Why the ethics of octopus farming are so troubling
SalonOctopus is a popular ingredient in many cuisines, with some 420,000 tons of this mollusk being caught worldwide each year. This helps explain why the food processing corporation, Nueva Pescanova, aims to build the world's first indoor octopus farm in Gran Canaria: a thousand-tank facility for producing 3,000 tonnes of octopus a year. Nueva Pescanova claims to have made an important scientific breakthrough, however, which will allow them to raise successive generations of Octopus vulgaris, otherwise known as the Atlantic common octopus. The firm argues that farming octopus will reduce fishing methods such as sea-bed trawling, for example and ensure a supply of "marine-based food" while also "relieving pressure on wild fishing grounds". While companies like Nueva Pescanova promise solutions to problems like overfishing, there will always be a price paid by the countless sentient beings ensnared in complicated industrial food systems.
History of this topic
Animal rights activists protest octopus farm plans in Spain
The Hindu
Animal rights activists protest octopus farm plans in Spain
The Independent
Is creating octopus farms to rear them for food really a good idea?
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Farm-bred octopus: A benefit to the species or an act of cruelty?
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Spain to build world’s first octopus farm, prompting concerns over ethics
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