Should we farm octopus? ⏲️ 6 Minute English

Hello. This is Six Minute

English from BBC

Learning English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Beth.

Beth, what do you think about when I say the word octopus?

Well, I know

they're intelligent, they can change colour to hide in their surroundings,

and of course they have eight arms. But, I have to admit I also think

about how they taste - delicious.

Yeah, I think that too,

as do plenty of other people. Octopus

is most commonly eaten in South Korea, Spain, Portugal and Japan,

where they can't get enough of that umami

flavour. Umami is one of the five basic tastes and is a savoury flavour.

Until recently octopus has only been caught in the wild,

but now a Spanish multinational company has announced

it will be ready to sell farmed octopus soon,

which campaigners have described as ethically and ecologically unjustified.

This is because octopuses are sentient,

an adjective describing a thing that experiences

feelings like pleasure and pain.

Humans and many other animals like pigs, monkeys and birds are also sentient.

So, is it

OK to farm octopus

when they have been shown to experience feelings? In this programme,

we'll be discussing whether farming octopus can ever be ethical

and, as usual,

we will be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

But first

I have a question for you, Beth.

Octopuses are known for their ability to problem solve

and when kept in tanks have been known to escape.

But where did Inky

the octopus go when he broke out of his tank

at the New Zealand National Aquarium in 2016?

Was it a) down a drain into the Pacific Ocean, b)

to the tank of a female octopus, or c) to the aquarium car park.

I'll guess he went to the tank of a female octopus.

OK, Beth. I'll reveal the answer later in the programme. In many countries,

it is not easy to find

octopus in shops,

but if plans for farmed octopus

go ahead, you're much more likely to see it in the supermarket.

Claire Marshall, who has been reporting on the octopus farm story

since 2019 explains why

octopuses have not been farmed before, as she told BBC

World Service programme, The Food Chain.

They've got an incredibly complex life cycle

and its, scientists have been working feverishly

to try to close that life cycle, particularly in Mexico and Japan,

and obviously now Spain.

They need live food -

the larvae. And also octopuses are incredibly solitary and

it just makes it really hard to manage to basically keep them in captivity

at a commercial scale.

Octopuses are difficult to farm because they have a complex life cycle -

the series of changes an animal goes through,

starting with birth and ending with death.

Unlike traditional farmed animals like chickens

and pigs, who are social animals and can be kept together,

octopuses are solitary, meaning they like to live alone.

This makes keeping them in captivity very difficult because of space.

If an animal lives in captivity, it's kept somewhere and not allowed to leave,

even if it wants to – like in a zoo.

But it's not only space

that is a problem when it comes to farming octopus.

It's their capacity to feel emotions as well.

Scientific researcher doctor Heather Browning has been studying

the sentience of octopuses for a British government-commissioned report.

She shared the report findings with Ruth

Alexander, presenter of BBC

Radio 4 programme,

The Food Chain. So, we wanted to

look at whether they had specific kinds of nerve connections

or if they had specific kinds of brains and whether they were capable

of performing certain kinds of trade-off behaviours or pain-related behaviours,

learning behaviours that we thought would correlate

with the probability of sentience.

And what we found for octopuses in particular is they seemed to meet many

of the criteria that we'd laid out.

The scientists found that octopuses do experience feelings because they show

typical characteristics of sentient creatures, such as trade-off

behaviour. Trade-off means giving up one thing

in return for another, such as giving up shelter for food.

So, it looks like the debate about whether it's OK to farm

and eat octopuses will continue.

OK, Beth. I think it's time I revealed the answer to my question.

I asked you where Inky

the octopus went when he escaped his tank at the New Zealand National Aquarium.

And I said it was to the tank

of a female octopus.

Well, that was the wrong answer,

I'm afraid. In fact, Inky

the octopus was trying to reach the tank of a female

but he found a drain instead, which led straight to the Pacific Ocean.

OK, let's recap the vocabulary

we have learned from this programme, starting with umami,

the flavour octopus has, which can be described as savoury

and is one of the five basic tastes.

If something is sentient,

it experiences

feelings such as joy and pain. Life cycle

is the series of changes something goes through from birth to death.

If something is solitary,

it likes to live alone.

In captivity means an animal is kept somewhere

and is not allowed to leave.

And finally trade-off means to exchange

one thing for another.

Once again our six minutes are up.

Join us again soon for more useful vocabulary here at Six Minute

English. Goodbye for now. Bye!