Peak Food

As population levels continue to increase and fish stocks collapse, we are going to have to face the fact that per capita availability of fish is going to drop drastically in the next 20 years. This is a great pity from the point of view of feeding a world running low on food and the oil and other resources needed to produce food. Wild fish is one of the few foods that has no fossil energy inputs up to the point of harvest and is a very important protein source for millions of people.

A new book by Callum Roberts called The Unnatural History of The Sea, says that 200 years ago the North Sea probably held two million tons of cod. Now it is almost certainly less than 40,000 tons.Prof Roberts says that at least half of human fishing capacity has to be somehow taken out of circulation and one third of every ocean has to be turned into protected recovery areas.

I don’t think there is any possibility of this happening at a time when other high protein foods are becoming more expensive and scarse.  We will continue  until there is almost no fish left, adding to the other food supply problems now building. If several of these problems start having a big effect together, food shortages will cause panic, hoarding and speculation, making a bad situation a lot worse.