Seafood

Research is conclusive that seafood is an important part of a balanced diet, mainly because it contains heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids prevent blood from clotting and protect against heart disease. The heart-healthy benefits of fish are so important that the American Heart Association recommends at least two servings of fish per week. Fish that contain significant amounts of omega-3 fatty acids include mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna and salmon.

A reason for the current concern with seafood is the amount of mercury in fish. Mercury exists naturally in the environment, but once in the water it makes its way quickly to fish. The quantity of mercury accumulates as bigger fish eat smaller ones and the fish at the top of the food chain, such as pike, bass, very large tuna, tilefish, shark, mackerel and swordfish tend to have higher levels. For good health, the FDA recommends only one 7-ounce helping of large fish per week.

Oldways helped organize Seafood & Health '05 to highlight new research showcasing the benefits of seafood and omega-3 fatty acids, and balancing these benefits against known risks and hazards. The Seafood & Health '05 conference program speakers included Oldways President Dun Gifford as well as Eric Rimm, associate professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health.

In 2001 and 2002, Oldways organized an initiative called the Water Farming Initiative, whose purpose was to solve the puzzle of world food security.

The Water Farming Initiative worked out an equation to prod the urgent solution of this puzzle, relying upon a science-based approach and a strong consumer education effort.

The equation has five factors:

• Balance (among the four "dinner plate" sources of food, and other elements);
• Sustainability (as the central measure);
• Nutrition (as a key consideration);
• Regulations (for the necessary guidelines); and
• Management (for effective stewardship of the public and private resources).

Assembling these factors gives us an equation that looks like this:

Weighting the factors:

There is no balance now, because productivity of the land is mature while productivity of the water is in its infancy.

Water farming is inherently more sustainable than land farming because of differential feed conversion ratios, rates of metabolism, and laws of thermodynamics.

The protein and plant harvests of water farming are at least the nutrition equal of those of land farming, and often are superior, particularly with respect to fatty acid profiles.

The regulatory apparatus that governs an expansion of water farming nationally and internationally lacks coherence and uniformity, and so retards its growth.

The private and public management of water's wild catches and farmed harvests has yet to prove its effectiveness.

Solving this equation will establish the climate for an expansion of water farming. Doing so requires close attention to up-to-date data as the route to consensus. It is quite clear, however, that consensus currently eludes us. But it is just as clear that there is no real need for it to be elusive.

Exactly because sustainable water farming is so conclusively a necessary part of a secure future world, all of us need to turn our focus to solutions -- to solving the water farming equation.