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World Food Prize Winner Unlocks Benefits of Fish

May 13, 2021 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:

Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted has been named the 2021 World Food Prize Laureate. Often referred to as the Nobel Prize for food research, Dr. Thilsted is the first woman of Asian heritage to receive the award. Her work focuses on unlocking the benefits of fish for diets, health and livelihoods.

“Dr. Thilsted’s work has helped scientists understand just how beneficial fish can be. She’s shown that fish not only provides essential micronutrients and fatty acids, but also improves the absorption of nutrients from traditional agrarian staples,” said Jennifer McGuire, Registered Dietitian from the National Fisheries Institute.

The World Food Prize Foundation says her work is, “reshaping scientific understanding of the benefits of fish in diets” and helping “prioritize increases in fish consumption and production, transforming the diets and incomes of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.”

Her award-winning work includes a focus on expanding small-scale aquaculture systems where small and large fish species are farmed together.

“Dr. Thilsted’s research is unique because it’s holistic,” said National Fisheries Institute Chair Derek Figueroa, President of Seattle Fish Company. “Not only is she looking at the vital dietary side, she’s looking at the jobs, income and the sustainability of whole communities. The transformational power of seafood is truly on display.”

The Foundation calls her work a “trailblazing approach” that “extends throughout the entire chain of producing, processing, transporting, selling and consuming aquatic food.”

“We’re not just talking about generally nourishing people,” said McGuire. “We’re talking about work that helps get the right nutrients to the right people, from nursing mothers to ageing populations. It’s truly remarkable.”

“NFI congratulates Dr. Thilsted on this award and thanks her for her tireless work,” said Figueroa.

World Food Prize granted for research on nutritional importance of seafood

May 13, 2021 — Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, the global lead for nutrition and public health at WorldFish, has been named the 2021 World Food Prize Laureate for her research into developing nutrition-sensitive approaches to aquatic food systems, including fisheries and aquaculture, and integrated food production from land and water.

Sometimes referred to as “the Nobel Prize for food and agriculture,” Thilsted’s research has been praised by the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) and represents the first time a woman of Asian heritage has been awarded the prize. Her research delved into the nutritional composition of small native fish species that are typically consumed in Bangladesh and Cambodia.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

National Fisheries Institute Statement on Biden Administration’s Climate Taskforce Plan

May 7, 2021 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:

Today’s release of recommendations to the National Climate Taskforce illustrates an understanding that simply walling off parts of the ocean, without a science-based fisheries management goal, is not a sound policy. In fact, the report states that, “many uses of our lands and waters, including of working lands, can be consistent with the long-term health and sustainability of natural systems.”

Further, the report bolsters the fundamental underpinnings of the Magnuson Steven Act, that relies on regional councils to manage fisheries sustainability oversight, when it calls for support of, “locally led conservation and restoration efforts of all kinds and all over America, wherever communities wish to safeguard the lands and waters they know and love.”

Locally led, science based resource management is not a catchy slogan but it is a thorough strategy.

NFI, FMI partner to standardize seafood buying process

April 29, 2021 — FMI – The Food Industry Association and the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) have teamed up to offer forms designed to standardize the seafood buying process.

The two organizations created fillable forms for retailers and wholesalers to use when sending seafood product specifications to suppliers. The fillable forms allow organizations to indicate their product requirements and enable seafood suppliers to consolidate their communication, FMI and NFI said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Biden’s early days show new tack on trade, but little chance of China tariff removal

April 23, 2021 — As the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden approaches its one-hundredth day in charge, its early actions are laying the groundwork for the country’s stance on trade.

Speaking during a National Fisheries Institute Global Seafood Market Conference webinar covering the first 100 days of the Biden administration, NFI Vice President for Government Affairs Robert DeHaan predicted the new administration will likely take a different tack than that of former U.S. President Donald Trump. SeafoodSource is providing exclusive coverage of the GSMC webinar series, which will be providing market-focused content throughout 2021.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Shucked by the pandemic, oyster market begins to open up

April 14, 2021 — Of all the categories of seafood impacted by COVID-19 – both positively and negatively – mollusks appear to have borne the brunt of foodservice closures. The sector experienced a 60 percent decline in sales during the height of the pandemic last spring.

The mollusk market has also had one of the slowest recoveries, according to NPD Supplytrack data shared during a National Fisheries Institute’s Global Seafood Market Conference webinar. SeafoodSource is providing exclusive coverage of the GSMC webinar series, which will be providing market-focused content throughout 2021.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

National Fisheries Institute Statement on Seafood Expo North America

April 6, 2021 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:

Diversified Communications continues its long run of connecting the seafood community through innovative events across various platforms. Today, Diversified announced that the next in-person Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America will be held in March, 2022. This comes in response to current COVID venue capacity limits, which prevent the ability to plan and execute the event in July 2021. Diversified looks forward to bringing the seafood community back together March 13-15, 2022 in Boston, MA.

NFI is excited for the return of Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America in 2022. We encourage all NFI members and partners to plan now to meet their peers then.

The pandemic has reminded us that in-person contact is vital to the human spirit in both our personal and business relationships. Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America is an example of what we have missed – and all we are looking forward to in the future.  We look forward to seeing you all safely in Boston.

