Contributing to sustainable aquaculture through a circular economy means acting across the entire value chain – from feed formulation to policy, industry practices, and consumer choices. It requires making more efficient use of waste, co-products, and new low-impact resources, while avoiding direct competition with human food and reducing environmental costs.
In line with this approach, a group of international researchers is urging the aquaculture industry to adopt a circular economy framework for fish feed, designed to ease competition with human food supplies and reduce the sector’s environmental footprint.
In their review “Toward Applying a Circularity Framework Against the Use of Aquaculture Feed Ingredients”, published in Reviews in Fisheries Science & Aquaculture, the authors propose four guiding principles: minimising the use of food-grade resources in feed, reducing reliance on land use, maximising the use of locally sourced ingredients, and optimising the nutritional characteristics of feed materials.
The study, authored by a group of scientists from the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, Australia and Portugal, warns that current feed practices are unsustainable. Aquafeeds, once based primarily on fishmeal and fish oil, have shifted towards plant-based crops, linking the sector to deforestation, biodiversity loss, and competition with human consumption. According to the review, feed accounts for up to 80% of salmon farming’s Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, underlining the urgency of change. Scope 3 refers to indirect emissions generated along the value chain – for aquaculture, this includes the production, processing and transport of feed ingredients – rather than the farm’s own direct energy use or fuel consumption.
Norway, the world’s leading salmon producer, is highlighted as a case study. The Norwegian government has set clear targets for sustainable aquaculture feed by 2030, making the country a testing ground for circularity principles in action.
The authors outline several promising alternatives to conventional feed sources. These include by-products from fish, meat and crop processing, insect meal, algae, fermented raw materials, and co-products from the brewing and bioethanol industries. However, for widespread adoption, such ingredients must not only be sustainable but also nutritionally suitable, cost-competitive, safe, and available at industrial scale.
“Transitioning to circular and restorative practices in aquafeed production by valorising waste streams and shifting to sustainable farming practices provides aquafeed producers a way to reduce Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions whilst potentially improving many other environmental and social indicators,” the authors state.
The experts caution that success will require standardised methodologies, robust traceability systems, and collaboration across the value chain – from researchers and feed producers to policymakers, retailers, and consumers.
While Europe is leading this discussion, the review stresses that the circularity framework can be applied globally. For the researchers, the shift is essential not only to meet environmental goals but also to secure the long-term profitability and credibility of aquaculture as a sustainable food sector.
Reference:
Glencross, B., Bureau, D., Øverland, M., Simon, C., Valente, L. M. P., Gracey, E., & Zatti, K. (2025). Toward applying a circularity framework against the use of aquaculture feed ingredients. Reviews in Fisheries Science & Aquaculture. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/23308249.2025.2552166
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