 What kind of world do I want to live in? I think about this question a lot. For our generation and for specifically my group of people, which is refugees, the circumstances might dismantle any vision of the future that we have. You're trying to rebuild, you're trying to make a future for yourself and then the climate-related disaster comes and you start again. It's not about how it's affecting you now, it's about how it's affecting you your entire life. The first step to understand is that we're all a part of it. None of us are going to be left out by the crisis. We're at a stage where if we don't act now, we there won't be very much left. There are generations that will never see certain things that we grew up seeing in real life. We have to start treating this like the emergency it is. To achieve the 17 sustainable development goals, we have to go from an intention to a serious commitment. Business leaders really need to rethink how they conduct their business and invest in creating systems that are climate-friendly. The action I would like to see is accountability. Structures being put in place where countries aren't just asked to do something, but they're kept accountable to the decisions that they make. There has to be that strong collaboration between government, between youth activists to drive change forward. The world I would want to live in is a world where imagining the future is not a privilege. I want to live in a world where people do not give up on hope. Hope that a positive change is possible. The fact that you're listening today means that you are willing to make a change. Wherever you are and whatever time it is for you. I'm Heather Clancy, the editorial director of Green Biz, and I am thrilled to join you all here at the Sustainable Development Impact Summit. Blue Aquatic Food provides over 3 billion people, nearly 20% of their protein, with global seafood consumption doubling over the last 50 years as the world population has grown. With that increased demand have come the dire impacts of overfishing, seafood loss, waste, marine and ecosystem degradation. These realities are underscoring the business case for improving access to sustainable blue aquatic foods among corporate leaders, policymakers, scientists, and civil society actors. The objective of today's session is to launch the Blue Food Partnership. The aim of this initiative, raise awareness about the importance of blue food in global policy narratives and deliver actions toward a more sustainable blue food value chain. We'll hear first today from Christian Tulecki, director of Friends of Ocean Action, who will provide us more information about the partnership and its mission. Those comments will be followed by remarks from several subject matter experts on blue food and food systems in general, who offer perspective on the role that the blue food partnership could play in advancing action. I'll briefly introduce them now and you'll hear from them in a moment. Shaku Tulecki said, is the global lead for nutrition and public health with world fish, and she's the vice chair of the UN Food Systems Summit. Arne Mathison is senior advisor for the, excuse me, senior advisor for the Iceland Ocean Cluster. And Chris Meniz is the CEO of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council and co-chair of the Blue Food Partnerships Sustainable Aquaculture Working Group. With that, I'll turn over to Christian for an intro about the partnership. Christian? Thank you so much, Heather, and delighted to be joining everybody today. I hope it doesn't come as a surprise to everyone that a healthy ocean and other aquatic sources are essential to keep our climate in balance, feed a growing population, support economic development, and protect habitat and wildlife. The need for producing aquatic or blue food in more sustainable, nutritious ways is increasing in the light of world's growing population. And without a doubt, the momentum around this agenda is building, and I'm hoping you're seeing that as well in some of the circles you're moving in. When we talk about blue food or aquatic foods, we mean fish, shellfish, aquatic plants, and algae where they're captured or cultivated in freshwater or marine ecosystems. So not just thinking about fish, but the full extent of potential for what the sea and the ocean can provide. This momentum is evident in a number of ways, including through official dialogues being organized around blue food as part of the UN Food Systems Summit process. And of course, the summit itself is taking place today at the recently launched Blue Food Assessment and the priority actions identified by the high level panel for a sustainable ocean economy. Friends of us in action alongside Special Envoy for Food Systems Summit Agnes Calivata, Special Envoy for the Ocean Peter Thompson, the United Nations Foundation, and the government of Norway co-convened a global dialogue around aquatic food during the virtual ocean dialogues in May, which the World Economic Forum hosted. These discussions, which I hope some of you participated in, were fed directly into the food system process. In this context, that Friends of Ocean Action is delighted to be launching the Blue Food Partnership, which aims to catalyze science-based action towards healthy and sustainable blue food value chains. We're extraordinarily grateful in that context to the UK government's Blue Planet Fund in supporting this exciting work out of the partnership. The Blue Food Partnership itself and the Friends of Ocean Action will continue to support the work on aquatic foods coming out of the UN Food Systems Summit process and the coalition, which is currently being developed by member states, really trying to connect some of those outcomes that are coming from the summit and leading to a longer-term drive when it comes to action and walking the talk. As I said earlier, connecting to policy and science, the partnership is shaped by the high level panel for sustainable ocean economies, 2030 ocean food priority areas, and the Blue Food Assessment, which supports decision-makers in evaluating trade-offs and indeed implementing solutions to build