as they tasked an interdisciplinary group of aquaculture experts take up various parts of a provocative question: “Does Canada— the world’s largest ocean nation—want to become an ‘aquaculture nation’ and if so, how?” There are numerous radical transformations one could feature. One is the rapid transformation in resource extraction, use and developments in aquaculture feeds that have led to the evolution of fed aquaculture species becoming highly efficient “aquatic omnivores” (reviewed recently by Zajicek et al. 2021 and Costa-Pierce et al. in press). Here I feature excerpts from Radical Aquaculture . Radical Transformation—InvestorsMoveAway fromIndustrialAgricultureandChooseAquaculture Increased future food demands have been the subject of many analyses by agriculture professionals. Serious concerns have been raised about the environmental consequences of increased land conversion due to the expansion of meat and soy production and their adverse impacts on climate and terrestrial ecosystems. DeFries et al. (2015) called the increased consumption of meat, especially red and processed meats, a global human health and wellness crisis. Agriculture is projected to consume all of the remaining fertile lands of the world (Bruinsma 2009). Unsustainable practices such as soil degradation, deforestation, water resource scarcities, pollution and wastes due to the expansion of agriculture are increasing worldwide. Agriculture planners rely upon a continued expansion of arable lands into what they call “unfavorable agroecological lands and often also unfavorable socioeconomic environments” (Bruinsma 2009); in other words, into the Earth’s last remaining terrestrial ecosystems, parks, and bioreserves for Nature and the homes of thousands of indigenous peoples (Morton et al. 2008). Bruinsma (2009) states that about 90 percent of the remaining 1.8 billion ha of available arable lands are FIGURE 1. The rise of the middle, consumer class globally (Kharas and Kharas 2018). ( C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 2 2 )