Likewise, intensive fish farming causes downstream nutrient pollution. Keeping fish healthy in their tanks on a full-scale fish farm requires that the water be changed on a regular basis, up to several times a week. This calls for huge amounts of freshwater and generates substantial wastewater emissions, in turn creating its own set of sustainability concerns.
The challenge of feeding 10 billion people by 2050 is inherently linked to water security. According to FAO, fish will be one of the most important protein sources to feed the world’s growing population. Unregulated, this growth could result in vastly increased freshwater demand and increased pollution in rivers and oceans as effluents from wastewater are discharged from farms. The high-pollution, water-exigent nature of intensive inland fish farming could become a major constraint on future food production, in particular in areas that already suffer from dry conditions. In addition, the bulk of inland fish farming producers (aside from Norway) operate in developing countries, making the sustainability challenge an economic one as well.
A pilot farm, where lemna is grown out of fish farming waste water. Photo: MicroTERRA
microTERRA is a Mexico-based for-profit, biotech company that has developed a circular aquafarming technology, based on wastewater.
Founded in 2017 by CEO Marissa Cuevas, CSO Paola Constantino, and COO Fanny Villiers, their management team is mainly female.
microTERRA is supported by The Nature Conservancy, Echoing Green, National Geographic, Columbia University, among others. It has received pre-seed funding from the Techstars Accelerator program in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. The Tamer Fund for Social Ventures has also invested in the company, which recently signed an LOI with renowned food-tech accelerator Indie Bio NYC; a USD 250,000 investment and inclusion in its 2021 spring program. microTERRA is still in the pre-revenue stage.
