Plant-based prawns to protect the marine environment

Severin Eder (l.) and Lukas Böcker want to produce artificial prawns to reduce the environmental impact of prawn farms. (Photograph: Stefan Weiss) - The growth in demand for fish and seafood is harming stocks and valuable ecosystems. In response, food technologist Lukas Böcker and food chemist Severin Eder are developing microalgae-based seafood substitutes in their joint Pioneer Fellowship project. Around the world, people are consuming more and more fish and seafood, such as mussels and prawns. This includes Switzerland, where consumption has risen by 60 percent over the past quarter of a century to reach 75,000 tonnes a year. Of this volume, 97 percent is imported, with predictable consequences for the environment: overfishing, along with permanently depleted stocks, and fish and prawn farms using fishmeal as feed, thereby exacerbating the problem of overfishing while also destroying ecosystems.