Canadian food security and ocean protection are not opposing forces, they are one and the same…nourishment, respect and sustainability.
This past year made it crystal clear that the future of food is not a problem for tomorrow, it’s a dire need from yesteryear.
The realities of climate change, population growth, warming waters, shrinking farmland, and the continuous depletion of wild fisheries have brought us to a moment that demands a united effort to feed the world.
The United Nations has reported time and again on how desperately the world needs more food, especially from the oceans, because growing food on the ocean is viable and accessible without leaving a massive carbon footprint.
Take a quick glance at the headlines today and what do we see? Flooded lands. Rivers are drying up. Soils cannot endlessly regenerate. Wild fisheries are diminishing.
When it comes to ocean farming in British Columbia – which offers more possibility than one could imagine – the industry approaches farming with humility, science, and respect
The world need to stop treating aquaculture as an experiment imposed upon the sea and really see it for what it is. Aquaculture is an extension of agriculture itself, deserving of the same place at the table and governed by the same expectations of stewardship, accountability, and continuous improvement.
When our ancestors started growing food, we did not abandon land farming because it once caused harm. We insisted it do better, and indeed it did, but it took centuries to get there. Aquaculture has followed the same path, learning from its early missteps and reshaping itself through regulation, monitoring, and innovation. Except it took less than two decades to get here.
Credit is due to the young farmers who are stepping onto floating walkways day and night, armed with belief, passion and hope. They are trained in oceanography, biology, engineering, environmental science, and data analysis.
They work with real time information rather than ideology. They read oxygen levels, currents, fish health, plankton cycles, and seabed recovery because they respect the environment and the future they are shaping.
These young people are scientists, technologists, environmentalists, scholars, and nurturing farmers. They operate underwater cameras, sensors, genomic testing, remote operated vehicles, and monitoring systems that few ocean-based industries have adopted at this scale.
Their work has pushed forward aqua technology that now benefits climate research, renewable energy, marine conservation, feed science, and circular manufacturing, improving how we understand and interact with the ocean as a whole.
In the pursuit of perceived purity, some activist movements have chosen dogma over flexibility. In doing so, they risk undermining one of the most promising food systems available to a warming world. Anti-food growing activism threatens food security, discourages innovation, and dissuades young people who want to feed others without stripping wild ecosystems already under immense pressure.
Food security and ocean protection are not opposing forces, they are one and the same in a world that accepts nourishment is a shared responsibility that feeds and protects.
Before I close, it must be said that I am disappointed by a government that is wildly chasing foreign investors while trying to rid British Columbia of the investors that are already here. What message are they sending to the world? Who would want to invest when the government – led by an economist no less – makes it a tenuous venture?
These investors who believed in Canada, who invested here when it was a difficult time to invest, are now being pushed to leave. Decades of investment in people, research, innovation, clean technology, and education would unravel.
The consequences of dismantling a most-needed aquaculture industry in British Columbia will not be easily reversed. Knowledge will disperse, talent will follow opportunity abroad, and future generations will inherit nothing but hunger. Hunger for knowledge, for growth, for food.
Trust is never built overnight, but bad decisions are instantaneous and lasting. So, for those in power contemplating our young salmon farmers future, I ask you to do better!
And for those investors who took a chance on Canada and Canadians, don’t give up on us.
And finally and above all else…you young farmers inspire me, you are leading us into a whole new world of respect and potential, a world we took for granted that you are now trying to save. Keep on reaching for your ideals, and we will all be better for it.
Image credit: Adobe.