Menu
Lexicon of Food’s panel of international experts explores both the challenges and opportunities we face in building a more sustainable aquaculture system.
What does 'a better aquaculture' for the future look like?
by Michael PhillipsDoes the seafood we farm impact our climate?
by Lisa Von WageningenHow can aquaculture help preserve ecosystems and address food system challenges?
by Flavio CorsinIs an animal-friendly aquaculture possible?
by Sophika KostyniukWhat are the health and nutrition benefits of farmed fish?
by Jennifer BushmanDoes aquaculture pay?
by Pawiro SudariAquaculture is only for big players. False.
by Corey PeetWhat happens when we see who's behind our seafood?
by Stacy Schultz, Danielle LeoniIs aquaculture only about seafood?
by Rowena PullanWhat happens to the water when we farm seafood?
by Jack Morales, Han HanOur panel of international experts explores how Aquaculture builds healthy soils, reduces air and water pollution, maximizes efficiencies, and increases biodiversity while promoting equity and public health.
Introduction
Director
FutureFish
In the quest for ‘a better aquaculture’, we must align with the Sustainable Development Goals and tackle the “big” climate and nature challenges our planet faces.
Aquaculture is a dynamic and diverse activity – with over 600 aquatic species farmed in many farming systems, agro-ecologies and societies across the world, feeding millions – that there is no easy answer. So, what does a better aquaculture for the future look like? Let’s envision it together.
First and foremost, better aquaculture will be profitable while respecting nature and communities. It will thrive economically without compromising the environment, and ideally, contribute positively to both. This means embracing social responsibility and engaging in ongoing dialogue with society to obtain and maintain a strong social license.
This social license will be reinforced by an aquaculture industry that provides improved livelihoods, produces healthy and sustainable food, empowers women, and contributes to climate and nature resilience. Aquaculture already offers many benefits, providing millions with nutritious food and offering employment pathways out of poverty in developing worlds, and new innovations, while maintaining a relatively low carbon footprint. However, we believe there is room for further progress.
One crucial aspect of better aquaculture is inclusivity. We must pay greater attention to small-scale farmers and the millions of women, men and youth involved in aquaculture value chains worldwide. Over the next few years, it’s essential to shed light on marginalised aquaculture farmers and address the constraints they face in making their operations productive, profitable, personal, and scalable. By focusing on innovation and investment that reaches these underserved stakeholders, we can create a more inclusive aquaculture industry that benefits all.
Let’s champion an aquaculture industry that integrates profitability, social and environmental responsibility, inclusivity, and innovation. The future path to better aquaculture starts now.
Aquaculture operation that contributes to community wellbeing through providing employment and environmental stewardship including preservation of natural resources
More Lex Icons™
Program Manager Aquaculture
IDH
Aquaculture is (just as wild caught) both influenced by and is influencing climate change. Seafood can have a very high or a very low environmental footprint. We currently do not differentiate seafood with a high from seafood with a low footprint. Producers with a low footprint are not rewarded, and producers with a high footprint are not supported to improve.
Differentiating what seafood has what footprint, can only happen when companies collaborate with their supply chain to collect data to understand how it is exactly farmed. The reason for a high footprint can be because of land use change of feed ingredients, because of wasting feed at farm level, energy use at farm, but also because by-products are wasted at processing, because of transport or because of food waste at retail. The supply chain needs to collaborate to figure out what to do to improve the footprint.
Similarly, adjusting to climate change, can only happen when the entire supply chain works together to better understand the upcoming risks. There is hence a need for retail, suppliers, processors, producers, and feed companies to work together and share data so that they can better understand and reduce the footprint, and better understand and mitigate risks. Seafood MAP can help companies to make matches and start sharing data – not only of producers sharing data down the supply chain, but also of traders and retailers sharing data up the supply chain.
"Carbon sequestration" in the context of aquaculture refers to the process by which carbon dioxide (CO2) is captured and stored in aquatic ecosystems. Aquatic plants, such as seaweed and phytoplankton, can absorb CO2 during photosynthesis and store it in their biomass. By cultivating these carbon-sequestering organisms, aquaculture can contribute to mitigating climate change by reducing CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
More Lex Icons™
Director of Partnerships
Aqua Spark
With a growing global population and a booming protein-hungry middle class, the food produced in the next few decades will be equivalent to the amount produced in the past 8,000 years. Growing food needs water, and land and most often emits greenhouse gases. A shortcut to produce food has been to harvest it from the oceans. The fish in our oceans are limited and the practice is often associated with negative ecosystem impacts.
