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Department of Cultural Resources & Leisure Industries, National Taitung University
Last modified: 2026-05-26
Abstract
Farmed milkfish (Chano chano) is commonplace in Taiwanese diet and it has become a source of seafood education in the past two decades. This paper treats aquatic life forms as education actants that lead consumers and scholars to reflect on the future of aquaculture, rural Taiwan and the sustainable future of ocean. I articulate the emerging phenomenon of seafood education in Taiwan that reflects the making of farmed aquatic life forms to become not only a consumed food item, but also an educational actant nurturing humans’ present and future. I coin the concept and practice of “co-nurturing” accredited from the academic ideas of “becoming with” (Haraway 2008: 244), “co-production” (Jasanoff 2004), and “co-travelling” (Haraway 2003: 9), as well as Taiwanese fish farmers’ folk practice of yang, literally meaning “nurturing.” By investigating a case of milkfish education and its associated aquaculture-wetland conservation activities in southwestern Taiwan, I explore how and why multi-species inter-actions and co-nurturing makes sustainable aquaculture and seafood supply-chain a promising, even challenging, discourse and practice of futurology. This paper will contribute to policy makers and educators to reflect on the role and agency of non-human actants in environmental protection and food education.