What does the ocean mean to you? Mojitos on the beach or a source of food security? ​​​​​We all have a different view of the world we live in and in his keynote talk at ICES Annual Science Conference​, Manuel Barange, Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture Division, FAO, asked the audience to take a step outside the dominant conservationist narrative of fisheries.  

Addressing the question of food security

The FAO was established in 1945 to deal with the question of how to feed an increasing population which at the time was approaching the 3 billion mark. Barange informed the audience that despite progress in previous decades, the number of undernourished people in the world has risen over the last two years to reach 822 million, 10.8% of the world's population with political instability, conflict, and climate shocks being the main reasons behind this.

Today, FAO's mission remains the same, only the scale of the operation has increased as they now consider how to feed a global population of 9 billion as the erosion of natural resources demands more and more original thinking.