Aquaculture produces hundreds of different organisms ranging from fish and other aquatic animals to aquatic plants such as seaweed and microalgae. Aquaculture brings to the world a wonderful diversity of food grown in the most diverse environments, from tropical to arctic waters, lakes, and rivers to marine environments. Food produced by aquaculture contains unique quality nutrients, that can remove completely our reliance on wild fisheries and the negative ecosystem impacts that come with it.
Aquaculture is also one of the most efficient ways of producing food: fish do not need to regulate their temperature or fight gravity: they float. Making it among the lowest environmental footprints. Take seaweed as an example, seaweed can be produced without freshwater, without pesticides, and without fertilizers. Seaweed removes nutrients, hence reducing the negative impact of the nutrients discharged to the ocean by agriculture and urban runoff. Seaweed farms, but also bivalve farms (e.g. clams or mussels) create de facto Marine Protected Areas: a safe haven for wild fish to thrive.
As such, aquaculture is arguably the best candidate to mitigate the challenges our food system is facing, while not only limiting the impact on the ecosystem but also helping to regenerate it. And it does that while generating millions of jobs in rural areas!
Macroalgae are macroscopic eukaryotic pluricellular organisms composed of single differentiated cells able to obtain energy using chromophores.
More Lex Icons™
Managing Director
Aquatic Life Institute
Is an animal-friendly aquaculture possible?
Aquatic animal welfare is a highly neglected, yet tractable issue. Approximately 500 billion aquatic animals (fish, shrimp and others) are farmed annually in high-suffering conditions. To date, there is negligible advocacy aimed at improving welfare conditions for these animals.
Research suggests that most adults would like to see information about fish welfare on product labels, but the concept of what constitutes “humane fish” or “high welfare seafood products” is still currently largely undefined by the public, industry, and most governments. The majority of seafood labels, covering 40% of the global seafood market in 2023, also lack adequate animal welfare standards.
It is possible, and necessary, to raise the bar for the aquaculture industry by establishing species-specific standards and stringent regulations in each of the 5 main pillars of aquatic animal welfare:
Several prominent seafood certification schemes have upgraded their animal welfare standards since advocacy endeavors began in 2020, including the Aquaculture Stewardship Council and GlobalG.A.P. Government bodies comprised of influential decision-makers such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization have also incorporated language specific to aquatic animal welfare into their guiding documents. The Aquaculture Certification Schemes Benchmark (2022) is a powerful instrument that has been created, and can be employed to elevate industry norms and practices related to aquatic animal welfare.
Furthermore, by alleviating aquatic animal suffering, we also advance on a number of the UN’s Global Sustainability Goals, including zero hunger (SDG 2), decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), and life below water (SDG 14).
Shifting our mindset and practices to incorporate aquatic animal welfare is achievable and necessary, and swiftly produces wins for people, the planet and animals.
The ethical consideration and care given to aquatic animals throughout their entire lifecycle, from capture or farming to processing. It encompasses practices that prioritize the health, behavior, and overall well-being of the animals, while minimizing stress, pain, and suffering during all stages of seafood production.
More Lex Icons™
Co-Founder
Fed by Blue
What are the health and nutrition benefits of farmed fish?
Farming chickens can be done in a correct manner, just as how it can be done in a bad one. The same is true for fish and seafood. When a farm is run at high-quality levels, it is possible to produce a fish that is more nutritional than its wild counterparts. The key lies in the farming practices and the feed model.
When this intention is set from the beginning, the health and nutritional benefits are many. For example, if the pen densities are low, the fish can get more exercise and therefore be lower in fat. The higher the densities, for example in salmon, results in a fish that has more fat per serving than a piece of pizza. If the diet is grain and soy-based, the Omega 3:6 ratio is a terrible 14:1. But when the fish is well reared, the Omega 3:6 ratio can be equal to the wild at 3:1. The fat content is low enough to meet the standards of organizations such as the American Heart Association that require less than 12% fat per serving.
Just as the old saying goes “You are what you eat”. The feed is a key component to the overall health and nutritional levels of the fish itself. What best-in-class water farms have shown us, is that it IS possible to have the highest nutritional and health benefits as we have come to expect from wild fish.
A farmed fish can fulfill the health benefits promises we expect to get when we eat fish and seafood. It is a process that will require standards and practices at a global scale to fuel a system that improves food security challenges, human nutritional needs, and environmental depletion.
Deliciousness is the subjective and pleasurable sensory experience associated with consuming food. It encompasses factors such as taste, aroma, texture, freshness, and the ability to evoke satisfaction, enjoyment, and a desire for repeated consumption.
