A recent online consumer survey of 2,500 people from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom has found that young British men have more negative attitudes towards aquaculture, and are also among those with the least knowledge of the subject.
The survey, undertaken by FutureEUAqua, an aquaculture promotion agency funded by the European Union. It was part of a wider project to promote a growth in sustainable aquaculture of fish and low trophic-level organisms in Europe, to meet a growing consumer demand for high-quality, nutritious, and responsibly-produced food.
The survey results will be used to help create an information campaign directed at European citizens, after which a further 500 people from each country will be surveyed in the fall of 2021. The researchers are keen to see whether social media information campaigns, particularly through Instagram and Twitter, can affect peoples’ levels of knowledge, according to Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture (Nofima) Director of Market Research Pirjo Honkanen.
“Young people between the ages of 18 and 34 eat the least amount of fish and have the most negative perceptions about aquaculture. Therefore, it is most interesting for us to reach this target group with more information,” Honkanen said.
A major aim of the FutureEUAqua project is to increase knowledge and awareness about the mechanics of seafood production, especially fish farming, and its brief includes research on genetics, feed development, process development, and packaging, as well as consumer studies.
“Sustainability is the focus of the entire project,” Honkanen said. “Producers are investing to make seafood production more sustainable, but there is the question of whether consumers are aware of this and acknowledge it. It will be exciting to check whether the knowledge, attention and acceptance of aquaculture increases during this project.”
The informational campaign, in the form of short videos, will cover conventional aquaculture farming, organic farming, recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), and integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA), where species such as salmon, seaweed, and mussels are grown in the same vicinity.
“Our website will present easy-to-read and understandable information based on research from the project, along with more detailed reports,” FutureEUAqua Senior Researcher Themis Altintzoglou said. “We hope to inspire the consumer to seek more knowledge about the subject.”
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