The world’s population is expected to increase to 10 billion by the year 2050 and all these people need food – and not just any food, but good and nutritious food. A shift towards more ‘blue proteins’ in the form of food from the sea, reduces competition for both arable land and fresh water. Therefore, to solve the food crisis that a growing population will create, it is vital to source more protein from the sea. Danish Pelagic Producer Organization (DFPO) and the Fisheries and Maritime Museum, in collaboration with Marine Ingredients Denmark, Dansk Akvakultur, the WSP consultancy firm and Hedeselskabet, have with support from the EMFF, developed new teaching materials for schools that focuses on future proteins from the sea and on the marine food industry’s ability to feed a growing population.
When most people consider blue proteins and food from the sea, they usually think of fish. Fish is a great resource, but we can hardly get much more out of wild fish stocks in the sea, so we have to consider other alternatives. The sea offers many other raw materials like oysters, mussels and seaweed, which are high in protein. And maybe animals not thought about could potentially provide a meal. Denmark is the country in the Nordic region that eats the least seafood. We import almost all the fish we eat, while at the same time exporting tonnes of fish and mussels that we fish and farm. So the sea stores lots of protein-rich and climate-friendly foods—we just need to get better at eating them. Esben Sverdrup-Jensen, CEO of the Danish Pelagic Producer Organization, said, we want to give children and young people a solid background knowledge so that they have a better understanding of modern fishing and what food potential the sea holds.