More Lex Icons™
National Chief Technical Advisor-UNIDO Indonesia
UNIDO
There is a general consensus that global demand for seafood is growing, however, more supplies will be farmed as the resources for marine fisheries have been on a decline. Thus, there is a huge opportunity for aquaculture to expand by providing more job opportunities, particularly in developing countries.
As for coastal communities, that depend on caching fish, now they have higher and more stable income through aquaculture. In many Asian countries, like Indonesia for example, small-scale fishermen have better income by farming seaweed along the coast. Many of them farm high-value species for the export market such as shrimp and grouper which provide them with much higher income than fishing.
With the growing demand for fish in the domestic market, farmers (whether in the agri or aquaculture sector) are using advanced development in technology to farm fish in their backyards, with limited spaces, to make better income.
Many aquaculture businesses only have enough for small investments, such as seaweed, because they give better returns. Since fish farming is commonly run by family businesses, an increase in income will also create social and gender equity. Fish farmers will be able to provide better education for their children, and women who play a key role on family-owned farms will be recognized and empowered
In the seaweed value chain, for example, women’s involvement is dominant as they are the ones preparing the seeds (tying up seeds), maintaining the seaweed during growth, then drying, processing, and trading them.
The economic and social well-being of individuals or communities engaged in aquaculture farming. It involves the sustainable and profitable operation of aquaculture businesses, ensuring sufficient income, job security, and improved living standards for farmers and their families. Farmer livelihood encompasses factors such as income generation, access to markets, training opportunities, and social empowerment within the aquaculture sector.
More Lex Icons™
Vice-President and Co-Founder
Postelsia
Aquaculture is only for big players. False
Aquaculture already supports small producers and has done so for many decades if not thousands of years. In fact, small-scale producers have been responsible for starting major aquaculture industries like the Vietnamese pangasius industry which started as backyard household farms and has now evolved into a major aquaculture industry.
In the farmed shrimp space, only 5% of producers are certified (against the major certifications) and that is not because of the performance of the industry but rather due to the fact that existing certifications haven’t built systems that can capture the performance nor provide the assurance to buyers. The reason for this is simple, it’s complicated.
Small farmers typically produce in groups that can range from a dozen to several thousand and while they might all have similar practices figuring out a solution to verify sustainability is a key challenge. In fact, it is the key challenge for the sustainable seafood movement as it enters its third decade because, without solutions for small-scale producers, we end up prioritizing those producers that are vertically integrated and have the funds to be recognized by certifications.
In addition, if we don’t find ways to work with them, we miss the opportunity to support those producers who already produce high-quality seafood products, have powerful stories to tell, and whose livelihoods are directly tied to aquaculture.
Postelsia has had the opportunity to work with both small-scale producers and chefs from around the world and believes that there are great opportunities to bring the two groups together and have them support each other. We would suggest that there needs to be a shift in the narrative. We need to pass from viewing small-scale producers as a problem, and instead to recognize their stories to drive a more global acceptance of aquaculture.
Continuous step by step improvement programs created by non profit organizations and/or affiliated entities to aquaculture producers with support of multi-stakeholders that adheres to the long term roadmap to improve practices, production, social economic benefit and resource management.
More Lex Icons™
Director of Marketing
Fortune Fish
Chef Ambassador
ASIC
What happens when we see who’s behind our seafood?
How are you convinced that you actually want to eat that piece of seafood on your plate?
Standing between our plates and our waters is the objective reality of widespread unsustainable fishing and farming practices too raveled for us to know. This is however being countered by heroic efforts of many to bring seafood to our plates that honors the planet and its people. These seafood heroes are everyday people who deal with opposing forces, make difficult decisions, take action despite risks and ultimately deliver more sustainable seafood to us against all odds.
Their stories also embody each of our own experiences. The daily struggles and wins of life are the platform on which we all stand while trying to restore balance to life. Storied seafood is our chance to be honest with each other about the situation and to see that this epic battle for sustainable seafood is also the story of our own past, present and future. Only when we know of our fishers and farmers, where the scene is set, the challenges and the successes can we then imagine a better plate; a better seafood future.
This reality comes together to give us the inspiration and understanding needed to meet the expectation of an improved future. The desire for change is the heart of our life’s story. Following the small triumphs of our fishers and water farmers over time and seeing them add up to contribute to a final triumph is what gives us hope for our own future. It draws us in and lets us put ourselves in their place to make you ask, what would I do in their place? The more you feel your own humanity, the more you can appreciate the humanity of others. We can only achieve our desires by learning from the stories of others. Stories let us understand the past, present and carry wisdom into the future to overcome problems.