healthy, equitable, and sustainable food systems. Friends of Ocean Action helped initiate the Blue Food Assessment, which is now in formal collaboration with the Blue Food Partnership. The Blue Food Assessment, if you haven't had a chance, I really encourage you to look at it. You can find it at www.bluefood.earth, which was launched last week as being led by Stanford University and the Stockholm Museum Center and supported by EAT. Perhaps just a few highlights from that that you were worth sort of takeaways. One, the need to focus on what, as well as how much, one of the key messages coming out of the Blue Food Assessment is the huge variation in nutrients across fish species. The need to find ways to foster innovations in production of the species we need that offer high nutrition, low footprint, and lots of livelihoods, not just big commercial species. And finally, and by no means least, the potential for expanding our expectations of industry to drive better practice, to support small-scale actors in a value chain, and to help shift the market to healthier, lower-impact species and systems. So a lot to think about, and certainly from the perspective of the Blue Food Partnership, we're excited to draw that in and really drive this agenda forward. The findings of this assessment will provide an invaluable foundation, as I said earlier, and look forward to partnering with the team behind it to mobilize action on its insights, recommendations, and collectively raise the profile of blue and aquatic foods as important foods as part of our food system. We'll hear a little bit more from the aquaculture working group from Chris Ninnis and others. We're looking forward to working with you all. Please be in contact with my colleagues here. You see their contact details there. But very much looking forward to discussion and working with you all to really roll out the Blue Food Partnership. Thank you, Heather. Great. Thank you, Christian. Before we move on to our subject matter experts, a quick question for you is what would you say is sort of your first point of action for the group? I mean, you obviously mentioned the assessment, but what's the agenda one? I think agenda one really is the co-creation of what the partnership is going to do and really responding to the private sector and those partners that are involved with this and I think that's meaningful, actionable, practical that really starts to get things done. We don't have a whole lot of time and we want to be sure that we're moving with pace when we think about the 2030 agenda and delivering some of the sustainable goals but also what the partnership can achieve in a small amount of time. Great. Okay. Hopefully we'll hear a little bit more from you in a moment, but first let's hear from Shakuntala. Please, I'd love to hear some remarks on what you think should be the priority for this group. Thank you Heather and greetings to all. Let me first congratulate the Friends of Ocean Action on the launch of this blue food partnership. It is indeed a wonderful moment as we see commitments to raise awareness and acknowledge the role of diverse party foods in global policy narratives and deliver actions, solutions and innovations that can transform food systems as we being healthy and equitable also sustainable and resilient and these aquatic systems can nourish all peoples on our planet. As you know, the UN Food Systems Summit 2021 is taking place today after two years of consultations and dialogues in many countries and with multiple stakeholders sharing over 1,200 ideas for a global food system transformation. It is happening to see that aquatic foods have emerged as one of the seven priorities for transformation as identified by the scientific group for the UN Food Systems Summit. Underpinning this transformation is the need for more financial investments, increase scientific capacity especially in low and middle income countries and more science policy in the face. Last week, the Blue Food Assessment after two years of intense work by several researchers across the globe released its findings across several disciplines including nutrition, economy and environment. These findings serve as a robust foundation for actions, solutions, policy and framework changes that will strengthen the importance of aquatic foods for addressing food and nutrition security as well as putting us on course towards achieving SDG2, nutrition security and as well as putting us on hunger and hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture also including fisheries meaning captive fisheries and agriculture. Therefore, the Blue Food Partnership is timely as it is poised to bridge the science-based findings and evidence of the Blue Food Assessment and the UN Food Systems Summit, well post-summit as well as the recommendations from the UN Nutrition Group, the role of aquatic foods in sustainable healthy diets and the Committee on World Food Security voluntary guidelines for food systems and nutrition. The partnership would also bring together a range of stakeholders from governments, communities, non-governmental organizations, funding agencies, the private sector and scientists to develop and implement solutions and actions that centre on aquatic foods in our global food systems. I look forward to the unfolding of the Blue Food Partnership as we work together through the many global platforms of the day. For example, the UN Decade of Action and Nutrition, the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development as well as the 2022 International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Agriculture. I look forward to see strong actions as part of the agenda of this partnership, especially in new areas, protecting and increasing the diversity of aquatic foods in inland waters, reducing aquatic food loss and improving the safety of aquatic foods. Thank you so much. Thank you for those remarks. I appreciate it. I have a question for you on stakeholders. How will we be including those whose livelihoods really depend on this? That's one of the key issues at hand. I do think with the dialogues and the consultations that have been taken