Thesis title
Food once removed: Norwegian salmon farming and the politics of feed
Project
From small beginnings in the 1970s, Norwegian salmon farming has grown rapidly into an industry of considerable scale. Its sheer growth in volume has repeatedly actualized a basic question: what should the ever-larger numbers of salmon eat? At first composed of local waste, by-catch and so-called trash fish, salmon feed went on to become an industrially produced commodity and the dominant user of fishmeal and fish oil from reduction fisheries, before including an increasing share of plant material, such as soy.
The project follows feed as a topic and a problem in the history of Norwegian salmon farming, and investigates how feed has represented a continuing point of contention in salmon farming’s legitimacy: Should its feed rather be used as human food? An initial problematization of the use of valuable – and edible – marine resources as feed emerged alongside fish farming in the 1970s, and similar critiques and justifications in terms of natural resource use have accompanied the ensuing shifts in ingredients. The project, then, follows the historical controversies around fish feed’s ambivalent status, and how the problem has been modified and worked upon in political processes and scientific research alike.
Supervisor
Kristin Asdal, TIK
Commentator
Svein Atle Skålevåg (UiB)
How to participate
The seminar is open to everyone and the manuscript (draft) is available upon request.
Please register for the event by sending an e-mail to Ingrid Helen Johnsen i.h.johnsen@tik.uio.no, and you will receive a link to the Zoom-event.