A smallholder farmer is an individual or a household involved in the production of aquatic organisms on a relatively small scale. These farmers typically operate with limited resources, small production areas, and lower production volumes compared to larger commercial aquaculture operations. They often engage in traditional or subsistence farming practices and may have a direct connection to local markets.
More Lex Icons™
Chief Brand Guardian
CH4Global
What co-products can aquaculture create?
Aquaculture has the potential to enable coexisting, complimentary operations. For example it can be possible to grow seaweed alongside marine fisheries. The fish waste supports seaweed growth while the seaweed growth reduces the fish waste fouling. This has environmental benefits as well as poentially allowing greater fishery stocking.
In addition marine seaweed aquaculture could be a complimentary income stream for wild caught fishing operations which often have limited seasons. Many of the assets held by such fishing operations could potentially also be used for marine seaweed aquaculture.
Is aquaculture only about seafood?
Aquaculture can be used to grow seaweed which has potential in multiple applications beyond seafood. Today, seaweed is being used for enteric methane reduction in ruminants, creating bio degradeable packaging, cosmetic and medical applications, raw materials for human food production as potential carbon sink material and much more.
Any fuel that is derived from biomass—that is, plant or algae material or animal waste. Since such feedstock material can be replenished readily, biofuel is considered to be a source of renewable energy, unlike fossil fuels such as petroleum, coal, and natural gas.
More Lex Icons™
Improvement Director
Asian Seafood Improvement Collaborative (ASIC)
Water is one of the main components of aquaculture since we cannot grow aquatic animals without the water. Water has its original properties that support the lives of any aquatic organisms (plants and animals). When we use water for aquaculture, water absorbs all the nutrients coming from the inputs we “introduced” including those coming from feeds, fertilizers as well as wastes for aquatic animals.
These introduced nutrients can either improve or negatively affect the quality of the water. Aquaculture particularly intensive system where the aquatic animals are fully dependent on commercial feeds, can cause high introduction of nutrients and wastes which then would result in eutrophication. If this is being managed or controlled it would potentially cause the deterioration of water quality. Once the water quality is poor, then optimum production may not be possible, could also result in the health and welfare of the aquatic animals. Hence the level of management in aquaculture should always take into account how it can affect water quality not only within the production system but also the receiving water bodies.
Founder & Executive Director
China Blue Sustainability Institute
There are two major inputs in the production process of aquaculture. One is feed input. For intensive aquaculture, after a large amount of feed is applied to the pond, due to the limited absorption of these feeds by fish, 70%-80% of the nutrients will be dissolved in the water or sink, then absorbed by the soil at the bottom of the pond.
This will increase the nutrient level of the farm water and soil. The soil at the bottom of the pond is in an anaerobic environment for a long time, which will produce a large number of harmful substances such as hydrogen sulfide, ammonia nitrogen, and nitrate. If such water is directly discharged into the surrounding environment, it will cause hypoxia in the water body, and fish will be poisoned. The second is the input of fishery medicines, especially antibiotics.
In order to control and prevent diseases, more antibiotics will need to be implemented in the production process of aquaculture. Antibiotics and their metabolites will stay within the water and the soil of the pond, resulting in chemical residues. This may affect the microbial flora of water bodies and soils.
Monitoring physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of a water source or environment prevents the transmission of harmful bacteria to humans, mortality events, and environmental degradation.
More Lex Icons™
SDG Impact Manager
GSSI
How can collaboration and transparency improve our Seafood System?
It is becoming increasingly apparent that sustainable seafood will play a crucial role in securing resilient food systems and a healthy planet for future generations. The importance of good fisheries management and sustainable development of aquaculture is reflected in global strategies and roadmaps, such as the FAO’s Blue Transformation Strategy.
However, the sustainability landscape of global seafood production is fragmented: many species, different production methods, different realities on the ground, and long supply chains create complexity. For producers, buyers, investors and improvement implementers it is not easy to understand the appropriate journey or incentive to make seafood more sustainable. They therefore also lack the means to engage in meaningful collaborations with long-lasting positive impacts. Small-scale fisheries and aquaculture actors in particular play a significant role as contributors to global seafood production – but often lack the means, resources, and incentives they need in order to grow into thriving members of their communities.
The Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative works together with a global network of partners towards a vision where seafood can truly become a driver for good that empowers local communities; improves livelihoods; preserves oceans and inland waters; and secures food for a growing global population. The recently launched Seafood MAP program supports this vision by offering a platform that increases the visibility in our seafood system. How? By giving seafood actors the opportunity to share their story in a transparent way, and connect with others who share the same goals and priorities – thereby enabling innovative improvement pathways that harness the local context but that can be shared with a growing global community. If all seafood actors, regardless of their size or destination, speak a common language and feel that their story is heard, this will generate the motivation and collaborations needed to truly make seafood a driver for good.