place at governmental levels, at country levels, with different stakeholders, at regional levels, that we have made a dent. But it's our ability, us who sit in high-level platforms, us who sit at the table of policy makers and decision makers, that we still just listen to the voices of the challenges that people face. We do not take into the traditional knowledge their aspirations and their goals and what solutions they see as to overcome their challenges. We listen just to part of the story and not look towards the solutions. Okay. Definitely something to think about there. Thank you for that perspective. So let's move on next to Arnie from Iceland. Arnie, please feel free to make some opening remarks. Thank you. Thank you very much, Heather. Good afternoon to all. In my mind, the Food Systems Summit, something's happening. In my mind, the Food Systems Summit, the Blue Food Assessment and the Blue Food Partnership are all linked. And basically, today, we are entering the post-FSS period. And the task ahead of us is then to follow up on the directions that will come out of the Food System. And this, we need to do in an organized way. And in that, I see the private sector input as extremely important. And from the first time that we started talking about the Blue Food Partnership, we saw it as the perfect vehicle for the private sector to contribute in an organized way into this pathway that the FSS will have directed us to. There is now, in preparation, a Blue Food Coalition or an iconic food alliance or whatever it will eventually be called. It doesn't matter what it will be called in the end. But I see the Blue Food Partnership as a kind of a framework or an umbrella for the various private sector activities to come together in an organized way and contribute into this new path that is being forced for us. The fact is that there's a fantastic diversity in Blue or aquatic foods. But it is also a fantastic diversity in those that are interested. And they can all contribute. But how to organize this and put it all together is very important. And I see this in a structured kind of a pyramid, a pyramid of multiple parties where you have governments at the top, where you have academic institutions where you have the UN organizations, NGOs, international financial organizations, as well as private sector stakeholders all contributing together. And it is upon our shoulders as we enter into the post-FSS period to all come together in a synchronized way and in an active, practical, and sensible and successful way forced through with Blue Food outcomes. Thank you for that commentary. A question for you. Would be just how you see this playing in sort of our other large goals, right? Biodiversity. We know that there's an urgent need to contribute to that. And you represent the ocean cluster. So clearly the ocean is an ecosystem of which Blue Food is part. How do you see this contributing to those other very urgent goals? Well, the fact is that Blue Food, by its nature, is always a little bit aside from terrestrial systems and terrestrial concerns. So it then always has to be cross-sectoral. So biodiversity, climate issue, humanitarian issues, food security issues, they all have to come together and work together and solve those issues together in the Blue Food part of the global system. Biodiversity is a very important part of it. It's not just about whether species are becoming extinct or not. The question is whether they are in an enough abundance to contribute meaningfully to food and nutrition security, particularly in the southern hemisphere, where we definitely have need for a more varied diet, not just for calories, but also for very important nutritional ingredients and vitamins and minerals, etc. that the Blue Food can provide. Super. Thank you so much for your perspective. Let's move on now to Chris with some thoughts on the aquaculture, the really industry and the impact of Chris. You might need to unmute. Have we lost your audio? All right. Well, let's come back to you in a moment. Give it a shot. Another shot? Okay. Do we still have Christian on? Yeah, I'm still here. Okay. Super. Let's, when... Chris, cut in when you're back on. But, yeah. I wanted to go back to something that I asked Chef Contala about which was the livelihoods, right? So this aspect of it. We know that this is one of the most challenging issues about food is that we need food for everyone. We also know that food is a livelihood for many people, right? So producing food. So how do we... Ah, there we go. So I'm going to come back to you for that question, but first let's hear from Chris. Sorry to interrupt you there, Christian. I'm sorry for that little IT panic. I had a problem with my mouse that wouldn't unmute. It is to all listening intently. But I do have some good news, actually, and certainly it's that the Blue Food Partnership has already started its science-based action through the development of a pre-competitive working group on sustainable agriculture. And as you've heard repeatedly throughout the last few days, sustainable agriculture has much to contribute. It has a significant potential to meet our growing food needs in a nutritious way and that has low impact on the environment. Has the ability to produce animal protein in a much more climate-friendly manner relative to many of the terrestrial counterparts. It certainly works towards zero hunger and will be enhanced both globally and locally through smart species and site selection for the key production of agriculture products. The vision, actually, for the working group is very much to promote and enable the sustainable increase of agriculture production in order to meet both nutritional demands of a faster and world population, but of course, as well as to meet towards the relevant sustainable development goals that are key that we achieve, if you do mean by sustainable agriculture. And towards this vision, the working group's goal is to co-create a science-based global roadmap that will provide guidance towards the design and delivery of sustainable agriculture production to 2030 and, of course, into the future. Thank you. Thank you. I have a