Whenever feed giant Alltech schedules an event, it is invariably a major production with very high levels of technical content, often at the very cutting edge, and the event at Eindhoven was no exception.
The plenary speakers: Aqua InDepth featured five illustrious speakers.
Doctor Mark Lyons PhD
AllTech President and CEO set the conference tone with a message of positivity and hope. His opening slide simply stated, “We are not doomed,” echoing the same theme that was iterated at the Alltech Ideas 2019 Planet of Plenty conference back in May 2019.
Dr Lyon’s take home message was the same as in that earlier conference: Human beings are immensely resourceful. Despite the challenges of population growth and climate crisis, we are not doomed if we focus on sustainability and collaboration.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that we will need to increase food production by 25-to-70 percent to feed a projected population possibly exceeding eight to nine billion by 2050. Given these numbers with the additional complication of Global Heating, the challenges look daunting.
However, Dr Lyons’ belief is that the technologies that will create the future are already in our hands, and by bringing together highly skilled individuals, we can leverage the collective genius of the group and accomplish amazing things.
Alltech has backed up this philosophy with actions, as it has invested massively in research while also establishing research alliances with companies all over the world. Alltech has also been able to leap-frog its technology by acquiring eighteen businesses within six years.
In 2016, Alltech acquired Coppens International, a leading international aquatic feed solutions company in the Netherlands. At the time, Coppens International’s specialties included temperate and tropical marine and freshwater diets for a variety of juvenile and adult species.
Dr Albert Tacon
Next up was aquaculture nutritionist Dr Albert Tacon, who echoed Mark Lyon’s message of positivity by introducing the Hawaiian phrase “A ‘ohe hana nui ke alu’ ia” which translates into English as “No task is too big when done together.”
Dr Tacon (who is based in Hawaii) began with his observation that global aquaculture has already exceeded the output of capture fisheries. He predicted that, because most coastal waters are publicly owned, the future of aquaculture will involve a move to the deep oceans and onto the land in the form of RAS farming.
He followed with a breakdown of the major species being farmed around the world and noted that the majority of fish currently produced globally are freshwater species. He predicts that shrimp will be produced in large tank systems covered by plastic for biosecurity. He also noted that, despite the rise of aquaculture in the West in recent times, Asia still produces 91 percent of farmed fish/seafood.
Dr Tacon sees the rise of aquaculture as a solution to two of the most pressing needs the planet currently faces: the famine crisis and the obesity crisis. He pointed out that consumers in Asian countries such as Japan, consume a great deal of fish and seafood in their diet and consequently have high longevity rates.
By contrast, consumers in western countries, such as Europe (apart from Norway and Spain), South America and North America, have low fish consumption rates and much higher incidence of obesity with correspondingly shorter life spans.
Read more, HERE.
The Aquaculturists
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