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People want more seafood than the oceans can sustainably supply, so a German firm aims to plug that gap with cultivated fish – but are consumers ready to buy it?
The redbrick offices, just north of Hamburg’s River Elbe and a few floors below Carlsberg’s German headquarters, are an unexpectedly low-key setting for a food team gearing up to produce Europe’s first tonne of lab-grown fish.
But inside Bluu Seafood, past the slick open-plan coffee and cake bar, the rooms are dominated by gleaming white tiles, people bustling about in lab coats, rows of broad-bottomed beakers and pieces of equipment more at home in a science-fiction thriller. A 50-litre tank (a bioreactor) is filled with what looks like a cherry-coloured energy drink. The liquid, known as “growth medium”, is rich with sugars, minerals, amino acids and proteins designed to give the fish cells that are added to it the boost they need to multiply by the million.
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Panel of nearly 100 countries to draw up guidelines for industries that mine raw materials used in low-carbon technology
A UN-led panel of nearly 100 countries is to draw up new guidelines to prevent some of the environmental damage and human rights abuses associated with mining for “critical minerals”.
Mining for some of the key raw materials used in low-carbon technology, such as solar panels and electric vehicles, has been associated with human rights abuses, child labour and violence, as well as grave environmental damage.
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Group banned plants ‘removed from habitat’ from its shows – causing uproar from enthusiasts
A furious row has blown up in the UK’s leading succulent society over the practice of taking desirable specimens from the wild, with the chair resigning in protest over the behaviour of his fellow enthusiasts.
Succulents have risen in popularity in recent years: they are attractive and hardy.
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Belfast:At first I thought it was the planes flying overhead, then I looked down and saw the most spectacular thing I’ve seen in nature
I love going back to the same riverside path at the edge of the city. It’s so familiar, but thanks to nature no visit is ever the same. I took my first outdoor steps here beside pink flowers with seeds you can pop, visited the ducks on a snowy Christmas morning and walked my friend’s dog through a meadow with cows.
But one spring afternoon this year was the most amazing yet. I have never seen or heard anything so spectacular in nature. I was walking with my dad when I saw a frog hop across the muddy path. We then crossed a bridge to the other side of the river. There was a droning noise. At first I thought this was coming from planes overhead.
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Open letter calls for green policies that empower farmers, after months of protests jeopardise future of flagship biodiversity deal
The EU’s nature restoration law will only work if it is enacted in partnership with farmers, a group of leading scientists has said, after months of protests have pushed the proposals to the brink of collapse.
In an open letter, leading biodiversity researchers from across the world said that efforts to restore nature are vital for guaranteeing food supplies – but farmers must be empowered to help make agriculture more environmentally friendly if the measures are to succeed.
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Soiled seas and huge shareholder dividends: where has the £64bn borrowed by firms since privatisation gone?
So that’s how they do it. I’d been wondering how, when more sewage has been entering our rivers than ever before, some of the water companies have managed to improve the ratio of the sewage they treat v the sewage that pours untreated from their storm overflows into our rivers and the sea. Now we know.
It’s called “flow trimming”. Sounds innocuous, doesn’t it? What it means is that sewage is diverted into rivers and ditches upstream of the water treatment works. By reducing the amount of sewage entering the works, the companies can claim to be dealing responsibly with a higher proportion of it.
George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist. Join him for a Guardian Live online event on Wednesday 8 May at 8pm BST. He will be talking about his new book, The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism. Book tickets here
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
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It’s almost a century since the 1924 expedition ended in tragedy, yet the question of whether the climbers conquered the summit remains unanswered
On the morning of 6 June, 1924, George Mallory – one of the world’s greatest mountaineers – set off with his companion, Sandy Irvine, from a camp on the slopes of Mount Everest and headed for its summit.
A veteran of three British Everest expeditions, Mallory knew the world’s highest mountain better than any other climber at the time. He had come close to death there on three occasions.
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A new approach aims to restore fish levels in the Yukon River but some feel it unfairly targets traditional practices while failing to tackle huge losses to industrial fishing in the ocean
Earlier this month Alaska officials announced a new plan they say could revive the Yukon River’s struggling salmon population. The 2,000-mile waterway that runs from Canada’s Yukon Territory to the Bering Sea has seen sharp declines in its Chinook, or king salmon, in recent years.
The new strategy aims to restore the number of fish that reach their northern spawning areas near the Canadian border to 71,000, up from about 15,000 that reached the Canadian border in 2023, by suspending commercial, sport, domestic and personal use fisheries in the Yukon River until 2030. Previously, fishing closures were revisited each year.
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Lindsay McKenna’s wildlife centre takes in exotic animals when owners can’t cope. She and other experts fear the law is failing the very animals it is designed to protect
When Lindsay McKenna went out to buy a piece of furniture from a seller, the last thing she expected was to return with a wild animal.
“Something moved in the garage when I was in there helping the guy lift [the furniture],” she said. “It was a racoon in an incredibly small cage, it could hardly turn around. It was wet. It was filthy. It was skinny, aggressive.”
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EV sales have plateaued across the world but the newfound glut of vehicles may just be temporary
Elon Musk became the world’s richest man by evangelising about electric cars – and delivering them by the million. Yet in recent months his company, Tesla, has struggled to maintain its momentum: sales have dropped this year, and so has its share price.
Those struggles have become emblematic of a broader reckoning facing the electric vehicle (EV) industry. After the soaring demand and valuations of the coronavirus pandemic years, the pace of sales growth has slowed. The industry has entered a new phase, with questions over whether the switch from petrol and diesel to cleaner electric is facing a troublesome stall or a temporary speed bump.
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