Consumers must recognise seafood’s low carbon footprint, says SFF CEO

Consumers concerned about climate change can eat Scotland’s wild-caught seafood confident in the knowledge that it has one of the lowest carbon footprints of any type of food production, the head of the country’s biggest fisheries organisation said today.

 

Chief executive Elspeth Macdonald told guests at a dinner at Edinburgh Castle to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) that critics of the industry failed to recognise that the climate credentials of Scottish fish and shellfish compared very favourably to other forms of sustenance.

 

“Seafood is not only extremely good for our health but is scientifically proven to have lower greenhouse gas emissions than all other forms of animal protein and lower even than some forms of plant production,” she said.

 

“You can’t produce any food without some sort of impact, but people have to eat. The alternative is starvation.

 

“Like any industry, the fishing sector isn’t perfect – there will always be things that we can do differently or better. But we don’t deserve the picture that some often paint of us, and Scotland’s fishermen must not be demonised for going about their legitimate business of putting healthy, low emission food on people’s plates.”

 

And she urged the Scottish Government to develop “practical policies based on pragmatism, not idealism”.

 

“We can and we will work with government on sensible, properly developed policies for fisheries management and for nature conservation – but we mustn’t go down extreme roads that damage our nation’s ability to produce food.

 

“The same is true of the conflict between space in our seas for offshore energy and space for food production. The public have told us that they think food security is as important as energy security. We must protect fishing’s space in our seas.

 

“Otherwise, all we do is offshore our food production to other places. Places without the highly developed and sophisticated fisheries management that we have here. Losing our domestic fish production, either by accident or design, would be an unnecessary tragedy, and could leave us vulnerable in a world that could become less stable and more volatile in future.

 

“Nor should we drive our fisheries management in ways that make seafood a luxury product that only the affluent can afford. Despite what some NGOs would have us believe, we’re not going to feed the world on hand-dived scallops or creel-caught cod.

 

“Our industry is successful because it has adapted over many years to meet the needs of a wide range of consumers in different markets. Of course Scotland’s wonderful seafood can be a luxury product but it shouldn’t only be that.

 

“Looking to the next 50 years, Scotland’s fishing industry must be allowed to thrive, and continue to produce climate-smart, sustainable healthy food from renewable, well-managed fisheries – food that is rightly in high demand  both at home and beyond.”