Vegan Diet for Farmed Fish Could Prevent Collapse of Fisheries

A July 18 article in Chemical & Engineering News reported that large chemical companies and innovative startups are racing to synthesize plant-based, fish-free food for farmed fish made from specially designed amino acids to make aquaculture more environmentally sustainable. Farmed fish account for half of all the fish eaten by humans, and many of the species raised for food (such as shrimp and salmon) are fed on a diet of wild-caught fish, contributing to the impending collapse of global fisheries. Approximately one-quarter of the wild fish caught are fed to farmed fish, and 90 percent of the world’s fish stock is now at risk from decades of overfishing, according to a recent report published by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. Turning farmed fish vegan could potentially save billions of wild fish while rescuing entire species from extinction.