Thanks for your efforts here. How likely do you think it is that the farm will succeed in creating a commercially viable product, apart from public pressure? Sounds like there are significant biological and ecological barriers.
Also, unrelatedly, seems to me like octopus and squid would be relatively easier to create vegan alternatives to. People mostly likely them for the texture, there isn’t really a flavor. But I know nothing about the science of alt protein.
Hi there, Hadrian. Thanks for your support and comment. Unfortunately, it appears as though the environmental permitting regarding this specific farm is being allowed to proceed. And if everything else is successful (building, funding, etc.) we expect operations to fully commence. However, our efforts will be directed towards a variety of stakeholders in order to try and approach this problem from several different angles.
Our friends at the Good Food Institute are spearheading the alternative protein space with their Sustainable Seafood Initiative to address critical challenges facing the plant-based and cultivated seafood sector if you’d like to take a look at their cell line repository proposal. This area of work is fascinating to me and certainly something we should keep in mind when advocating for alternatives.
Thanks for your work on this, Tessa! I have some similar follow-up questions:
”Thanks for your support and comment. Unfortunately, it appears as though the environmental permitting regarding this specific farm is being allowed to proceed.”
To clarify, do you mean that Nueva Pescanova has in fact received its environmental permit?
”How likely do you think it is that the farm will succeed in creating a commercially viable product, apart from public pressure? Sounds like there are significant biological and ecological barriers.”
I am also interested in ALI’s take on this. Nueva Pescanova claims it will be able to raise 3k tonnes of farmed octopus starting in 2023. Has ALI been able to verify that this scale is actually feasible right now?
Finally, is an outright, blanket ban on octopus legally possible in Spain or the EU (or even narrowly within the Canary Islands)? Or is a “ban” shorthand for “convince legislators that, in practice, octopus farming won’t meet existing minimal environmental and animal welfare standards”? And what existing farmed animal welfare standards could be invoked, given that octopuses are invertebrates, not vertebrates?
Thanks for your efforts here. How likely do you think it is that the farm will succeed in creating a commercially viable product, apart from public pressure? Sounds like there are significant biological and ecological barriers.
Also, unrelatedly, seems to me like octopus and squid would be relatively easier to create vegan alternatives to. People mostly likely them for the texture, there isn’t really a flavor. But I know nothing about the science of alt protein.
Hi there, Hadrian. Thanks for your support and comment. Unfortunately, it appears as though the environmental permitting regarding this specific farm is being allowed to proceed. And if everything else is successful (building, funding, etc.) we expect operations to fully commence. However, our efforts will be directed towards a variety of stakeholders in order to try and approach this problem from several different angles.
Our friends at the Good Food Institute are spearheading the alternative protein space with their Sustainable Seafood Initiative to address critical challenges facing the plant-based and cultivated seafood sector if you’d like to take a look at their cell line repository proposal. This area of work is fascinating to me and certainly something we should keep in mind when advocating for alternatives.
Thanks for your work on this, Tessa! I have some similar follow-up questions:
”Thanks for your support and comment. Unfortunately, it appears as though the environmental permitting regarding this specific farm is being allowed to proceed.”
To clarify, do you mean that Nueva Pescanova has in fact received its environmental permit?
”How likely do you think it is that the farm will succeed in creating a commercially viable product, apart from public pressure? Sounds like there are significant biological and ecological barriers.”
I am also interested in ALI’s take on this. Nueva Pescanova claims it will be able to raise 3k tonnes of farmed octopus starting in 2023. Has ALI been able to verify that this scale is actually feasible right now?
Finally, is an outright, blanket ban on octopus legally possible in Spain or the EU (or even narrowly within the Canary Islands)? Or is a “ban” shorthand for “convince legislators that, in practice, octopus farming won’t meet existing minimal environmental and animal welfare standards”? And what existing farmed animal welfare standards could be invoked, given that octopuses are invertebrates, not vertebrates?