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Blue foods, sourced in aquatic environments, are important for the economies, livelihoods, nutritional security and cultures of people in many nations. They are often nutrient rich 1 , generate lower emissions and impacts on land and water than many terrestrial meats 2 , and contribute to the health 3 , wellbeing and livelihoods of many rural communities 4 . The Blue Food Assessment recently evaluated nutritional, environmental, economic and justice dimensions of blue foods globally. Here we integrate these findings and translate them into four policy objectives to help realize the contributions that blue foods can make to national food systems around the world: ensuring supplies of critical nutrients, providing healthy alternatives to terrestrial meat, reducing dietary environmental footprints and safeguarding blue food contributions to nutrition, just economies and livelihoods under a changing climate. To account for how context-specific environmental, socio-economic and cultural aspects affect this contribution, we assess the relevance of each policy objective for individual countries, and examine associated co-benefits and trade-offs at national and international scales. We find that in many African and South American nations, facilitating consumption of culturally relevant blue food, especially among nutritionally vulnerable population segments, could address vitamin B 12 and omega-3 deficiencies. Meanwhile, in many global North nations, cardiovascular disease rates and large greenhouse gas footprints from ruminant meat intake could be lowered through moderate consumption of seafood with low environmental impact. The analytical framework we provide also identifies countries with high future risk, for whom climate adaptation of blue food systems will be particularly important. Overall the framework helps decision makers to assess the blue food policy objectives most relevant to their geographies, and to compare and contrast the benefits and trade-offs associated with pursuing these objectives., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Mariculture development has contributed to improving global food and nutrition security. This commentary reviews the importance of blue growth and the potential for aquaculture to fill the nutritional gap left by wild fisheries. On this basis, Chinese mariculture development was analyzed, focusing on five representative large-scale aquaculture practices over the past 60 years. The Chinese mariculture industry has moved from an extensive and low-efficiency development stage to an intensive and high-efficiency development stage; however, the development of the industry has been characterized by environmental and economic over-farming. From a policy perspective, to circumvent these two types of over-farming, more policies and actions by both the public sector and stakeholders are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small-scale fisheries (SSF) play an important role in food systems, the environment, culture, the livelihoods of millions of people and sustainable development as a whole. They frequently operate on common resources and carry out their activity in a collective, traditional and more sustainable way than other forms of fishing. Moreover, many SSF communities are organised in associations, community-based organisations or even cooperatives, which fall under the object of study of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE). SSE has been gaining relevance within the political and scientific global agenda and applying it to the fishing sector could provide new insights on its viability, resilience and sustainability. However, fisheries studies do not seem to apply SSE methodologies often, nor does SSE seem to focus on fisheries. Consequently, to find out which studies analyse small-scale fisheries from a SSE perspective and what the main trends in these multidisciplinary studies are, this paper conducts a systematic literature review. Results suggest that works focused on this area of study are limited but have grown over the last decade, with great potential for development. In this sense, this review presents the state of the art of a multidisciplinary field, while the cases analysed allow us to show the SSE as an opportunity to improve SSF management and sustainability. Specifically, we conclude that SSE can provide insights into the entrepreneurial nature of fisheries, social and environmental dynamics, and regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fish from marine and inland capture fisheries is an important food that contributes significantly to diets and health, but their contribution is somewhat overlooked in food security and poverty‐related policies. Given the current numbers of malnourished people globally, there is a pressing need to consider how to better realize the potential of fish in food systems that can address malnourishment. To do so, we re‐examine the fisheries literature from the perspective of food systems. Starting with nutritional needs and considering how these may be met through local food systems reveals an ongoing transformation that has implications for small‐scale fisheries, as increasingly become part of globalized food systems. We describe the factors that can change the nature of production, mediate access to fish and the distribution of benefits that can lead to impoverishment. This emphasizes the governance challenges that lie at the heart of complex, contested and increasingly globalized food systems, in which actors interact to shape the systems, determining who benefits and how. We draw attention to critical issues of access, power and the values and norms that underpin efforts to manage and transform fisheries, exposing the unequal struggle to secure access that small‐scale fishers and poor people must endure. We suggest a vital challenge for fisheries management is to engage with this struggle and develop policies and management measures that would enable fisheries to make positive contributions to food systems and nutritional security, while meeting global sustainable development objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Food system transformation is urgent, requiring rigorous, science-based monitoring to guide public and private decisions and support those who hold decision-makers to account. • Monitoring the whole of food systems and the interactions between their components is essential to support the immediate course corrections required to meet global sustainable development goals. • A food systems framework is proposed to define the architecture for a comprehensive monitoring agenda covering five thematic areas and their component indicator domains. • An inclusive process is called for that would select and track indicators for analysis of food systems performance and accountability. Food systems that support healthy diets in sustainable, resilient, just, and equitable ways can engender progress in eradicating poverty and malnutrition; protecting human rights; and restoring natural resources. Food system activities have contributed to great gains for humanity but have also led to significant challenges, including hunger, poor diet quality, inequity, and threats to nature. While it is recognized that food systems are central to multiple global commitments and goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals, current trajectories are not aligned to meet these objectives. As mounting crises further stress food systems, the consequences of inaction are clear. The goal of food system transformation is to generate a future where all people have access to healthy diets, which are produced in sustainable and resilient ways that restore nature and deliver just, equitable livelihoods. A rigorous, science-based monitoring framework can support evidence-based policymaking and the work of those who hold key actors accountable in this transformation process. Monitoring can illustrate current performance, facilitate comparisons across geographies and over time, and track progress. We propose a framework centered around five thematic areas related to (1) diets, nutrition, and health; (2) environment and climate; and (3) livelihoods, poverty, and equity; (4) governance; and (5) resilience and sustainability. We hope to call attention to the need to monitor food systems globally to inform decisions and support accountability for better governance of food systems as part of the transformation process. Transformation is possible in the next decade, but rigorous evidence is needed in the countdown to the 2030 SDG global goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]