Silicon Valley investors don’t usually pay a whole lot of attention to fish. But the world’s protein shortage is convincing venture capitalists that there’s money to be made in aquaculture, the ancient art of rearing aquatic animals and plants for food.
Demand for new ways to feed the world’s 10 billion or so humans by 2050 will inevitably rely increasingly upon the food humans can raise themselves. As wild fish stocks have plummeted, aquaculture is picking up the slack. Today, aquaculture supplies half of all fish for human consumption (up from 26% in 1994), according to the UN (pdf). Investors have taken notice. Since 2013, the number of venture-backed deals in aquaculture-related companies shot up from basically zero to nine last year, according to private equity research firm PitchBook…
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