Abstract
Author(s): Seto, Katherine; Fiorella, Kathryn J | Abstract: In the most recent U.S. Dietary Guidelines, the USDA Advisory Committee recommended for the first time the inclusion of sustainability considerations (DGA Committee, 2015). Since the U.S. Dietary Guidelines provide standards for nutrition and targets for federal and state food programs, explicitly incorporating sustainability would advance considerably discussions of food system sustainability (Merrigan et al., 2015). However, despite broad public support, sustainability 80 concerns were ultimately jettisoned from the 2015–2020 Guidelines (Secretary Vilsack and Burwell, 2015; US Department of Health and Human Services and US Department of Agriculture, 2015; Wood-Wright, 2016). Though much of the concern around incorporating sustainability has focused on animal agriculture, the sectors most heavily impacted by sustainability policies are arguably fisheries and aquaculture. Fish have been promoted as a sustainability strategy, providing nutritious alternatives to resource intensive livestock and poultry, and a concern, given the decline of many global fish stocks (Worm et al., 2006; Health Council of the Netherlands, 2011; FAO, 2014). Yet, we regularly overlook the origins and implications of this decline due to fragmented notions of our food resources. Resources that originate in our oceans, rivers, and lakes are almost entirely omitted in our conceptions of a sustainable food system.To understand the trade-offs from food production and consumption to sustainability, we must extend our understanding of food resources to conceive of fishery, agricultural, and livestock systems as integrally linked. Our failure to do so thus far has led to a disjointed understanding of our food system, contributed to inequalities in food access, and exacerbated overexploitation and environmental degradation. We argue here that fishery resources are of particular concern for sustainability yet often omitted in conceptions of our food system, and that such disjointed notions of food resources limit our ability to foster sustainable diets (Farmery et al., 2017).
Highlights
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Marine Conservation and Sustainability, a section of the journal Frontiers in Marine Science
In the most recent U.S Dietary Guidelines, the USDA Advisory Committee recommended for the first time the inclusion of sustainability considerations (DGA Committee, 2015)
Resources that originate in our oceans, rivers, and lakes are almost entirely omitted in our conceptions of a sustainable food system
Summary
As aquatic and terrestrial systems both face mounting pressures, ignoring their interconnections can multiply consequences for both the resources and people who depend on them. Global fisheries support the livelihoods of 10–12% of the world’s population, and fish are the primary protein source for over 1 billion people living in low-income, food-deficit countries (Toppe et al, 2012; FAO, 2014). Our growing use of fish as animal feed perhaps best highlights the unexamined trade-offs between aquatic and terrestrial systems. 21.7 million tons of low-value nutrient-rich fish are diverted for use as fish and livestock feed (FAO, 2012a). Converting these important marine species to agricultural inputs reduces usable biomass by 80%, leads to the simplification of marine food webs, and threatens vulnerable human populations that rely on inexpensive fish for calories and micronutrients (Tacon and Metian, 2008; Cury et al, 2011; Smith et al, 2011). A similar example of the tight interdependencies of agricultural and fishery systems is the pollution and eutrophication of lakes, rivers, and coastal waters from fertilizer run-off in agricultural production (Vitousek et al, 1997; Tilman, 1999)
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