World Aquaculture Magazine -December 2021

22 DECEMBER 2021 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WA S .ORG Expansion of aquaculture can be done without any further pressure on marine or freshwater fisheries or agriculture. Aquaculture can move millions of people away from unhealthy, overly processed/ refined foods into fresh vegetables from integrated agriculture- aquaculture farming systems, aquatic permacultures and into highly efficient ocean/aquatic “industrial ecologies.” Such food-producing systems can achieve full utilization of everything produced; where wastes become valuable resources (de la Caba et al. 2019) for both fed species as aquatic omnivores and unfed species of aquatic animals, crustaceans, seaweeds and marine plants. Ocean/aquatic food production is estimated to comprise only 6 percent of all human foods today. Aquaculture is an ancient practice in a few parts of the world but large-scale aquaculture with global to local value chains is only about 50 years old, is poorly understood and requires much more additional investment and development. Unfortunately aquaculture remains neglected by both policymakers and the public where it can provide the most benefits of food, environmental restoration and climate mitigation to meet sustainable development goals. As a result, there are very few aquaculturally developed nations on Earth today. Aquaculture production is not increasing as rapidly as it needs to in order to become an important contributor. Radical Transformation—ConsumersChoose AquacultureProducts andBennett’sLawisBroken Although the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted economies and supply chains worldwide (Belton et al. 2021), the trajectories of global economies were already undergoing a dramatic reordering of global wealth. Regional poverty and human misery remain a concern—due principally to political/social conflicts and wars—but the dramatic North-South wealth disparities of 50 years ago have changed. China’s middle (or consumer) class exceeds 400 million persons and by 2050 the middle class of India will rise to 500 million (Crist et al. 2017). Kharas and Kharas (2018) identified 2018 as a global tipping point when half the world was in the middle class or wealthier. By 2030, they predict the global middle class will grow by 1.4 billion people to 5.3 billion and comprise the world’s largest economic grouping (Fig. 1). Such trabsformative changes have resulted in some communities in rich countries experiencing poverty at the levels of poor nations, and vice-versa. Bennett’s Law (Bennett 1941) states that, as people enter the middle class, diets change from being based largely on starchy staples to diets that incorporate increasing amounts of red meats, dairy and refined foods (Popkin 1998). The worldwide market penetration of farmed salmon is an example of what aquaculture can achieve to relegate Bennett’s Law to history. Salmon is available throughout the world not only to urban middle classes but also to rural consumers. After reviewing the alignment of the sector towards UN Sustainable Development Goals, Torrissen et al. (2011) concluded that Atlantic salmon farming can be compared to raising a marine “super chicken,” producing one of the “most sustainable meat products in the world food market.” Certainly this ranks as a radical transformation of global food systems, but this consensus finding could be much more impactful as it continues to be challenged by institution leaders, policymakers, advocacy groups and consumers, even as salmon production systems and associated environmental impacts have decreased in the decade since this reviewwas published. This is due to a lack of education and the inability of aquaculture to reorder established norms, which is why we need a radical transformation of aquaculture. Radical Transformation—The Institutions andPeople in AquacultureReorderEstablishedNorms Radical transformation of aquaculture is vital at the institutional and personal/consumer levels as we need behavior change. Problems are systemic. There are institutions and programs to emulate and much progress that gives great hope that radical transformative changes have occurred, are happening, and could change norms.. Aquaculture is a garrulous menagerie of disruptive social, ecological and technological systems undegoing rapid advances. In most regions of the world it remains an obtuse, little known and neglected field. It is perceived by some as a threat of disruption to traditional academics and environmental management regimes and to exisiting fisheries, agriculture and environmental systems and norms. Professional, regulatory, ‘decision-maker communities‘ in aquaculture are dominated by agriculture, fisheries, natural resource managers and conservation professionals who have little knowledge, training or direct experiences in aquaculture with its unique policy needs (Urquhart 2010). Many regulate operations they have no experience in or, at worst, have never visited. Aquaculture and fisheries are so separate structurally and functionally in many countries’ governance systems and academic institutions that such institutions and professionals have lost track of their common goal of delivering environmentally friendly, safe and environmentally responsible seafoods to the people they serve. All food production systems have environmental and social impacts. Sensible regulatory alignments are needed to deliver products that sustain livelihoods. More broadly there is a need for institutions to train the next generation of these professionals in aquaculture so they can be better at making decisions that also account for the need to sustain society, as well as preserve, restore and enhance biodiversity and natural areas. Radical transformations of governance systems will require new paradigms and changes in institutions and resource flows (Westley et al. 2013, Westley et al. 2017, Stead 2018, Stead 2019). Folke et al. (2010) challenged our institutions and education systems to continually adapt and create new institutions around the emergence of new questions to address changing social compacts and create new institutes of food, energy, water, waste and shelter, not only of biology, chemistry, economics and architecture. The National Research Council (2000) stated that more attention needs to be given to educating the next generation of leaders by teaching metacognitive skills by practicing different ways of thinking in a variety of contexts with less emphasis placed on trying to ll students with a large volume of facts and knowledge. Chatterjee et al. (2019) observed that graduate students trained traditionally in math, science, technology and engineering lack career management skills that industry mentoring and networking provide. Career exploration and self-development training to enter innovation-rich areas such as aquaculture are vital, especially as tenure-track positions in academia have dwindled. Industry investments in community-based aquaculture education centers in Norway have paid off handsomely to create an accelerated social license for salmon farming. They are also major tourist attractions (The Salmon Center [Domas Pisces]) in Nordland, Norway, salmoncenter.info/Bodo/English/ ). In the US, the NOAA Sea Grant College Program has led the way in developing aquaculture education