DOI: 10.5061/dryad.wm37pvmm9
title: Consideration of food and nutrition in blue economy voluntary commitments

description: Increasing the production of food from the ocean is seen as a pathway
 towards more sustainable and healthier human diets. Yet this potential is
 being overshadowed by competing uses of ocean resources in an
 accelerating ‘blue economy’. The current emphasis on production growth,
 rather than equitable distribution of benefits, has created three
 unexamined or flawed assumptions that: growth in the blue economy will
 lead to growth in blue food production; increased production will
 inevitably lead to improved food and nutrition security; and mariculture
 production will replace marine capture fisheries. In this Perspective, we
 argue that if research and policies are pursued without addressing these
 ‘blind spots’, ‘blue food’ contributions to reducing hunger and
 malnutrition, and to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, will be
 limited. Taking a broader food system approach, beyond production to also
 consider food access, affordability and consumption, will refocus the
 ‘blue food’ agenda on making production and consumption more equitable and
 sustainable, while increasing access for those who need it most.
description: Voluntary commitments from
 three events were examined: the UN Oceans conference 2017, the Nairobi
 Sustainable Blue Economy conference 2018, and Our Ocean Conference 2017,
 2018 and 2019. For the UN Oceans Conference, all 1608 commitments made
 between 2017 and March 13 2020 were examined for those that identified as
 part of the Blue Economy Community of Action (n=407) or specifically
 stated Blue Economy ambitions (n= 24) to be included in the analysis. For
 the Our Oceans conference, of the total 1108 commitments made, those
 categorised as belonging to the Sustainable Blue Economy theme (n=209)
 were analysed. The text of commitments from all
 three events (n= 431+210+209) were searched for reference to mariculture,
 aquaculture and fisheries, as well as for food system elements including
 value chain, food security, and nutrition. The number of commitments was
 analysed rather than the value as many commitments did not cite a
 financial value, or included total values of larger projects. The key
 search parameter for mariculture was ‘culture’, where commitments
 specifying a stated desire to improve, increase or develop mariculture or
 aquaculture, exclusive of those that relate specifically to fresh water
 systems e.g. tilapia, were noted. Key search parameters for value chains
 were ‘value’ and ‘chain’ where commitments specifying the value chain or
 supply chain or parts thereof, e.g. processing were noted. The search
 excluded value chains for aquaculture feed e.g. traceability in the salmon
 feed supply chain. For nutrition, all commitments with a stated desire to
 improve nutrition outcomes in humans were noted. For food security all
 commitments stating a desire to increase, improve or achieve food security
 were noted. Key search parameters were ‘food’, ‘security’, ‘access’,
 ‘affordability’ and ‘utilisation’. Key search parameters for sustainable
 fisheries were ‘fisher’ and ‘stock’, where commitments stating a desire to
 sustainably manage and use fisheries were noted, excluding commitments to
 conserve fish for other purposes such as tourism.
description: The comments are current up to March 13, 2020. New commitments
 may have been made since this time.