Should salmon farming be our future?

Earth’s population is growing. We’re expected to have 2 billion more mouths to feed by 2050. But how can we feed all those people in a way that is still sustainable and ethical?

Many have argued that aquaculture (or fish farming) is one of the most sustainable ways we can consume animal protein, since it requires less land use. It’s currently the quickest-growing form of food production in the world. But how exactly does it work? And is it really the best path forward?

To find out more, Vox video producer Nate Krieger went down the rabbit hole on salmon aquaculture. Salmon is currently the most popular fish in the US: The average American consumes 3.2 pounds of salmon annually. And over 70 percent of that salmon comes from farms, totalling 3 million tons of salmon a year.

To understand the impact that the salmon industry is having on our planet and our future, and on the salmon themselves, we spoke to industry insiders, marine biologists, and fish welfare experts.

This is a complicated issue, full of lots of caveats and trade-offs. But the more we know about the food we eat and where it comes from, the more responsible we can be.

Read more of Vox’s reporting on salmon farming.

Vox’s Future Perfect team reports on what it takes to feed the fish involved in aquaculture, which turns out to be one of the most important impacts to consider:

The website for the Global Salmon Initiative, a collaboration between some of the world’s biggest salmon farming companies, whose CEO we spoke with for this piece. Its handbook is a great resource for information on salmon aquaculture: GSI Handbook.

The World Wildlife Fund’s page on the tradeoffs involved in salmon farming.

This video is part of a series supported by Animal Charity Evaluators, which received a grant from EarthShare.