Publications
Aquaculture is a growing food production technology, and there are concerns are related to its environmental impact and adverse social effects. We examine aquaculture outcomes in the three pillars of sustainability by analyzing the Aquaculture Performance Indicators, a novel dataset that scores 57 aquaculture systems sectors worldwide on 88 metrics categorized by social, economic, or environmental outcomes. We first examine the relationships among the three pillars of sustainability and then analyze performance in the three pillars by technology and species. The results show that economic, social, and environmental outcomes are, on average, mutually reinforcing in global aquaculture systems sectors. However, the analysis also shows a significant variation in the degree of sustainability in different aquaculture systems sectors, and weak performance of some production systems sectors in some dimensions, suggesting an opportunity for innovative policy and investment to further align sustainability objectives.
