Regenerative Aquaculture

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

Consumers and policy makers want to reduce the carbon footprint of food, which not only includes agriculture but also aquaculture. Manolin makes a software for fish farmers, and CEO Tony Chen said regenerative aquaculture has been a hot topic.

Chen… “Regenerative in many different senses. So one is regenerating, you know, the ocean ecosystems and helping those rebound and respond to historical levels. I think another perspective to look at is just from a food production standpoint. I mean, one of the things the salmon companies like to advertise is their carbon footprint compared to something like cattle or pork, when you add everything together. So there's different lenses.”

Chen said carbon footprint is one metric, but the term regenerative is still a little murky.

Chen… “We need to define what regenerative looks like. And agriculture, I think has set a great precedent as are we looking for improvements being made to farming practices, cover crops, regenerative agriculture? Are we looking for it to get back to, you know, the wild west of kind of ecosystems?”

As agriculture and aquaculture look to figure this out, they can learn from each other for the benefit of our food and our environment.

Chen… “We actually look towards agriculture as a big kind of, you know, inspiration as to how this can progress. But I will say the interest has been at an all-time high as far as what needs to be done in the ocean.”