Alternative Seafood Networks During COVID-19: Implications for Resilience and Sustainability

Andrea Tomlinson,Hannah L. Harrison,Steve Kurian,Kelly Harrell,Talia Young,Emily De Sousa,Debra Callaway,Easton R. White,Melissa Collier,Sonia Strobel,Philip A. Loring,M. Alan Lovewell,Joshua S. Stoll,Brett Tolley,Buck Jones,Jordyn Kastlunger,Emma Kramer,Tracy Sylvester

doi:10.3389/fsufs.2021.614368

Abstract

Export-oriented seafood trade faltered during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, alternative seafood networks (ASNs) that distribute seafood through local and direct marketing channels were identified as a “bright spot.” In this paper, we draw on multiple lines of quantitative and qualitative evidence to show that ASNs experienced a temporary pandemic “bump” in both the United States and Canada in the wake of supply chain disruptions and government mandated social protections. We use a systemic resilience framework to analyze the factors that enabled ASNs to be resilient during the pandemic as well as challenges. The contrast between ASNs and the broader seafood system during COVID-19 raises important questions about the role that local and regional food systems may play during crises and highlights the need for functional diversity in supply chains.

Highlights

Seafood is among the most traded food commodities in the world
Our research suggests that in the early months of the COVID19 pandemic there was a rapid increase in demand for local and directly sourced seafood in the United States and Canada, at a time when many other segments of the broader food system were disrupted (Garnett et al, 2020; Love et al, 2021)
Our research provides evidence of a temporary re-localization in the seafood system during the early months of the COVID19 pandemic, in which demand for local and directly sourced seafood spiked abruptly

Summary

Introduction

Seafood is among the most traded food commodities in the world. In 2018, 38% of the global fish supply was exported at a value of US$164 billion (Food Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, 2020). Shocks like these are becoming an increasingly common feature of food systems, including those associated with seafood (Cottrell et al, 2019)—a trend that can be expected to continue, given the challenges presented by climate change (Rockstrom et al, 2020) and increased globalization in food systems (Kummu et al, 2020) Such disturbances will continue to have major implications for the well-being of the 60 million people worldwide who are directly employed by fisheries and aquaculture as well as those who are involved in processing, distribution, and sales and depend on seafood for nutrition (Food Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, 2020). By food system resilience we mean the “capacity over time of a food system and its units at multiple levels, to provide sufficient, appropriate and accessible food to all, in the face of various and even unforeseen disturbances” (Tendall et al, 2015, p. 19)

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