Seafood MAP is a food systems solution activator focused on rapid mobilzation to build tools that support a better aquaculture. The work is led by The Lexicon, with support from Food at Google.
Consumers are turning away from beef toward alternative protein sources like seafood to mitigate the impact their diets have on climate change.
Conservation groups are restoring and maintaining seagrasses, mangroves, and macroalgae, effectively storing atmospheric carbon at rates 20 times more effective than our world’s forests.
Entrepreneurs have begun farming carbon-capturing seaweed for a range of uses, from animal feed supplements to bioplastics.
Fisher Peoples are creating unique entrepreneurial approaches like integrated aquaculture systems to sustain and improve their livelihoods while preserving the health of ocean ecosystems.
The one thing these groundbreaking technologies, conservation efforts and innovative approaches have in common? They’re all part of the emerging blue carbon movement, all happening underwater, and all connected to market-driven entrepreneurial efforts.
Domain experts from across the global value chain have gathered to collaborate on a new open source platform that captures the sustainable production practices and ecosystem benefits provided by seaweed, shrimp, shellfish and finfish producers across the globe.
For its work in aquaculture, AGB has gathered industry stakeholders across the value chain in the areas of seaweed, finfish, shrimp, and shellfish. Their shared objective is to develop a single respected, validated, and imminently useful digital platform to describe best practices for aquaculture, followed by fisheries.
Science (and experience) matter. The initiative will draw on research and domain expertise among producers to describe what aquaculture systems should look like based on a series of outcomes or ecosystem benefits. Expanding from a shared definition, the group will identify the principles and practices that directly enable those outcomes.
Place matters. While the guiding principles of sustainable aquaculture are universally understood, their application is place-based, a response to a variety of factors and informed by water conditions, weather, geography, species types, available technologies, feed sources, traditions, and community values. Appropriate scale … that scales appropriately.
An informed purchaser matters. Consumers and producers want to know who makes their food, where it’s grown, and what practices are used. That’s why we believe in food systems models with short supply chains that maintain the identity of their ingredients. Aligning producers and purchasers can conserve threatened ecosystems, mitigate climate impacts, and regenerate coastal communities.
Just as a dairy farmer straps on their boots every morning and greets their cows, so too does the seafood farmer. They step into their waders and harvest sugar kelp, check on oysters after a storm, or make sure the trout look happy and healthy. But aquaculture does not stop there. It is an ecosystem of truck drivers and fish mongers, distributors and investors, engineers and academics, policy makers and communities. The Greener Blue Activator accounts for every step, every actor, that brings us our seafood and new innovations for a better planet.
To increase sustainability, responsibility, and opportunity in our aquaculture system, the Seafood MAP team has identified a set of principles that support climate and ecosystem friendly farming methods, responsible businesses, and local communities.
More than half of the fish and seafood we eat today has been grown by farmers, and the sector is growing rapidly to meet global demands for protein.
Depending on the specific needs of the animals or algae being grown, the methods of aquaculture vary widely, taking place in tanks or artificial ponds on land, in the natural environment, or a combination of the two.
In a connected market, food purchasers learn to ask the right questions in sourcing ingredients so they can champion a food system aligned with their personal values and the missions of their companies – even when these ingredients come from halfway around the world. And by becoming a partner in this mutually beneficial value chain, producers are also incentivized to deliver high quality goods at a fair price that support their communities and the marketplace.
More than half of the fish and seafood we eat today has been grown by farmers, and the sector is growing rapidly to meet global demands for protein.
Depending on the specific needs of the animals or algae being grown, the methods of aquaculture vary widely, taking place in tanks or artificial ponds on land, in the natural environment, or a combination of the two.
About Seafood MAP
Seafood MAP is is a program of Green Brown Blue, a food systems solutions activator produced by The Lexicon with support from Food at Google. It brings together food companies, NGOs, scientists, entrepreneurs, and food producers from across the globe to tackle some of the most complex challenges facing our food systems, from aquaculture to agrobiodiversity. Instead of an activator for startups or new products, participants design, rapidly prototype, and release tools for change every six months. Learn more by visiting greenbrownblue.com.
Team
Seafood MAP features an unprecedented collaboration of leading food service companies, purchasers, fishers, fish farmers, academics, environmental NGOs, and technical assistance providers.
This website was built by The Lexicon™, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization headquartered in Petaluma, CA.
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