ANTH 410A | ENVIR 410A | ESRM 405A

GROWING STUFF
Ecology, Economy, and Politics of Resource-Extraction Ecosystems

Spring Quarter 2017
Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30-11:20, Denny 212
Field trips all day Fridays April 14, May 12, and May 26

Home Page
Requirements
Course Schedule
Discussion Board
Email the Class

READINGS
Introduction
Forest General
Forest Local
Forest Post-Trip
Aquaculture Ecology
Aquaculture Politics
Aquaculture Local
Dairy General
Dairy Local
Dairy Post-Trip

FIELD TRIPS
Forest Products
Aquaculture
Dairy

ESSAY ASSIGNMENTS Forest Products
Shellfish
Dairy

Readings for Week 5, Fishing and Aquaculture in the Global Food System and Ecosystem

Tuesday, April 25

Aquaculture, or raising animal and plant resources in fresh or salt water, has become a controversial topic because of its relation to food, ecology, and economy. We begin by reading two diametrically opposed assessments of the proper role of aquaculture, a very positive one from Mother Jones, and a quite negative one from a study in Science of Chinese aquaculture's impact on the food web.

Then we go on to the brute statistics in the massive report, the Food and Agriculture Organization's 2016 SOFIA (State of Fisheries and Aquaculture) report. You should read Part 1, the World Review (it's a lot of pages, but full of charts and graphs), and then by midnight on Monday, April 24, please post 200-300 words on the topic of whether you think increasing fish consumption, from capture fisheries or aquaculture, or both, is a viable part of a world food strategy for the coming decades.

In addition we will have one volunteer each (since these are short) make brief presentations that mention questions raised by four specific sections of the report dealing with particular issues; in each case be sure to stress the controversies and the main positions held by the disputants, and to raise questions for discussion:
  • Aquaculture and Climate Change, pages 132-135
  • Promoting Decent Work, pages 126-131
  • Resilience and Disaster Risk Management, Pages 155-159
  • Governance, Tenure, and User Rights, pages 159-164
In class, we will have the very brief presentations, and then discuss a whole series of issues that connect fisheries and aquaculture to issues of scale in particular.

Thursday, April 27

Today we will concentrate on the ecological issues of trophic relationships and carrying capacity. You should choose one of these two issues to read and post about and two students will report to the class on each issue.

The first issue concerns trophic levels, fishing, and feeding farmed finfish. You should read two assessments of this very complex problem, written nine years apart, by Rosamond Naylor and her colleagues. The first, published in 2000, was very pessimistic about the possibility that finfish aquaculture could be accomplished by any means other than depleting fish in the ocean. The second, written in 2009, is much more optimistic about the possibilities of escaping from this bind.

For the second issue, of carrying capacity, you should read Christopher McKindsey et al.'s article on Carrying capacity models and shellfish culture. Also please read the chapter by Dr. Joth Davis on an industry perspective in the book Shellfish Aquaculture and the Environment. Then we will look a local example of environmental concerns with shellfish raising, involving issues of carrying-capacity:

There has been a long-lasting controversy over mussel aquaculture expansion in Totten Inlet. For this, please read the Executive Summary of the North Totten Inlet Mussel Culture Environmental Impact Statement.

After reading about one of these two controversies, post at least two questions about it before midnight on Wednesday, April 26.