Fishing for Fodder: South American Fishmeal Empires and North American Ranching, 1945–73

As the global “race for fish” ensued following World War II, the spectacular growth of Peruvian and Chilean fisheries transformed them into two of the top five fishing nations.  Their success over the last sixty years has been based on access to the world’s most productive marine ecosystem: the Humboldt Current.  For Peru and Chile, the ultimate prize in this postwar battle for ocean resources was the silvery shoals of anchovies and sardines that constituted the raw material for fishmeal—a key ingredient in animal feed in the global North.  As U.S. and European farmers raised more chickens and pigs to satisfy the growing consumer demand for meat, industrialists raided the oceans for the proteins that would nourish them. My paper will examine the early boom years of the fishmeal industry in the Southeast Pacific from a transnational environmental context, as enormous business empires were forged amidst contentious debates over sustainability and resource management.