Recognize fish as food in policy discourse and development funding.

Nowlin, M

Bennett, A

Basurto, X

Virdin, J

Lin, X

Betances, S

Smith, M

Roady, S

2021-02-01T15:11:18Z

2021-02-01T15:11:18Z

2021-01-16

2021-02-01T15:11:14Z

The international development community is off-track from meeting targets for alleviating global malnutrition. Meanwhile, there is growing consensus across scientific disciplines that fish plays a crucial role in food and nutrition security. However, this 'fish as food' perspective has yet to translate into policy and development funding priorities. We argue that the traditional framing of fish as a natural resource emphasizes economic development and biodiversity conservation objectives, whereas situating fish within a food systems perspective can lead to innovative policies and investments that promote nutrition-sensitive and socially equitable capture fisheries and aquaculture. This paper highlights four pillars of research needs and policy directions toward this end. Ultimately, recognizing and working to enhance the role of fish in alleviating hunger and malnutrition can provide an additional long-term development incentive, beyond revenue generation and biodiversity conservation, for governments, international development organizations, and society more broadly to invest in the sustainability of capture fisheries and aquaculture.

10.1007/s13280-020-01451-4

0044-7447

1654-7209

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/22287

eng

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Ambio

10.1007/s13280-020-01451-4

Aquaculture

Fish

Fisheries

Food and nutrition security

International development

Policy

Recognize fish as food in policy discourse and development funding.

Journal article

Basurto, X|0000-0002-5321-3654

Smith, M|0000-0002-4714-463X

Nicholas School of the Environment

Marine Science and Conservation

Duke

Staff

Published