Comments on the V0 draft of the Report: The Role of Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture for Food Security and Nutrition
We would like to thank HLPE for this study regarding the role of fisheries and aquaculture for food security and nutrition. We think the draft covers many themes of crucial importance for achieving a sustainable development of food production from these sectors. It is an important topic that often is forgotten in discussion on global food security.
The focus of the report is mainly on the south-east part of the world where the problem of food security is by far the greatest. The report is quite extensive regarding fisheries, but has some shortcomings regarding aquaculture. We have full confidence that the HPLE will balance the two topics, but want to stress one important issue that has escaped the draft.
When discussing the role of aquaculture on food security the focus in the report is the comparison of farming herbivore/omnivore fish and carnivore fish. As this comparison is important, one must not forget that an alternative to fish farming is the production of meat from terrestrial animals. In this comparison lies the amount of resources needed to produce 1 kg food. Looking at the feed conversion rate, fish farming undoubtedly is the most effective production regardless of fish species. In this aspect aquaculture is a great contributor to global food security and nutrition.
As the report points out, it is an important aspect that fish farming of carnivore fish uses fishmeal and fish oil in the feed. However, the amount used has been drastically reduced during the last decades. This has been the focus of two reports by Nofima (the Norwegian food research institute): http://www.nofima.no/filearchive/rapport-52-2011.pdf and http://www.nofima.no/filearchive/rapport-53-2011_5.pdf.
Regarding environmental sustainability, it is important that the report is balanced. It is our experience that fish farming can be environmentally sustainable when the government has a long-term focus on the issue. Pollutants can challenge food safety, but Norwegian surveillance reveals that the amount of environmental toxins has been reduced both in farmed fish and wild fish.
We would like to highlight the importance of food safety which is only scarcely dealt with in the report. It is necessary to address food safety properly when addressing food security and nutrition. Infections and malnutrition associated with these are responsible for a significant proportion of deaths among infants and children worldwide each year. Food borne infections can become a nutritional concern, e.g. infections causing diarrhea will interfere with the absorption of nutrients from food. It is also important to assess and manage the risk and benefits of fish consumption. Developing, maintaining and improving databases on nutrients and contaminants such as methyl mercury and dioxins in fish consumed in the different regions are important. The increase in international trade and cross-border transmission of infectious diseases makes food borne disease surveillance programs important, nationally and internationally, in the control of food borne diseases.
Finally, it would be useful if the report in one section could provide key statistics from the fisheries and aquaculture sector. This could be information on the number of employees, the amount of fish protein in diets, etc. It should cover both sectors at the global level and also split into regional overviews.
Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal AffairsAnita Utheim Iversen