Much of the fishmeal and fish oil that support seafood consumed in France come from global supply chains linked to pollution, labour abuses, overfishing, and food insecurity in poorer countries.
On March 6, 2024, Pascal Goumain, the president of Saumon de France, was presenting his company’s salmon pens in Cherbourg as part of France’s food future. In an interview, Goumain described plans to adapt the farm to climate change and pointed to official backing for expansion. “The French Ministry of Agriculture set an objective to farm 20,000 tonnes of salmon in France by 2030,” Goumain said. The promise of fish farming, he argued, is that it is both sustainable and important for food sovereignty. “We should be a leading aquaculture country,” he said, “but we’re falling behind.”
