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ROSAMOND NAYLOR: Making blue foods central to global food systems

July 19, 2021 — A friend used to tell me “something’s a-fish” when things were off kilter. Today, the global food system is not just “a-fish”; it’s failing billions of people.

Hunger, malnutrition and obesity coexist in rich and poor countries alike, often in the same town or even in the same home. Diabetes, heart disease, coastal dead zones and other social burdens connected to our food system continue to rise. In recognition of this urgent challenge, the United Nations will hold a global summit in September for government, business, nonprofit organizations and civil society leaders to map a more sustainable, healthy and equitable food system.

Transforming our food system will require a new mind-set and more careful consideration of blue foods — aquatic animals, plants and algae cultivated and captured in freshwater and marine environments.

Until now, the movement to build productive and sustainable food systems has focused on transforming land-based crops and livestock, largely overlooking the critical role that fish and other aquatic foods play in nutrition, livelihoods and ecosystems around the world. That role will increase as food production becomes increasingly vulnerable to climate change.

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

Researchers rush to understand kelp forests as harvesting increases

April 22, 2021 — The kelp forests of the oceans are a habitat for a wide range of marine species, rivaling even the great tropical forests for sheer richness of biodiversity, according to scientists from the KELPER project, which studies these marine algae ecosystems.

The kelp species, or marine algae, that make up these seaweed strands anchored to rocks on the seafloor are typically Macrocystis pyrifera, or giant kelp, and Lessonia trabeculata, known locally as huiro palo. The largest natural reserves of these algae are found off the coast of Chile and southern Argentina, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Chile is the main beneficiary of this abundance, with an important industry dedicated to kelp harvesting, primarily L. trabeculata, making the country the world’s largest producer of macroalgae.

Algae contain a carbohydrate called alginate that’s used as a thickener in a large number of products in the food industry, such as desserts, ice creams, dairy products, sauces and condiments. It’s also used in the textiles and pharmaceuticals industries, including in the production of creams and toothpaste.

Until 2005, these long strands of kelp were collected on the beach by fisher-gatherers when, after a swell, the waves pulled them up from the seafloor and deposited them on the shore. Since then, increasing demand for alginate — a market estimated at $1 billion a year, according to a KELPER Project report — has driven the industry to start harvesting the kelp directly from the source in the sea, in a practice known locally as barreteo. According to the most recent figures published by the Chilean National Fisheries Service (Sernapesca), 40,261 tons of L. trabeculata were cut from the seafloor this way in 2018.

Read the full story at Mongabay

Platform Launches to Connect Small-scale Fishers From Across the Globe

February 3, 2021 — A number of conservation NGOs and partners launched the Small-Scale Fisheries Resource and Collaboration Hub (SSF), an online platform looking to boost small-scale fisheries governance and community development.

The SSF Hub is launching ahead of the annual U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s Committee on Fisheries meeting. Oceana also explained the Hub is also a response to the FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (or SSF Guidelines) to support the livelihoods of small-scale fishers and fishing communities.

Read the full story at Seafood News

FAO: Farmed fish price increases to outpace those for wild species

November 30, 2020 — Increased demand for seafood and slowing growth of fisheries and aquaculture production will see prices increase by almost a quarter over the next 10 years, projects the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Its report “The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020,” (or SOFIA 2020), expects total fish production to rise from its current level of 179 million metric tons (MT) to around 204 million MT in 2030. While this will represent an increase of some 15 percent, by comparison, for the period 2007-2018 that rate of growth was a much more dynamic 27 percent.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Disputes with NGOs over science overshadow EU achievements on reducing overfishing

June 12, 2020 — The world is unlikely to meet a United Nations sustainable development goal on ending overfishing, according to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization’s recent report on the state of the world fisheries.

But the U.N.’s blunt admission that the world’s failing to meet SDG Target 14.4 – to end overfishing of marine fisheries by 2020 – has not prevented the European Union from declaring a victory of sorts in ending overfishing in its own territories.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

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