Like the Green Revolution of the 1960s that resulted in massive increases in agricultural production around the world, the recent “Blue Revolution” has transformed global aquaculture. However, these greater yields – to satisfy the growing demand for seafood by privileged consumers in the developed countries of the North – have come at a high price for the global South: ecological ruin, displacement of rural subsistence farmers, and labour exploitation. The uncomfortable truth is that food security for affluent consumers is built on a foundation of social and ecological devastation in the producing countries.

In Confronting the Blue Revolution, Md Saidul Islam uses the shrimp farming industry in Bangladesh and across the global South to demonstrate the social and environmental impact of industrialized aquaculture. Providing a wealth of factual information and fresh insights, the book pushes us to reconsider our attitudes towards consumption patterns in the developed world, neoliberal environmental governance, and the question of sustainability.

md saidul islam is an assistant professor in the Division of Sociology at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.