Good aquaculture practices are a set of guidelines, procedures, techniques, and management approaches that promote sustainable and responsible farming of aquatic organisms while minimizing environmental impact and ensuring animal welfare.
More Lex Icons™
About
Lexicon of Food is produced by The Lexicon, an international NGO that brings together food companies, government agencies, financial institutions, scientists, entrepreneurs, and food producers from across the globe to tackle some of the most complex challenges facing our food systems.
Team
The Aquaculture Channel was developed by an invitation-only food systems solutions activator created by The Lexicon with support from Food at Google. The activator model fosters unprecedented collaborations between leading food service companies, environmental NGOs, government agencies, and technical experts from across the globe.
This website was built by The Lexicon™, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization headquartered in Petaluma, CA.
Check out our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and Terms of Use.
© 2024 – Lexicon of Food™
We have no idea who grows our food, what farming practices they use, the communities they support, or what processing it undergoes before reaching our plates.
As a result, we have no ability to make food purchases that align with our values as individuals, or our missions as companies.
To change that, we’ve asked experts to demystify the complexity of food purchasing so that you can better informed decisions about what you buy.
The Lexicon of Food’s community of experts share their insights and experiences on the complex journey food takes to reach our plates. Their work underscores the need for greater transparency and better informed decision-making in shaping a healthier and more sustainable food system for all.
Professionals at universities and research institutions seeking scholarly articles, data, and resources.
Tools to align investment and grant making strategies with advances in agriculture, food production, and emerging markets.
Professionals seeking information on ingredient sourcing, menu planning, sustainability, and industry trends.
Chefs and food industry professionals seeking inspiration on ingredients and sustainable trends to enhance their work.
Individuals interested in food products, recipes, nutrition, and health-related information for personal or family use.
Individuals producing food, fiber, feed, and other agricultural products that support both local and global food systems.
This online platform is years in the making, featuring the contributions of 1000+ companies and NGOs across a dzen domain areas. To introduce you to their work, we’ve assembled personalized experiences with insights from our community of international experts.
Businesses engaged in food production, processing, and distribution that seek insight from domain experts
Those offering specialized resources and support and guidance in agriculture, food production, and nutrition.
Individuals who engage and educate audience on themes related to agriculture, food production, and nutrition.
Nutritional information for professionals offering informed dietary choices that help others reach their health objectives
Those advocating for greater awareness and stronger action to address climate impacts on agriculture and food security.
Professionals seeking curriculum materials, lesson plans, and learning tools related to food and agriculture.
Over half the world’s agricultural production comes from only three crops. Can we bring greater diversity to our plates?
In the US, four companies control nearly 85% of the beef we consume. Can we develop more regionally-based markets?
How can we develop alternatives to single-use plastics that are more sustainable and environmentally friendly?
Could changing the way we grow our food provide benefits for people and the planet, and even respond to climate change?
Can we meet the growing global demand for protein while reducing our reliance on traditional animal agriculture?
It’s not only important what we eat but what our food comes in. Can we develop tools that identify toxic materials used in food packaging?
Explore The Lexicon’s collection of immersive storytelling experiences featuring insights from our community of international experts.
The Great Protein Shift
Our experts use an engaging interactive approach to break down the technologies used to create these novel proteins.
Ten Principles for Regenerative Agriculture
What is regenerative agriculture? We’ve developed a framework to explain the principles, practices, ecological benefits and language of regenerative agriculture, then connected them to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Food-related chronic diseases are the biggest burden on healthcare systems. What would happen if we treated food as medicine?
How can we responsibly manage our ocean fisheries so there’s enough seafood for everyone now and for generations to come?
Mobilizing agronomists, farmers, NGOs, chefs, and food companies in defense of biodiversity in nature, agriculture, and on our plates.
Can governments develop guidelines that shift consumer diets, promote balanced nutrition and reduce the risk of chronic disease?
Will sustainably raising shellfish, finfish, shrimp and algae meet the growing demand for seafood while reducing pressure on wild fisheries?
How can a universal visual language to describe our food systems bridge cultural barriers and increase consumer literacy?
What if making the right food choices could be an effective tool for addressing a range of global challenges?
Let’s start with climate change. While it presents our planet with existential challenges, biodiversity loss, desertification, and water scarcity should be of equal concern—they’re all connected.
