As the fastest growing food sector, aquaculture has the potential to further contribute to food security, economic progress and the improvement of livelihoods globally. However, seafood farming can have environmental and social impact.
The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) was founded in 2010 to establish a mechanism to transform aquaculture production towards environmental sustainability and social responsibility through incentivizing market demand. Progress has been made by developing the most robust standards, based on best practices and sound science, and the highest levels of assurance.
Today, over 2M tonnes of seafood is produced annually against the ASC standards, with ASC certified farms producing seafood across 58 countries and ASC labelled products available in 116 countries. This represents upwards of one-third of global farmed salmon production, to as little as 1.5% of global tilapia production.
However, a ‘one size fits all’ approach is not suitable for the industry. barriers such as constraints in scope, limited sustainability demand and farm scale result in a realization that only 2% of globally farmed seafood (excluding aquatic plants) has achieved ASC certification.
With a clear mission to transform aquaculture, ASC is dedicated to address the impacts resulting from aqua feed and deliver mechanisms for measurable improvements. ASC formally launched the ASC Feed Certification Programme and the Improver Programme by ASC– both intended to further scale improvements across the industry. Though to deliver more responsibly farmed seafood globally and the assurances that sustainability issues are addresses, will require multiple coordinated approaches.
This presentation will review progress, challenges and barriers to improvements, and ASC’s approaches to driving larger-scale improvements and delivering meaningful assurances.