IN FOCUS
IN FOCUS: OUR TAKE ON FOOD SECURITY, SUSTAINABILITY, & ECONOMIC GROWTH
Aquaculture is an integral part of food security, economic growth, and source of generating local jobs.
When Sec. Manny Piñol posted, “Massive Food Importation Takes Out Money From Local Economy, Deprives Filipinos Of Income And Jobs. Let’s Grow Our Own Food!” – we couldn’t agree more. Farmers and Fish Farmers alike are deprived of economic opportunity to promote our locally-grown products. Not only can we support our own products, but we can also ensure food security in the process.
Aquaculture has been identified as a critical part of supporting food security, especially for low and medium-income countries in which fish is an established and crucial part of diets. When local communities are deprived of jobs or income, nutritious food can be hard to come by. Aquaculture provides healthy food locally and creates job opportunities for the local community.
This is why local support is important because farmers are eager to supply the demand, increasing food security and the number of local jobs and household income.
Sustainability is also a key source of advocacy for us in Brackish Inc. Responsible fish farming and operation of sustainable aquaculture production systems are among the things we practice. We developed farm fish technology aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) about food security, sustainability, and economic growth.
We couldn’t stress enough the importance of local support. As citizens on the verge of an economic crisis due to what’s going on in the world right now, it is about time to support local products by allowing farmers to supply the local demand. With opportunities like that, export is not far-fetched – because honestly, we are more than capable of supplying a worldwide market given the support and opportunity
The Benefits of Green Aquaculture
We are gearing towards a new world, more sensible and conscious of the environment. Our generation lives in a COVID-era, where we know that it is time for us to act now or risk food security and ecological issues. So, what is GREEN AQUACULTURE, and why is it beneficial to us?
Lower environmental footprint
It is established that aquaculture maintains a resource-use efficiency. Aquaculture operations have a feed conversion ratio (FCR) of 1:1 – it only needs one pound of feed to produce one pound of fish weight gained. By contrast, it requires two pounds for a chicken to produce one pound of meat. Pork and beef have FCRs of 4 and 8, respectively. To expound on this, you will know that aquaculture has lower CO2 emissions, freshwater, and land use; hence, cultivating a lower environmental footprint.
Sustainability
Wild-capture fish creates an ecological risk that aquaculture can generate in alternative seafood production. Wild fish stocks are captured with no guidelines and sustainable limits. Food security and sustainable aquaculture have the most potential in going hand in hand in feeding our growing population.
Nutrition
Seafood is the healthiest protein source among other animals. Fish meat contains a long chain of omega-3 fatty acids and nutrients that are essential to humans.
Supply Chain Management
Aquaculture production maintains a supervised and controlled labor. It has higher and improved traceability, logistics, inventory, product quality, and demand response than wild-capture seafood. Broodstock of high caliber is implicit in sustainable aquaculture production.