Instead of seeking singular solutions, we must develop a holistic approach, one that channel our collective energies and achieve positive impacts where they matter most.
To maximize our collective impact, EBF can help consumers focus on six equally important ecological benefits: air, water, soil, biodiversity, equity, and carbon.
We’ve gathered domain experts from over 1,000 companies and organizations working at the intersection of food, agriculture, conservation, and climate change.
The Lexicon™ is a California-based nonprofit founded in 2009 with a focus on positive solutions for a more sustainable planet.
For the past five years, it has developed an “activator for good ideas” with support from Food at Google. This model gathers domain experts from over 1,000 companies and organizations working at the intersection of food, agriculture, conservation, and climate change.
Together, the community has reached consensus on strategies that respond to challenges across multiple domain areas, including biodiversity, regenerative agriculture, food packaging, aquaculture, and the missing middle in supply chains for meat.
Lexicon of Food is the first public release of that work.
Over half the world’s agricultural production comes from only three crops. Can we bring greater diversity to our plates?
In the US, four companies control nearly 85% of the beef we consume. Can we develop more regionally-based markets?
How can we develop alternatives to single-use plastics that are more sustainable and environmentally friendly?
Could changing the way we grow our food provide benefits for people and the planet, and even respond to climate change?
Can we meet the growing global demand for protein while reducing our reliance on traditional animal agriculture?
It’s not only important what we eat but what our food comes in. Can we develop tools that identify toxic materials used in food packaging?
Explore The Lexicon’s collection of immersive storytelling experiences featuring insights from our community of international experts.
The Great Protein Shift
Our experts use an engaging interactive approach to break down the technologies used to create these novel proteins.
Ten Principles for Regenerative Agriculture
What is regenerative agriculture? We’ve developed a framework to explain the principles, practices, ecological benefits and language of regenerative agriculture, then connected them to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Food-related chronic diseases are the biggest burden on healthcare systems. What would happen if we treated food as medicine?
How can we responsibly manage our ocean fisheries so there’s enough seafood for everyone now and for generations to come?
Mobilizing agronomists, farmers, NGOs, chefs, and food companies in defense of biodiversity in nature, agriculture, and on our plates.
Can governments develop guidelines that shift consumer diets, promote balanced nutrition and reduce the risk of chronic disease?
Will sustainably raising shellfish, finfish, shrimp and algae meet the growing demand for seafood while reducing pressure on wild fisheries?
How can a universal visual language to describe our food systems bridge cultural barriers and increase consumer literacy?
This game was designed to raise awareness about the impacts our food choices have on our own health, but also the environment, climate change and the cultures in which we live.
First, you can choose one of the four global regions and pick a character that you want to play.
Each region has distinct cultural, economic, historical, and agricultural capacities to feed itself, and each character faces different challenges, such as varied access to food, higher or lower family income, and food literacy.
As you take your character through their day, select the choices you think they might make given their situation.
At the end of the day you will get a report on the impact of your food choices on five areas: health, healthcare, climate, environment and culture. Take some time to read through them. Now go back and try again. Can you make improvements in all five areas? Did one area score higher, but another score lower?
FOOD CHOICES FOR A HEALTHY PLANET will help you better understand how all these regions and characters’ particularities can influence our food choices, and how our food choices can impact our personal health, national healthcare, environment, climate, and culture. Let’s Play!
The FOOD CHOICES FOR A HEALTHY PLANET game allows users to experience the dramatic connections between food and climate in a unique and engaging way. The venue and the game set-up provides attendees with a fun experience, with a potential to add a new layer of storytelling about this topic.
Starting the game: the pilot version of the game features four country/regions: Each reflects a different way people (and the national dietary guidelines) look at diets: Nordic Countries (sustainability), Brazil (local and whole foods instead of ultra-processed foods); Canada (plant-forward), and Indonesia (developing countries).
Personalizing the game: players begin by choosing a country and then a character who they help in making food choices over the course of one day. Later versions may allow for creating custom avatars.
Making tough food choices: This interactive game for all ages shows how the food choices we make impact our health and the environment, and even contribute to climate change.
What we eat matters: at the end of each game, players learn that every decision they make impacts not only their health, but a national healthcare system, the environment, climate and even culture.
We’d love to know more about you and why you think you will be a great fit for this position! Shoot us an email introducing you and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!
Providing best water quality conditions to ensure optimal living condition for growth, breeding and other physiological needs
Water quality is sourced from natural seawater with dependency on the tidal system. Water is treated to adjust pH and alkalinity before stocking.
