Fish farming relies on wild-caught fish taken from developing countries' waters - so-called 'food imperialism' - and damages livelihoods of people living in West Africa who often feel driven to work in exploitative jobs, like greenhouse agriculture

Our food systems, especially in Western Europe, are deeply entangled in capitalist structures that rely on the exploitation of resources from poorer nations, primarily in the Global South. Nearly half of the food consumed in the UK is directly imported, with this figure rising to 80% when considering ingredients used in food production. This dependency often obscures the social and environmental impacts of global food production. By focusing on two specific food items - salmon and tomatoes - we unveil the deeper, systemic issues, illustrating the surprising links between these industries and their roles in environmental degradation, migration, and exploitation.

Produce for sale in a local market in Almería, including the greenhouse speciality RAF (“resiste à Fusarium“, or resistant to Fusarium root fungus) tomatoes, around 6 times the price of traditional varieties.

A Globalised Food System

Our world is more interconnected than ever, with international trade valued at nearly 9 trillion USD annually. Agricultural products make up about 12% of all global commodities traded, a significant portion of what we eat. In the UK, for example, official statistics show that 40% of food is imported, but when including processed ingredients, the figure may be as high as 80%.

Over 1 billion USD of food is moved around the globe every year, with many countries relying primarily on imported food.

This globalised trade allows year-round access to high volumes of once-luxury goods and fresh produce. However, the food supply chains that support this trade have dire social and environmental implications. Many of our food production systems involve deeply harmful practices, with wealthier nations benefiting from the extraction of resources from poorer regions - a practice referred to as “food imperialism.”

The Salmon Rush

Aquaculture is a fast-growing industry, with 44% of global fish production now coming from fish farms. Atlantic salmon, primarily farmed in Norway, is a hugely profitable commodity with 9.4 billion GBP of salmon exported from Norway alone in 2023. While advocates claim it contributes to food security and the economy, critics point out its myriad negative impacts. Not least of these is production efficiency. The industry converts edible fish from food-insecure regions into feed for the farmed salmon, creating a net loss in calories - for every kilogram of salmon, 2.8 kilograms of feed are required.

A salmon farm in the Isle of Skye - more than 70% of all salmon sold around the world is farmed at facilities like this.

Salmon farming’s environmental impacts have been well researched, and include: pollution from fish waste, antibiotics, and chemicals; habitat destruction; overuse of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance; escapes and cross-breeding with native salmon; and the spread of disease to wild fish populations. Evidence shows the farms suffer frequent and high mortality rates, with serious animal welfare concerns.

Mortalities at salmon farms are common - at this farm in Loch Duart, rotting mature salmon carcasses are vacuumed up from the base of the pens, and the resultant water pollution is clearly visible.

But the impacts go much further than this - a large portion of the fishmeal used in salmon feed comes from West African fisheries, where local populations heavily rely on these fish for their diets. Foreign-owned factories in Mauritania, Senegal and The Gambia convert locally caught fish into fishmeal and fish oil for export, driving up prices and forcing artisanal fishers to sell to the highest bidder - often the fishmeal industry - rather than local markets. The result is a lack of food and livelihoods for local people.

This dynamic has had devastating effects on West African fishing communities. Women, who traditionally run fish processing and local markets, have been disproportionately affected as prices soar and fish stocks dwindle. The fishmeal industry is also a major contributor to environmental degradation in the region, with factories polluting local ecosystems.

Migration and Agricultural Exploitation

As fish stocks decline in West Africa, many people are left with no choice but to migrate to Europe, seeking better economic opportunities. In 2023, over 260,000 undocumented migrants entered Europe, and in Spain alone 39,910 people arrived by sea to the Canary Islands, many from regions affected by the collapse of local industries, like fisheries in West Africa. These people struggle to find work without appropriate papers and are an easy target for exploitative employment in dangerous and poorly paid jobs, such as agriculture.

Almería in southern Spain has the highest concentration of greenhouses in the world - the 32,000 hectares of plastic-covered greenhouses is clearly visible from space.

The intensive greenhouse agriculture in Almería in Spain produces 3.8 million tonnes of fresh vegetables for European markets annually, including 25% of the UK’s imported peppers. Almería’s 32,000 hectares of greenhouses, often referred to as the “sea of plastic,” rely on cheap migrant labour to meet the demands for low-cost, high volume produce. An estimated 120,000 people are employed in the greenhouses, with the majority employed illegally because of their undocumented status. These jobs are unpredictable, dangerous, and offer very low wages with no contracts - migrant workers are typically paid 50-70% of the national minimum wage.

The greenhouses are supported by a c. 120,000 strong workforce, mostly made up of immigrants, many of whom lack proper papers and are exploited by the industry.

The migrants working in the greenhouses are often forced to live in unsanitary living conditions - slums known as ‘chabolas’ - without access to clean water and safe electricity, and often with poorly stored cooking gas, commonly resulting in fires. Some of these settlements have been bulldozed and destroyed by local authorities in order to remove them from public view. The uncertainty and stress of these living conditions has resulted in a number of social issues like alcoholism and depression. Some migrants are unable to work because of health issues.

Some migrants are unable to work because of sickness. They can become trapped, unable to return home and unable to gain support from the state.

As with the salmon farming industry, intensive greenhouse agriculture also has significant environmental impacts. Water from underground aquifers is overexploited, and heavily polluted from agrichemicals, with 34,000 tonnes of plastic sheeting discarded every year. Meanwhile, farmers face bankruptcy - pressured by market demands to produce more for less income - and driving them to cut costs, not only by hiring undocumented labour, but also neglecting their responsibilities towards environmental sustainability.

The greenhouses cause substantial environmental damage, including (clockwise from top left): pollution from agrichemicals and inorganic fertilisers; 34,000 tonnes of discarded plastic every year that clogs rivers and eventually ends up in the sea; loss and damage of diverse natural habitats; over-extraction of groundwater used for irrigation.

In Chains - Outsourcing our Food System Impacts

Evidence exists that demonstrates a linkage between the salmon farming industry in Northern Europe and overexploitation of fisheries in West Africa. Evidence also shows that people from these countries migrate to Europe and end up working in exploitative industries, including the greenhouse agriculture in Almería, where they work and live in precarious, dangerous, and unhealthy conditions.

Graffiti on a water tank in the greenhouses reads “Settlements: employer terrorism”, indicating the stranglehold that industrial farming has on its informal employment of migrant workers.

It is difficult to foresee a future for intensive food production systems that does not involve some form of social or environmental exploitation, since the primary purpose of this industry is profit generation. The neoliberalist prerogative of shareholder profiteering drives exploitation of finite resources - whether human or environmental. We must embrace food production systems that centre on social and environmental sustainability, perhaps starting with an institutional and cultural responsibility for the systems that feel the brunt of our continued exploitation.

As a sad reminder of the connection between damaging food supply chains, a fish farm for sea bream sits off the coast of Almería, a few hundred metres away from the densest area of greenhouses.

Liam Lysaght from Feedback says it well: “we have to recognise that these crises exist as a function of neo-colonialism – of commodification and extraction. We need to see food as more than an ingredient for profit maximisation by powerful countries and corporations, we must centre food access in our visions for a sustainable future and we must learn from our history to move forward in an equitable way.”