The United Nations Food Organization (FAO) has been warning about it for years. Although there are divergent theories, if the demographic curve continues as before, in 2050 the world population could be between 9,000 and 11,000 million people: a third more than all the people who inhabit the Earth today. And, considering that today 815 million people are hungry, if there are no substantial changes in the way we produce and distribute food, it is difficult for us to feed the world.
There has been much talk about the need for us to change our diet, to promote the consumption of less harmful foods with the environment. The UN encourages eating insects and a lot of money is being poured into the promising market for new plant proteins and synthetic meats. But, perhaps, to find the food of the future we only have to look at Galicia.
At least you think so Xavier Iriogienscientific director of the AZTI scientific center, who assures in an article published in the magazine Mapping Ignorance that mussel aquaculture could literally save humanity.
Spain, and specifically Galicia, is the second world producer of mussels after China, but. as Iriogien explains. its aquaculture could spread to other parts of the world where it would be particularly beneficial.
The characteristics of a food of the future
In his opinion, mussels meet the four features that a food must have that can really be considered an alternative for the future: availability, access, nutrition and stability.
The availability is the ability of a food to be produced on a large scale. It is directly related to the water or energy needed to produce it. And, as Iriogien explains, mussel production has a very low environmental footprint.
Mussels have the lowest emissions per gram of edible protein of any animal production
Molluscs are herbivores, they consume phytoplankton from the water and therefore they do not need to be fed. They do not consume fresh water, and do not release nutrients into the water, on the contrary, they contribute to reducing eutrophication by filtering microalgae from the water. And, in terms of CO2 emissionsmussels have the lowest emissions per gram of edible protein of any animal production, much lower than poultry or salmon, and 40 to 50 times lower than beef or similar.
Technically, synthetic meat, new plant proteins or insects have a Low impact in terms of fresh water consumption and CO2 emissions, but they do not even remotely meet the second characteristic of a food that aims to feed a world of 10,000 million people: the accessibility, which is the true bottleneck of our food system.
“These are sophisticated technologies that produce expensive foods that people in regions of the world where the population is growing cannot afford,” explains Iriogien. “They can be a good business that contributes to reducing the global impact of rich countries and clear our conscience about animal sacrifice, but they are unlikely to feed humanity.”
Some of the regions with the most problems in terms of access to food are suitable for this type of aquaculture
On the contrary, the mussel aquaculture, does not require a large technological deployment. Since the 40s of the last century, when the you punt, its composition has been changing, but its structure is very similar, and it can be manufactured in many ways, using everything from modified old ship hulls to floats and used nets. The investment in no case is exaggerated and there is a lot of accumulated experience about your installation.
And, as Iriogien explains, some of the regions with the most problems in terms of access to food are ideal for this type of aquaculture. “Mussels just need space and waters rich in phytoplankton to grow. It happens that the regions of the planet with the highest population growth, where food will be needed, have coastal space and phytoplankton. The upwelling off Mauritania, Namibia, the Cape Needle Current and the Somali coast are some of the most productive waters on the planet.”
All this provides in turn stability: In principle, mussel farming would not be threatened by changes in global trade, since it could be produced in the very countries that need it.
Mussels will save humanity again
Last but not least, mussels are a great source of nutrients. Although there are fish with better nutritional characteristics, mussels are a source of protein and essential fatty acids –absent in insects or the new vegetable proteins– that can be grown at low cost.
Fatty acids such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (AA) are essential for the development and function of our nervous system and must be obtained from external sources. Like the mussels.
There are authors who believe that molluscs, and specifically bivalves, played a fundamental role in the human evolutionby allowing our ancestors to feed themselves adequately during the Pleistocene ice ages, when the incipient humanity depended heavily on the collection of shellfish and fish to survive.
Humanity now faces a new climate change, although in the opposite direction, and the bivalves could once again be our best ally.
“The Cape of Agulhas, in South Africa, was one of the refuges where human populations survived during the glaciation, and the east coast of Africa was the path followed by the first populations to leave the continent”, concludes Iriogien. “It was also the region where our brain experienced its last evolutionary leap, probably thanks to a diet of seafood rich in DHA and AA. Perhaps the region can once again provide humanity with the essential nutrients it will need soon.”
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