Producers that own and manages the farm operating under small-scale farming model with limited input, investment which leads to low to medium production yield
All 1,149 of our farmers in both regencies are smallholder farmers who operate with low stocking density, traditional ponds, and no use of any other intensification technology.
Safe working conditions — cleanliness, lighting, equipment, paid overtime, hazard safety, etc. — happen when businesses conduct workplace safety audits and invest in the wellbeing of their employees
Company ensure implementation of safe working conditions by applying representative of workers to health and safety and conduct regular health and safety training. The practices are proven by ASIC standards’ implementation
Implementation of farming operations, management and trading that impact positively to community wellbeing and sustainable better way of living
The company works with local stakeholders and local governments to create support for farmers and the farming community in increasing resilience. Our farming community is empowered by local stakeholders continuously to maintain a long generation of farmers.
Freezing seafood rapidly when it is at peak freshness to ensure a higher quality and longer lasting product
Our harvests are immediately frozen with ice flakes in layers in cool boxes. Boxes are equipped with paper records and coding for traceability. We ensure that our harvests are processed with the utmost care at <-18 degrees Celsius.
Sourcing plant based ingredients, like soy, from producers that do not destroy forests to increase their growing area and produce fish feed ingredients
With adjacent locations to mangroves and coastal areas, our farmers and company are committed to no deforestation at any scale. Mangrove rehabilitation and replantation are conducted every year in collaboration with local authorities. Our farms are not established in protected habitats and have not resulted from deforestation activity since the beginning of our establishment.
Implement only natural feeds grown in water for aquatic animal’s feed without use of commercial feed
Our black tiger shrimps are not fed using commercial feed. The system is zero input and depends fully on natural feed grown in the pond. Our farmers use organic fertilizer and probiotics to enhance the water quality.
Enhance biodiversity through integration of nature conservation and food production without negative impact to surrounding ecosysytem
As our practices are natural, organic, and zero input, farms coexist with surrounding biodiversity which increases the volume of polyculture and mangrove coverage area. Farmers’ groups, along with the company, conduct regular benthic assessments, river cleaning, and mangrove planting.
THE TERM “MOONSHOT” IS OFTEN USED TO DESCRIBE an initiative that goes beyond the confines of the present by transforming our greatest aspirations into reality, but the story of a moonshot isn’t that of a single rocket. In fact, the Apollo program that put Neil Armstrong on the moon was actually preceded by the Gemini program, which in a two-year span rapidly put ten rockets into space. This “accelerated” process — with a new mission nearly every 2-3 months — allowed NASA to rapidly iterate, validate their findings and learn from their mistakes. Telemetry. Propulsion. Re-entry. Each mission helped NASA build and test a new piece of the puzzle.
The program also had its fair share of creative challenges, especially at the outset, as the urgency of the task at hand required that the roadmap for getting to the moon be written in parallel with the rapid pace of Gemini missions. Through it all, the NASA teams never lost sight of their ultimate goal, and the teams finally aligned on their shared responsibilities. Within three years of Gemini’s conclusion, a man did walk on the moon.
FACT is a food systems solutions activator that assesses the current food landscape, engages with key influencers, identifies trends, surveys innovative work and creates greater visibility for ideas and practices with the potential to shift key food and agricultural paradigms.
Each activator focuses on a single moonshot; instead of producing white papers, policy briefs or peer-reviewed articles, these teams design and implement blueprints for action. At the end of each activator, their work is released to the public and open-sourced.
As with any rapid iteration process, many of our activators re-assess their initial plans and pivot to address new challenges along the way. Still, one thing has remained constant: their conviction that by working together and pooling their knowledge and resources, they can create a multiplier effect to more rapidly activate change.
Co-Founder
THE LEXICON
Vice President
Global Workplace Programs
GOOGLE
Who can enter and how selections are made.
A Greener Blue is a global call to action that is open to individuals and teams from all over the world. Below is a non-exhaustive list of subjects the initiative targets.
To apply, prospective participants will need to fill out the form on the website, by filling out each part of it. Applications left incomplete or containing information that is not complete enough will receive a low score and have less chance of being admitted to the storytelling lab.
Nonprofit organizations, communities of fishers and fish farmers and companies that are seeking a closer partnership or special support can also apply by contacting hello@thelexicon.org and interacting with the members of our team.
Special attention will be given to the section of the form regarding the stories that the applicants want to tell and the reasons for participating. All proposals for stories regarding small-scale or artisanal fishers or aquaculturists, communities of artisanal fishers or aquaculturists, and workers in different steps of the seafood value chain will be considered.
