ABSTRACT
There are four principal methods of food production. Two are land-based: hunting and gathering, and agriculture; and two are aquatic-based: fishing and aquaculture. All four methods use basic ecological principles involving the flow of energy and matter. Agriculture and aquaculture systems are human-made, artificial ecosystems that are not always based on the normal operation of the three fundamental ecological processes of production, consumption, and decomposition. Human cultivation of plants and animals for food tends to distort natural ecosystem dynamics. Data on international food production are available from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Production on land consists of plants, and animals, including such products as milk and eggs. Aquatic production consists of shellfish, fish, marine mammals, invertebrates, and macroalgae. The chapter discusses the comparisons between production on land and in water and between yields in the fisheries and aquaculture. The FAO is currently predicting an average annual increase of 5.5% for aquaculture and only 0.3% for natural fisheries from now.
