Aquaculture is replacing the long-established wild capture fishery in recent decades. The 'Blue Revolution' follows the footstep of the 'Green Revolution', while aquatic products are being raised and promoted as an alternative protein supply to meet the growing demand, especially in densely populated Asia, and mentioned in the hopeful breath by people eager to create a more sustainable future food system.
In eastern coastal China, more fishermen tend to give up their traditional livelihood and invest in marine aquatic farms. Based on long-term ethnographic research working with small-scale ocean farmers at Zhoushan Archipelago, this paper examines whether the transition is as promising as it is narrated and to what extent the food future of high-quality aquatic protein can be sustainably produced. It argues, as an alternative livelihood and another animal husbandry economy, the aquaculture industry induces small ocean farmers to be highly dependent on genetic companies for germplasm and on large aquaculture equipment for infrastructure. These techniques originate from laboratory work and simulation, which is suspiciously founded on the imaginary ambition of taming nature by scientific approaches, but also excludes and unfamiliarises fishers' own daily marine experiences. Though a terrestrial dream is portrayed, in practice, small farmers are frustrated by natural and manmade uncertainties and losses in marine livelihood. As a consequence, they have little willingness to upgrade their feed to plant-based protein or low-protein manufactured feed but stick to the most accessible fresh fish feed as the optimal choice – a massive drain on juvenile fish and trash fish resources is still inevitable.
In this empirical case, the paper shows how an eco-friendly protein consumption future is theoretically assembled and how it challenges small ocean farmers' risk tolerance capabilities and results in an economically marginalised status, which puts an imaginary sustainable future in doubt.
