Monday 23rd March 2026
- Prof Carol Wagstaff will Chair Plenary talks from TUKFS (1) at 11.45
- In Parallel Session 2.1 (Individual Papers) at 15.30-17.00, the 3rd paper by Lynn Frewer has been withdrawn and will be replaced by a paper by Prof Rod Wilson and colleagues entitled “The sustainable UK king prawn project”. You can find the abstract below.
- Prof Rod Wilson will also present a poster describing methods for the same project. You can find this on Poster Board 14.
- In Parallel Session 2.2 (Individual Papers) at 15.30-17.00, the title of the 3rd paper by Rebecca Newman should have read: “How transformative governance for food system transformation can be co-created with local actors”
Individual papers 2.1 (new abstract)
Submitting author: Rod Wilson, Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter R.W.Wilson@exeter.ac.uk
TUKFS Investment: Transformational blueprint for a blue economy on UK terrestrial farms: integrating sustainable shrimp production in a changing agricultural landscape
All Authors: Rod Wilson, Robert Ellis, Trystan Sanders, Rajesh Manchi, Alexis Perry, Owaen Guppy, Pawel Sierocinski, Angus Buckling, Ian Bateman, Thiago Morello, Diana Tingley, Martin Blackwell, Robert Dunn, Andrew Whiston
Title: The UK Sustainable King Prawn Project (UKSKPP)
Abstract: The UKSKPP is an important exemplar of growing healthy, popular, tropical seafood in the UK with minimal environmental impacts by co-locating indoor, recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) with waste heat and renewable energy sources and ensuring full circularity of waste streams. Prawns absorb massive amounts of calcium after each moult, so managing water chemistry is critical.
We developed a novel calcium sensor now being commercialised for the first-ever automated calcium management in global aquaculture. Shed exoskeletons are used to make chitosan (valuable pharmaceutical ingredient), and we established optimal water chemistry for prawn growth, health and chitosan yield. Prawn wastes were successfully used as soil enhancer for growing rye grass, and confirmed as compatible with anaerobic digester microbial production of biogas. Trials at our King Prawn Demonstrator-Farm site (UKSKPP-Demonstrator-Farm-Video) showed that cost-effective, supplementary dietary vitamins greatly improved prawn growth, productivity, health and environmental tolerances. Economic modelling revealed that indoor RAS king prawn farms generate an astonishing 50x more animal protein per hectare than beef/pork livestock farming. This much greater land-use efficiency provides major land-sparing opportunities for nature positive food systems. Expanding beyond existing UK farmland to brown-field and urban sites with renewable energy options will extend sustainability and environmental benefits even further.