Organic aquaculture productivity, environmental sustainability, and food security: insights from organic agriculture

Organic aquaculture originated from the organic agriculture movement. Organic fish farming is an ecosystem-based management system, which was developed as a potential substitute to address environmental constraints faced by intensive aquaculture. However, the transformation from conventional aquaculture to organic aquaculture is a multidimensional, complex, and expensive process. The further development of organic aquaculture can be enhanced by establishing uniform organic aquaculture standards. Converting to organic aquaculture brings a wide range of environmental advantages. Nevertheless, organic yields are significantly lower than those of modern aquaculture, which will reduce its contribution to global food security. To meet global demand for fish and seafood from an increasing human population, food production from aquaculture must be enhanced since production from capture fisheries has remained stagnant. Because aquaculture is associated with various environmental constraints, a further increase in fish production will encounter diverse environmental challenges. Greater use of organic aquaculture practices will help to diminish environmental footprints of aquaculture. We propose that fish production could increase through the sustainable intensification of a combination of production systems, including polyculture, integrated aquaculture, and organic aquaculture.