The Blue Food Assessment (BFA) provides scientific studies to decision-makers to aid in evaluating aquatic food systems and their integration into sustainable food systems solutions.
According to Dr. Rosamond Naylor, Co-Chair of the BFA, stakeholders prefer to segregate discussions regarding aquatic and agricultural systems. “I believe it is because fishermen and aquaculture have always been seen as more of a natural resource than a food supply.”
However, according to Naylor, they are a vital element of global food systems.
The Stockholm Resilience Center, Stanford University, and EAT collaborated to develop the BFA to understand better the function of aquatic foods, often known as blue foods, in global food systems.
According to Naylor, the blue food industry comprises “an enormously vast number” of small-scale actors, ranging from communities harvesting fish to wholesalers selling products to consumers.
The BFA also examines the role of blue foods in people’s diets, which are high in micronutrients.
According to Naylor, authors of one research began compiling a database of hundreds of fish species.