As well as improving conditions for sentient animals in aquaculture to reduce individual suffering, ESR explores ways to replace or avoid the farming of sentient animals. One of the ways we aim to do this is by expanding and promoting the production of low-sentience and no-sentience food sources.
Seaweed farming, for instance, offers something fish farming cannot: aquatic food production without animal suffering.
Furthermore, unlike fish farming, seaweed farming is not environmentally destructive. Seaweed absorbs carbon dioxide, nitrogen and phosphorus – improving local marine environments rather than degrading them. Plus, it doesn’t require feed or antibiotics.
Seaweed farming is good for coastal communities too. Not only is it a viable income source, but communities can retain a greater share of the total product value than they typically would with farming fish (for which much of the value is exported to wealthy nations). Our ongoing seaweed farming work seeks to maximise the economic benefit for coastal communities. You can read more about this in our report below.
