Cermaq's CEO Geir Molvik said the challenges facing aquaculture are “difficult but not insoluble” at a recent meeting of business leaders at the United Nations in New York on 19 September.
The meeting sought to analyze the newly released U.N. report “Future of Spaceship Earth,” a forecast of the global outlook through the year 2050. Specifically, the panel, which also included the leaders of 16 other businesses “at the frontier of progress,” addressed the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) laid out in the report.
Speaking on the U.N.-chosen topic of “Life Below Water,” Molvik, the leader of one of the world’s largest salmon farming companies, said aquaculture is needed to meet the SDGs providing sufficient food for healthy diets while meeting the ambitions on climate change set in Paris.
“Whereas the report describes the current situation of our oceans overall as challenging and especially so when it comes to regulating harvesting and end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, the main focus is how we can meet the targets set by the U.N. for 'Life Below Water,’” Molvik said.
Molvik said gains could be made by encouraging the replacement of meat with seafood in the world’s diet. Such a move would have “a strong positive impact on individual health and has also positive impact on the sustainability in our global food production,” he said.
Farmed salmon, in particular, has a low carbon footprint compared to meat, and salmon contains healthy protein, marine omega-3 fatty acids and important micro-nutrients, Molvik said.
“We see a strong demand for salmon now, and are eager to increase our production in a sustainable way. However, aquaculture is much more than salmon farming and the huge resource base in all important aspects of aquaculture we have developed in our industry can offer competence to other areas of aquaculture,” Molvik said.
As one of the founders of Global Salmon Initiative, Cermaq is engaged both in working with industry partners to address common industry challenges and also working with global partners such as the U.N.'s FAO on sharing best practices, Molvik said.
“Fish farming is very local, which means it can provide jobs and economic development in the most remote areas in the world. And there is a multiplier effect; each small farm is in many ways a cornerstone business in the local community. So you can have more local protein production, which helps eradicate hunger locally, while creating small businesses,” Molvik said.
