Marine ingredients organisation IFFO has announced the publication of a new open-access paper led by Duncan Leadbitter on January 15, 2026. The study resulted from a workshop funded by the organisation to investigate the impacts of global food production on biodiversity.
IFFO Technical Director Brett Glencross stated, "This peer-reviewed article underscores the essential role of responsibly managed fisheries in sustainable food systems and biodiversity protection." Glencross said that although agricultural systems are vital for a growing population, more tools are required to enable comparisons between the biodiversity impacts of land-based protein and marine fishing.
IFFO stated it has started a project to outline indicators that measure these impacts and guide decision-making.
The research indicates that the expanding global population is increasing the demand for food, which is accelerating land use change. This change is considered a "major factor driving global biodiversity loss". Approximately 83 per cent of the expansion of global agriculture during the 1980s and 1990s replaced tropical forests.
The paper suggests that replacing animal protein from marine capture fisheries with agricultural products would likely increase threats to biodiversity because there is limited potential to produce food on land without removing native vegetation.
Duncan Leadbitter said, "There are choices to be made as to how more food will be produced in the coming decades and what unintended land use and biodiversity consequences will be produced from these decisions."
Leadbitter stated that replacing all animal protein from marine fisheries could require almost an additional five million square kilometres of land. He added, “Replacing all fish products in aquaculture diets would result in the need for over 47,000 square kilometres of new land converted to agricultural production.”
Leadbitter further remarked that well-managed fisheries do not rely on fundamental changes to ecosystems in the same way agriculture does. The paper concludes that integrated food systems are critical to avoid moving environmental impacts from oceans to land.