Publications by authors named "Edward H Allison"

The interaction between climate change and agricultural intensification contributes to biodiversity loss, while widespread degradation of land and water undermine food system productivity. Agroecological principles aim to guide food systems transformation but rarely refer to water or aquatic foods, which are critical elements of nutritious, sustainable and equitable food systems. Here we examine the principles and frameworks presented in agroecological literature and suggest rephrasing of six of the principles to incorporate water, aquatic foods and land- to seascapes.

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Sustainable development aspires to "leave no one behind". Even so, limited attention has been paid to small-scale fisheries (SSF) and their importance in eradicating poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Through a collaborative and multidimensional data-driven approach, we have estimated that SSF provide at least 40% (37.

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Article Synopsis
  • Injustices in food systems lead to a situation where a small number of individuals accumulate great wealth while around one in ten people experience hunger across 194 countries.
  • Research using Bayesian models highlights that economic and political barriers limit both wealth and food production, with a lack of education and accountability contributing to these disparities.
  • The analysis of policy documents shows a consistent neglect of political and gender inequalities, although effective policies promoting equitable food systems emphasize human rights, inclusive decision-making, and challenge systemic injustices.
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  • * A study called the Blue Food Assessment looked at how blue foods affect nutrition, the environment, economy, and fairness, creating four goals to help countries use blue foods in their food systems.
  • * The goals aim to improve nutrition, offer healthier options than land meats, reduce environmental harm from diets, and support communities facing climate change, paying attention to what's best for different countries and cultures.
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  • Wild-caught fish can significantly improve the diet quality of billions if managed correctly, but nutritional aspects have often been overlooked in fisheries policies.
  • The concept of multispecies Maximum Nutrient Yield (mMNY) is proposed to optimize nutrient production while balancing catch levels and species vulnerability in fisheries.
  • Analysis indicates that enhancing nutrient yields, particularly for crucial vitamins like D, can support food security by integrating nutritional goals into existing fisheries management strategies.
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Despite contributing to healthy diets for billions of people, aquatic foods are often undervalued as a nutritional solution because their diversity is often reduced to the protein and energy value of a single food type ('seafood' or 'fish'). Here we create a cohesive model that unites terrestrial foods with nearly 3,000 taxa of aquatic foods to understand the future impact of aquatic foods on human nutrition. We project two plausible futures to 2030: a baseline scenario with moderate growth in aquatic animal-source food (AASF) production, and a high-production scenario with a 15-million-tonne increased supply of AASFs over the business-as-usual scenario in 2030, driven largely by investment and innovation in aquaculture production.

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  • * The study analyzed disruptions in the seafood supply chain from January to May 2020, using a resilience framework to assess the varying impacts on different market segments and actors.
  • * Key findings suggest that some groups have demonstrated resilience, while others are vulnerable, leading to recommendations for adaptive strategies and research to enhance future resilience in the seafood sector.
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Aquatic foods from marine and freshwater systems are critical to the nutrition, health, livelihoods, economies and cultures of billions of people worldwide, but climate-related hazards may compromise their ability to provide these benefits. Here, we estimate national-level aquatic food system climate risk using an integrative food systems approach that connects climate hazards impacting marine and freshwater capture fisheries and aquaculture to their contributions to sustainable food system outcomes. We show that without mitigation, climate hazards pose high risks to nutritional, social, economic and environmental outcomes worldwide-especially for wild-capture fisheries in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Small Island Developing States.

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Small-scale fisheries and aquaculture (SSFA) provide livelihoods for over 100 million people and sustenance for ~1 billion people, particularly in the Global South. Aquatic foods are distributed through diverse supply chains, with the potential to be highly adaptable to stresses and shocks, but face a growing range of threats and adaptive challenges. Contemporary governance assumes homogeneity in SSFA despite the diverse nature of this sector.

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The relationship between aquatic foods and food nutrition and security is increasingly recognised in policy and practice, yet many governance instruments do not acknowledge or support this important connection. The most effective policy approaches to support the link between these sectors, or 'best practices' are currently unknown. We reviewed relevant governance instruments from multiple countries to identify how these instruments linked fisheries, aquaculture and food security and nutrition, including the policy framing and evidence of political commitment.

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Along the U.S. West Coast, sustainable management has rebuilt fish stocks, providing an opportunity to supply nutrient-rich food to adjacent coastal communities where food insecurity and diet-based diseases are common.

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Global food system analyses call for an urgent transition to sustainable human diets but how this might be achieved within the current global food regime is poorly explored. Here we examine the factors that have fostered major dietary shifts across eight countries in the past 70 years. Guided by transition and food-regime theories, we draw on data from diverse disciplines, reviewing post-World War 2 shifts in consumption of three food commodities: farmed tilapia, milk and chicken.

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The international development community is off-track from meeting targets for alleviating global malnutrition. Meanwhile, there is growing consensus across scientific disciplines that fish plays a crucial role in food and nutrition security. However, this 'fish as food' perspective has yet to translate into policy and development funding priorities.

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An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

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Human wellbeing relies on the Biosphere, including natural resources provided by ocean ecosystems. As multiple demands and stressors threaten the ocean, transformative change in ocean governance is required to maintain the contributions of the ocean to people. Here we illustrate how transition theory can be applied to ocean governance.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Fish are a vital source of essential nutrients but are often overlooked; understanding their nutrient composition could help address food and nutrition security issues.
  • * The study reveals that specific environmental conditions and fish species characteristics influence nutrient levels, indicating that enhancing fish-based food strategies could greatly benefit populations with inadequate nutrient intake, particularly children.
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Sustainability standards for seafood mainly address environmental performance criteria and are less concerned with the welfare of fisheries workers who produce the seafood. Yet human rights violations such as slavery and human trafficking are widespread in fisheries around the world, and underscore the need for certification bodies and other seafood supply chain actors to improve social performance, in addition to addressing environmental challenges. Calls for socially responsible seafood have referenced human rights law and policy frameworks to shape the guiding principles of socially responsible seafood and to provide the legal machinery to implement these aspirations, but practical guidance on how to achieve this is lacking.

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The patterns by which different nations share global fisheries influence outcomes for food security, trajectories of economic development, and competition between industrial and small-scale fishing. We report patterns of industrial fishing effort for vessels flagged to higher- and lower-income nations, in marine areas within and beyond national jurisdiction, using analyses of high-resolution fishing vessel activity data. These analyses reveal global dominance of industrial fishing by wealthy nations.

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