Diversity in narratives to green the Norwegian salmon farming industry

Abstract

Despite being an economic success and generating considerable profit, the Norwegian salmon farming industry face environmental challenges that need to be solved. Since 2014, all new licenses to farm salmon are labelled either “light-green”, dark-green” or “development licenses”. The industry is nevertheless characterized by the open net-pen as a hegemonic technology, and is susceptible to both cognitive and political lock-in. In the article, it is defined which narratives on “greening criteria” that are dominant and an analysis is presented on how narratives influence new licenses for salmon farming. The data is derived from 52 qualitative interviews and a broad qualitative analysis of trends and debates in the industry. From the perspective of evolutionary economic geography and the sub-concept path dependency, narratives on greening criteria for future salmon farming are divided in three categories: path extension, modest path renewal and strong path renewal. The findings reveal that although most licenses are linked to mere path extension, development licenses might disrupt this trend.