During a recent session at the U.N. Climate Change Conference, government representatives and sustainability advocates discussed the role of aquatic foods and water management in developing more resilient communities and mitigating the climate crisis. The conversation was organized by the Environmental Defense Fund and the Food Systems Pavilion.

According to Dr. Shakuntala Thilsted, winner of the 2021 World Food Prize and an aquatic food system champion, food system solutions “must move beyond land-based crops and livestock to food below water,” she shared during the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit. “The potential of diverse and nutritious aquatic foods is ripe for the picking, offering a path to produce sufficient food supply without increasing carbon emissions while reducing ecosystem stress and habitat loss.”

Aquatic foods include wild harvested or cultured and cultivated marine and freshwater species, explains Rose LaBrèche, Manager at International Oceans Policy for Oceans Canada. Globally, 2,500 different species are caught or cultivated for human consumption, including shellfish, plants, and algae. These species support the livelihoods of over 800 million people and supply protein to over 3.2 billion people worldwide.

Globally, “millions of people live from the ocean and need the ocean to live,” says Martha Delgado Peralta, Undersecretary of Multilateral Affairs & Human Rights at the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Mexico. She emphasizes the urgency of proper management of oceans, particularly for oceanic nations such as Mexico.

A cross-sectoral group of over 30 members representing government, NGOs, academia, and more launched the Aquatic Blue Food Coalition in 2022. Its goal is to highlight the importance of aquatic foods and their role in addressing the climate crisis and combatting food insecurity.

Panelists argued that integrated water management is essential to address the climate crisis, and spoke to the need to move away from a siloed approach. “Water is the driver of change. Any extreme that has a negative impact on nature, on people, on society, on economy, is water-driven, [from] drought, to floods, to water scarcity,” says Darko Manakovski, Head of Global Development for Global Water Partnership. He adds that approaches to land management impact the global hydrological system, evaporation patterns, precipitation, and food production.

Read the full article about aquatic food systems by Amelia Keleher at Food Tank.