Beyond ‘Seaspiracy’: Debunking damaging myths in fisheries

April 2, 2021 — Our response to the docudrama “Seaspiracy” focuses on the underlying motive of plant-based diets and how it misses its target by inciting fear rather than relying on facts.

The University of Washington’s Sustainable Fisheries page regularly tracks misinformation in fisheries news.

The National Fisheries Institute was hot out of the gate with its reply last week.

The Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation tracked and documented socially responsible fishing practices in Alaska’s commercial fleet, starting in 2017. Here’s their report and project outline.

The Global Aquaculture Alliance details why the film should be ignored.

SeafoodSource’s report links to responses from many of the NGOs and others who claim to have been misrepresented in the docudrama “Seaspiracy.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Seaspiracy: Recognizable Propaganda

March 25, 2021 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:

The concern with some slickly produced propaganda pieces, masquerading as “documentaries,” is that audiences will not recognize the film’s true agenda. Despite the artistic aerial shots, exciting albeit hyperbolic cloak-and-dagger scenes and stirring action-movie like sound track, there is little concern Seaspiracy will be mistaken for anything but a vegan indoctrination movie.

The film begins by suggesting, without evidence, that fisheries bycatch is an issue “governments [have] practically given up on enforcing.” Then touts a narrative that an “internationally recognized seafood label [is] a complete fabrication.” All this before whipsawing viewers from the argument that getting rid of plastic straws was once considered a pollution fix but that now the only real solution is getting rid of the entire commercial fishing sector.

Before long the producers describe a fishing vessel with the caveat that, “what it really is, is a death machine.” They then dive headlong into an embrace of the idea that the oceans will be empty by 2048, which is based on a completely debunked 2006 statistic, refuted by none other than the author of the original study. The 2048 statistic was put to rest by a follow-up report in the Journal Science released in 2009 under the title New hope for fisheries.

Gravitating towards the popular call to ban fishing in 30% of the oceans by 2030, the film turns to an author, who owns a vegan food company, an animal rescue sanctuary and is also apparently a dentist. His endorsement of the 30 by 30 slogan/policy is based on his calculation that, “in reality, less than 1% of our oceans are being regulated.” This is of course not only inaccurate it’s nonsensical. But it doesn’t end there. He goes on to compare choosing fish based on some eco labels to, “essentially saying  it’s more sustainable to shoot a polar bear than shooting a panda.”

During a segment on Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported fishing in Africa director Ali Tabrizi claims, “In the United States up to 1 in every 3 wild caught fish imported have been caught illegally and therefor sold illegally. Stolen, often from countries in most need.” The methodology behind this wildly inflated statistic has been picked apart in the very Journal where it first appeared; “Methods to estimate IUU are not credible.” Meanwhile, papers using the same approach have been retracted.  While IUU is a serious issue and unacceptable at any level, Tabrizi’s calculated film making seeks to conflate over estimated IUU numbers with U.S. seafood imports from Africa. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports less than 2% of U.S. seafood imports come from Africa.

Before setting their sites on aquaculture, the filmmakers can’t help but slip in a vegan dog whistle in describing fishing boats they say “…It became clear these vessels were more like floating slaughter houses.”

Adeptly leading viewers down the primrose path, fish farming is lauded as a potential “method that could provide some kind of solution” before it is eviscerated with out of date tropes like the lie that farmed salmon is died pink. The film later digs up another classic in complaining about PCB’s in fish but never (ironically) mentions that Harvard University research finds seafood broadly, not just farmed salmon, makes up only 9% of the PCBs in the average American diet, while products like vegetables make up 20%. Yes, vegetables.

As the film begins its expected arch into unabashed vegan rhetoric about fish feeling pain and how, “animals… use democratic decision making,” it logs a chapter about labor abuses in the seafood space. This is a serious and concerning topic that the filmmakers bring nothing new to.  While their interviews with silhouetted victims are heartbreaking, what is really on display here is, as the New York Times put it, a “cheap imitation of hard-hitting investigative journalism.”

In the end the film sputters to a close with what is essentially a predictable commercial for highly processed plant-based alternative products.

The following are excerpts from the New York Times Review of Seaspiracy:

“The film’s rhetorical style often feels like a cheap imitation of hard-hitting investigative journalism.”

“Even the film’s notable points seem to emerge only briefly before sinking beneath the surface, lost in a sea of murky conspiratorial thinking.”

Read the full review at the New York Times

National Fisheries Institute and cell-based seafood makers ask FDA for labeling guidelines

March 10, 2021 — The Alliance for Meat Poultry and Seafood Innovation (AMPS Innovation), a coalition representing makers of cell-cultured protein products, and the US seafood trade association the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) jointly called on the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to support requirements for labeling these new products descriptively, accurately and consistently regarding what the products actually are and how they are made.

Based on research by Rutgers professor William Hallman, NFI and AMPS Innovation on Monday urged the FDA to adopt the use of the term “cell-cultured” to support uniform labeling of the products.

The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the FDA are working together to ensure the safety and labeling of cell-cultured meat, poultry, and seafood products.

FSIS will have oversight of the labeling of cell-cultured meat and poultry, as it does for all meat and poultry sold in the United States, while FDA will oversee the labeling of cell-cultured seafood, as it does for most seafood sold in the United States.

Read the full story at IntraFish

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