Chronic Food and Hunger

•UN’s FAO: Enough food to give everyone on earth 2770 calories/day

•However, 815 Million people are chronically undernourished

–<90% of minimum caloric intake

Global Undernourishment

Food Security

• Ability to obtain sufficient – You know that you’re going to eat tomorrow

• 1.4 Billion people live on <$1/day – Can’t buy the food they need

Famine

• Large-scale food shortages, massive starvation, social disruption and economic chaos– Causes mass migrations and refugees

• Often environmental and political causes– People have lived for a long time without

famine

Aid from rich countries often doesn’t fix the problem.

Malnutrition and Obesity

• Malnutrition: nutritional imbalance caused by lack of a specific nutrient

• Rich countries eat too much of the wrong stuff.– 61% of Americans are overweight– 1/3 of Americans are obese

• Poverty can lead to obesity– Can’t afford good food

FDA’s 1992 Food Pyramid

Other Food Pyramids

Harvard Health Pyramid-2001

www.mypyramid.gov

The New Pyramid

30% of World is Malnourished

• Anemia- Low hemoglobin from lack of iron

• Diabetes- Diet too rich in starch.– Leads to heart disease, blindness and death

• Protein Deficiencies– Kwashiorkor- ‘displaced child’– Marasmus- to waste away

Aquaculture• Raising aquatic organisms in controlled

environments for food

• Fastest-growing form of food production– 6.9 mill. tons 1984 to 33.3 mill. tons in 1999

• One-third of world’s fish for human consumption

• >220 Species are farmed– Shellfish– Finfish

Forms of Aquaculture

• Inland Ponds– Substantial habitat “alteration”– Easy to manage waste

• Coastal Net Cages– Less habitat alteration– Difficult to manage waste

Inland Ponds

Ecuadorian Shrimp Farms

Pro:-Easy to manage

Con:-Substantial habitat “alteration”

Net Cages

British Columbia Salmon Farm

Pro:-Less habitat “alteration”

Con:-Difficult to manage

History of B.C. Salmon Farming

• 1970’s: Small operations bought by multinational corporations

• 1980’s: Fishermen, Tribes and Environmentalists oppose salmon farming

• 1995: B.C. imposes moratorium

• 2004: Farmed salmon found to have higher PCB than wild salmon

Salmon

• Family Salmonidae• Seven native PNW salmon

– Pink (Humpy)– Sockeye (Red, Blueback or Kokanee)– Chum (Dog)– King (Chinook, Tyee or Blackmouth)– Coho (Silver)– Steelhead– Cutthroat Trout

Salmon Body Plan

Generalized Salmon Life Cycle

Columbia River Chinook (millions of kg) (from Beiningen, KT. 1976. Oregon D.F. W.)

Why farm salmon?

State of Pacific Northwest Salmon Runs

Thirty-six PNW salmon runs listed under E.S.A.

Causes:

• Destruction of spawning habitat

• Dams

• Overfishing

Salmon Farming Problems• Contamination

– Increases disease and produces waste

• Ecologically inefficient – 5 kg wild fish =1 kg farmed salmon

• Escaped farmed fish affect wild stocks– Spread disease and reduce viability

• Farmed fish are more polluted than wild (Science Jan. 2004)

– Biomagnification of pollutants

Is aquaculture bad?

No…if done ecologically• Scale is important

– Small Scale = More Environmental

• Herbivores better than carnivores– Filter feeders actually clean the water

• Integrates with other agriculture– Chinese integrated aquaculture

Chinese Integrated Aquaculture

Benefits of Aquaculture• Improves food security

– Reliable protein source

• Can be very energy efficient– 10x more fish per unit area than ocean

• Reduces pressure on wild fish– 70% of edible ocean fish are declining

What can you do?

• Support with your $$$$– Buy

• Well managed, wild-caught salmon • Farmed herbivorous Fish

– Don’t Buy• Farmed carnivores (including salmon)

• Resources– www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp