* Overfishing and pollution have contributed to eel populations crashing around the world and led to illegal trafficking of the species worth billions of dollars, as prices soar
* The complex life cycle of eels, means they can not be farmed
* The wholesale price in Japan is about $250 a kilogram, and Forsea Foods expects the price of the cultivated eel to match that of the wild-caught eel.
* Seafood is supposedly easier to grow this way compared to meats like beef as they have more uniform texture
* Forsea Foods’ strategy is to target species at risk of extinction in the wild that also command high prices in restaurants and shops
* Chef Katsumi Kusumoto, who runs the vegan restaurant Saido in Tokyo, said. “Unagi is an enduring favourite in Japan. But its timeless appeal is impacted by a growing awareness of the need to take a more sustainable approach.”
* In the US, Wildtype is growing salmon and BlueNalu tuna, Steakholder Foods in Israel has produced cultivated grouper fish, while Shiok Meats in Singapore is targeting shrimp, lobster and crab, and Cell4Food in the Azores is working on cultivated octopus.
I love eel and had no idea about the overfishing. Hope this ends up being a solution or at least bandaid for the problem.
We could let the fishers decide how best to sustainably manage their catch over the long term and increase judicial support of their local management strategies. This is the path recommended by Elinor Ostrom for which she was awarded Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.
Or we could ignore the problem of effectively governing fisheries and imagine we can create muscle tissue in labs as well as nature and also without additional pollution from the process.
3 comments
* Overfishing and pollution have contributed to eel populations crashing around the world and led to illegal trafficking of the species worth billions of dollars, as prices soar
* The complex life cycle of eels, means they can not be farmed
* The wholesale price in Japan is about $250 a kilogram, and Forsea Foods expects the price of the cultivated eel to match that of the wild-caught eel.
* Seafood is supposedly easier to grow this way compared to meats like beef as they have more uniform texture
* Forsea Foods’ strategy is to target species at risk of extinction in the wild that also command high prices in restaurants and shops
* Chef Katsumi Kusumoto, who runs the vegan restaurant Saido in Tokyo, said. “Unagi is an enduring favourite in Japan. But its timeless appeal is impacted by a growing awareness of the need to take a more sustainable approach.”
* In the US, Wildtype is growing salmon and BlueNalu tuna, Steakholder Foods in Israel has produced cultivated grouper fish, while Shiok Meats in Singapore is targeting shrimp, lobster and crab, and Cell4Food in the Azores is working on cultivated octopus.
I love eel and had no idea about the overfishing. Hope this ends up being a solution or at least bandaid for the problem.
We could let the fishers decide how best to sustainably manage their catch over the long term and increase judicial support of their local management strategies. This is the path recommended by Elinor Ostrom for which she was awarded Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.
Or we could ignore the problem of effectively governing fisheries and imagine we can create muscle tissue in labs as well as nature and also without additional pollution from the process.
I choose option #1.