question for you on aquaculture. It's something I wonder about a lot. Many associate it with the ocean, but there's a lot going on. Obviously, freshwater versus saltwater aquaculture. What do you see happening as far as the industry goes? In the United States, at least, it's very nascent as far as fresh, right? But how do you see that dialogue playing out and how could that be important for this blue food partnership path? Well, it's a very interesting question you pose, actually, because when you look at the culture across all its bands, certainly the greater part of the animal production is actually freshwater-based, which comes as a surprise to many. And the saltwater components of the animal production is a much more recent development and often in the minds of many, based around salmon production in northern climates, southern latitudes that support it. Freshwater drives so much of the nutritional provision that aquaculture provides and basic livelihoods and food for so many, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people. So it's critical that we develop and that we embrace all of aquaculture in meeting these goals. Great. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. Yeah, I know that that perception is clouded, if you will, and it needs to be put forth more. If we could have everyone come back in for the next few minutes. I wanted to go back to a question I was just posing to Christian when you came back on, which was just the issue of livelihoods, because we know that that is a very important part of this, of the dialogue that needs to happen. It's the economic imperative for all sectors, but also especially for the individuals involved in these systems. So how do you and others see that that stakeholder being included in the Blue Food Partnership, those who are dependent on these fisheries? And I'm making my screen bigger so I can see who's waving at me. I can see you smiling. Thank you, Heather. That's important, especially as we just heard about freshwater aquaculture. So the figure that's given is that over 3 million people depend on aquaculture fisheries for their livelihoods, and that at least half of the women and the majority of these people are from low and middle income countries. So if I would quickly say how I see it in the world that I have been doing, is that if we use diversity as fundamental consumption, but all the way through the food systems, I will start from consumption and go back to supply chains, and to production, and the inputs for production. If we would use a framework of diversity, then we would get much further into having nutritious diets and having also diets and production systems with low environmental costs. So for me, diversity is key. It's fundamental. We want to focus and make all our efforts to all the SDGs, but in particular to SDG2, zero hunger and malnutrition. Then it is extremely important that we look again at diversity, and we also look at the diversity of the peoples who are engaged in all parts of the food systems. So diversity and nutrition-sensitive approaches to production systems would get us a very long way. And we've been doing this, for example, in Bangladesh with nutrition-sensitive ponds upon the culture where we have large fish and small fish in the same ponds, increase in production, productivity, nutritional quality, increase in home consumption, and increase in sale. Yeah. I think, Arnie, you were putting your hand up there. Did you want to add something? You are muted. There you are. This being unmuted or muted is like with the attachments. You forget to attach your attachment all the time. It's the same kind of a thing. Yes. But just to add a little bit on to what Jaguntala was saying and as you can imagine, I wholeheartedly agree with her. But I see this dependency in three ways. It's dependency on, from the food security and the nutrition security aspect that we supply those that meet the food and the nutritional ingredients in their diets. But it's also those that depend for their incomes, their livelihoods on fisheries and agriculture that we need to think about in this equation. But thirdly, and possibly the part of it that is growing fastest, fastest is sort of the derived industries where the various ingredients are being used not just for food and nutrition, but also for medicinal purposes as well as even in cosmetics. And the world is just such that when you get into this category people are willing to pay much higher amounts for the raw materials than they would otherwise want to do. So this is a very fast growing sector which can obviously contribute quite a lot to struggling coastal communities in the developing world just as well as in the developed world. So there is a great potential there that we should also be taking into account. Great. Well, I'm afraid we're on time. I just want to hand it back to Christian. I believe he had one or two other things he'd like to say before we wrap up. Thank you so much, Heather. And just a couple of points. I think just reflecting on the partnership itself, that we have a very much inclusive partnership that really starts to think about getting blue food to those places that it matters and is needed. And thinking about this in the bait to plate, as we often say, and that entire supply chain. But also how do we reduce the roughly 35 to 40% of waste that is in the supply chain at the moment? Incredible amount of wasted protein there that should be going and not lost to places that matter. Finally, SDG 14. Think as the ocean goal. Shakunthala talked about SDG 2. Think about these interconnections between the SDGs. One can help solve the other. And we really need to think in a more integrated and holistic fashion, which is where the blue food partnership comes in. Back to you, Heather. Thank you. So bummed out that we're out of time, but we are on time. And so I need to close this off. I did want to thank our really wonderful panel, Christian Tulecki, Shakunthala. Instead, our new Matheson, Chris Ninnis. Thank you so much for being here today and making me think. I hope you're all empowered and want to act on this partnership. Thank you very much.