Stories should show the important role that these figures play in building a more sustainable seafood system. To help with this narrative, the initiative has identified 10 principles that define a more sustainable seafood system. These can be viewed on the initiative’s website and they state:
Seafood is sustainable when:
Proposed stories should show one or more of these principles in practice.
Applications are open from the 28th of June to the 15th of August 2022. There will be 50 selected applicants who will be granted access to The Lexicon’s Total Storytelling Lab. These 50 applicants will be asked to accept and sign a learning agreement and acceptance of participation document with which they agree to respect The Lexicon’s code of conduct.
The first part of the lab will take place online between August the 22nd and August the 26th and focus on training participants on the foundation of storytelling, supporting them to create a production plan, and aligning all of them around a shared vision.
Based on their motivation, quality of the story, geography, and participation in the online Lab, a selected group of participants will be gifted a GoPro camera offered to the program by GoPro For A Change. Participants who are selected to receive the GoPro camera will need to sign an acceptance and usage agreement.
The second part of the Storytelling Lab will consist of a production period in which each participant will be supported in the production of their own story. This period goes from August 26th to October 13th. Each participant will have the opportunity to access special mentorship from an international network of storytellers and seafood experts who will help them build their story. The Lexicon also provides editors, animators, and graphic designers to support participants with more technical skills.
The final deadline to submit the stories is the 14th of October. Participants will be able to both submit complete edited stories, or footage accompanied by a storyboard to be assembled by The Lexicon’s team.
All applicants who will exhibit conduct and behavior that is contrary to The Lexicon’s code of conduct will be automatically disqualified. This includes applicants proposing stories that openly discriminate against a social or ethnic group, advocate for a political group, incite violence against any group, or incite to commit crimes of any kind.
All submissions must be the entrant’s original work. Submissions must not infringe upon the trademark, copyright, moral rights, intellectual rights, or rights of privacy of any entity or person.
Participants will retain the copyrights to their work while also granting access to The Lexicon and the other partners of the initiative to share their contributions as part of A Greener Blue Global Storytelling Initiative.
If a potential selected applicant cannot be reached by the team of the Initiative within three (3) working days, using the contact information provided at the time of entry, or if the communication is returned as undeliverable, that potential participant shall forfeit.
Selected applicants will be granted access to an advanced Storytelling Lab taught and facilitated by Douglas Gayeton, award-winning storyteller and information architect, co-founder of The Lexicon. In this course, participants will learn new techniques that will improve their storytelling skills and be able to better communicate their work with a global audience. This skill includes (but is not limited to) how to build a production plan for a documentary, how to find and interact with subjects, and how to shoot a short documentary.
Twenty of the participants will receive a GoPro Hero 11 Digital Video and Audio Cameras by September 15, 2022. Additional participants may receive GoPro Digital Video and Audio Cameras to be announced at a later date. The recipients will be selected by advisors to the program and will be based on selection criteria (see below) on proposals by Storytelling Lab participants. The selections will keep in accordance with Lab criteria concerning geography, active participation in the Storytelling Lab and commitment to the creation of a story for the Initiative, a GoPro Camera to use to complete the storytelling lab and document their story. These recipients will be asked to sign an acceptance letter with terms of use and condition to receive the camera.
The Lexicon provides video editors, graphic designers, and animators to support the participants to complete their stories.
The submitted stories will be showcased during international and local events, starting from the closing event of the International Year of Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022 in Rome, in January 2023. The authors of the stories will be credited and may be invited to join.
Storytelling lab participation:
Applicants that will be granted access to the storytelling Lab will be evaluated based on the entries they provided in the online form, and in particular:
Applications will be evaluated by a team of 4 judges from The Lexicon, GSSI and the team of IYAFA (Selection committee).
When selecting applications, the call promoters may request additional documentation or interviews both for the purpose of verifying compliance with eligibility requirements and to facilitate proposal evaluation.
Camera recipients:
Participants to the Storytelling Lab who will be given a GoPro camera will be selected based on:
The evaluation will be carried out by a team of 4 judges from The Lexicon, GSSI and the team of IYAFA (Selection committee).
Incidental expenses and all other costs and expenses which are not specifically listed in these Official Rules but which may be associated with the acceptance, receipt and use of the Storytelling Lab and the camera are solely the responsibility of the respective participants and are not covered by The Lexicon or any of the A Greener Blue partners.
All participants who receive a Camera are required to sign an agreement allowing GoPro for a Cause, The Lexicon and GSSI to utilize the films for A Greener Blue and their promotional purposes. All participants will be required to an agreement to upload their footage into the shared drive of The Lexicon and make the stories, films and images available for The Lexicon and the promoting partners of A Greener Blue.
