UN body provokes outrage with call for more fish farming

World aquaculture has grown dramatically in the past 50 years. In the early 1950s less than a million tonnes was produced. By 2006 this had risen to 51.7million tonnes, with a value of $78.8billion (£55billion) — approaching half the total global fish consumption of 110.4 million tonnes. The FAO recommendations provoked a backlash from pressure groups. Willie Mackenzie, of Greenpeace, told the Times: “We've totally trashed our wild fish populations so now we need to farm them. It just doesn't make sense to catch fish to feed to fish — you lose four to five times the weight and that's without all the problems of infestations, escapes and pollution from the farms.”