HUMAN NUTRITION AND NATURAL RESOURCE IMPLICATIONS IN AQUACULTURE  

The world population is growing at a high rate and expected to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050. The biggest challenge will be how we can nutritiously and sustainably feed this population without causing additional natural resource depletion and damage to our planet. Further, how can we provide a diverse and nutritious diet to avoid the health problems associated with poor nutrition?

Healthy diets are those diets that have a high dietary diversity, comprising of foods from and within different food groups including fruits, vegetables and Animal-source foods. Animal-source foods, especially fish are widely considered as an integral part of healthy diets, contributing with micronutrients, essential fatty acids and animal protein that is highly bioavailable to the human body and readily absorbable. This is more of a challenge in low-income countries, where income is limited and poor families' diets are not diverse and heavily dependent on one staple food with very limited access to micronutrient-rich foods is due to seasonality and affordability.

The discussion will focus on the human nutrition and health aspects of aquaculture products as a source of food to enrich diet diversity in human diet especially in low and middle-income countries, and how these can be provided in a world of finite resources.