Existing foundations, emerging discourses, and unexplored potential for a maricultural geography

• Published in: Geoforum 2022-05, Vol.131, p.1-11
• Main Authors: Ruff, Elizabeth O., McCreary, Tyler, Lester, Sarah E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aquaculture; Critical ocean studies; Diet; Discourses; Farming; Food; Food geographies; Food production; Geographers; Geography; Governance; Innovations; Mariculture; Marine aquaculture; Mechanization; Political ecology; Political economy; Postcapitalism; Science and technology; Seafood; Social studies; Sociocultural factors; Sustainability; Sustainable development; Terrestrial environments; Urbanization
• ISSN: 0016-7185; 1872-9398
• DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.02.006

•Marine aquaculture presents fertile territory for extending agro-food discourses.•Geographers can offer critical commentary on topics overlooked by other disciplines.•The marine aquaculture context can challenge and expand disciplinary paradigms.•Food, feminist, and technology studies are notable arenas for geographic engagement. The field of geography has long contributed crucial insights to our understanding of food systems; however, this scholarship has focused predominantly on terrestrial food production, even though over a third of the global population relies on seafood to meet their dietary needs. While geographers have identified aquaculture (the farming of aquatic species) as a fruitful field of study, there has been little consideration for how the varied environments in which aquaculture is produced, from freshwater ponds to open ocean net pens, can and should shape specific research questions and disciplinary pursuits within the broader aquacultural geography discourse. As such, we present the case for a ‘maricultural geography’ that engages with the distinct dynamics and tensions of farming in the sea. We evaluate geographers’ existing contributions to the mariculture literature and identify emerging discourses within political economy, political ecology, and science and technology studies. We then outline three pathways for further disciplinary engagement focused on food geographies, feminist geographies, and social studies of science. Geographers can offer valuable analyses of mariculture’s position within existing sociocultural food structures, present alternative pathways for postcapitalist production, and explore the mechanization of a fluid world through technoscientific systems. In return, the ocean context provides novel opportunities for thinking geographically about our food systems and reimagining terrestrial ontologies of governance and regulation, development and urbanization, and sustainability and innovation.