Looking for sustainable solutions in salmon aquaculture

• Published in: Etikk i praksis - Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics
• Main Author: Jennifer Bailey
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Danish; English; Norwegian Bokmål; Swedish
• Published: Norwegian University of Science and Technology Library 2014
• Subjects: sustainability; sustainable development; aquaculture; salmon aquaculture; Ethics; BJ1-1725; Atlantic salmon
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5324/eip.v8i1.1801; https://doaj.org/article/75aebd258eb94876a583115d1afa08a2

Sustainable development poses highly complex issues for those who attempt to implement it. Using the Brundtland Commission’s definition of sustainable development as a vantage point, this article discusses the issues posed by the production of one kind of food, farmed Atlantic salmon, as a means of illustrating the complexity, interconnectedness and high-data requirements involved in assessing whether a given industry is sustainable. These issues are explored using the three commonly accepted aspects of sustainability – its environmental, social and economic aspects – and the dilemmas posed by the need to make the trade-offs necessary among these. It concludes by arguing that decisions of this complexity require complex and multiple decision-making structures and suggests four that are essential for the task.