Caught in a Staples Vise: The Political Economy of Canadian Aquaculture

Aquaculture in Canada is a small, rapidly-growing high-technology resource sector “caught in a staples vise”. On the one hand it is an archetypal case of a new “post-staples” resource industry: combining high capital intensity and sophisticated technology to produce a new, post-staples, version of a classic staple resource – food fish. On the other, it perpetuates many of the same social and economic problems and issues that plagued traditional staples political economies: namely a hinterland location and heavy export reliance. And, as is the case with most intensively farmed technologically- intensive foodstuffs its rise and rivalry with the wild fishery is intense and conflictridden, with much distrust and debate a feature of contemporary aquacultural expansion. This article assesses these contradictory and sometimes conflicting developments in a resource industry for the most part situated in a very uneven transition towards a post-staples political economy.