only one side event during the week-long meeting at the fao headquarters in rome was dedicated to fishing, and the fishing industry rarely, if ever, came up during main events. according to people who work on fisheries and aquaculture for the fao, this is indicative of a larger problem.

“fisheries in general, by and large, do not gain as much attention or recognition or publicity as terrestrial agriculture,” said omar elhassan, an aquaculture biosecurity consultant for the fao.

fisheries and aquaculture provide the primary source of animal protein for 17% of the world’s population, according to the fao. and in low-income, food-deficit countries and small-island developing countries, nearly 25% of people rely on fish for their primary source of animal protein. when it comes to nutrition, fish matter, both globally and locally.

the same is true for employment, as it is estimated that more than 260 million people around the world work in the fishing industry. this number doesn’t necessarily account for those who aren’t employed as fishers but rely on sustenance fishing to feed their families. aquaculture and fisheries assure the livelihoods of 10% to 12% of the world’s population, or about 770 million to 925 million people.

if you picture huge industrial fishing boats – or the tv show “deadliest catch” — when you hear the word “fisherman,” you’re not alone. industrial-scale fishing tends to dominate how the western world understands fishing, but it doesn’t reflect the reality for most of the world’s fishers. small-scale fisheries employ 90% of the world’s capture fishers. adjust your mental image to include open-air fish markets, small fishing boats, and “the old man and the sea,” and now you’re closer to the truth. oh, and half the people in your mental image should be women.

empowering female fishers

women make up half the workforce of the seafood industry (including both fisheries and aquaculture). because the fishing activities are often equated with capture fishing and most capture fishers are men, the number of women involved in the fish supply chain has typically been vastly underreported.

“we see some women are fishing, but they are certainly marginalized often because they don’t often get on the boat, and that might also depend on some traditional beliefs – for example, that women are bad luck having on the boat,” said nicole franz, a fishery planning analyst for the fao.

women do the majority of the post-harvest work in many small-scale fisheries worldwide, whether they are cleaning and selling the fish or repairing fish nets and boats. but carrying these responsibilities doesn’t mean women always have access to necessary resources or to the markets, and they rarely reap the full benefits of their work.

“(women) don’t necessarily get the fair distribution of benefits within the value chain. if they’re not organized, that’s even worse. we see examples when you have a women’s organization that can act as a trade group together then obviously they can demand higher prices and they’re in a better position to access the market,” franz said.

the fisheries department at fao works closely with women’s groups, especially in africa and asia, to help support the rights and empowerment of women fishers. franz cites the recent establishment of a national women fishers’ organization in tanzania as an example.

technology as an intervention in fisheries

technology can make a critical difference in the fish supply chain, especially in terms of productivity and nutrition. in africa and southeast asia, it’s common to dry small fish by placing them directly on the beach. access to something as simple as a drying rack can completely change how much a small-scale fishing community can gain from their harvest.

“a small innovation like putting this fish on a rack rather than on the floor could make a big difference in terms of the product quality and hence the price, the nutritional qualities, and the overall volume that is produced by these women,” franz said.

some traditional fish-smoking processes can cause respiratory illnesses among women and children who are exposed to the smoke. the fao is working on providing access to better ovens that allow women to work without health risks. usually, a country or an organization will make a request to the fao for better technology, and the fao will provide training on how to build, operate, and maintain the technology. this helps to avoid dividing the market, which is what would happen if some women were directly given the technology and others were not.

“you need to very carefully assess the situation beforehand and discuss with the women themselves a solution on how maybe as a group they can come up with a system where they take turns in accessing this oven or how they divide the benefits of the products that are coming from the use of this improved technology,” franz said.

indigenous fishers and rights to the resource

small-scale fisheries also are critically important to indigenous communities, from the arctic circle to the coasts of south america. as with women, it’s difficult to track how many fishers are indigenous, but this is an area that the fisheries department of fao is beginning to dedicate more attention to because of how important fishing is to indigenous peoples around the world.

one of the main issues facing indigenous fishers is the recognition of access rights. customary or informal access rights are often disregarded when governments develop regulations and create fishing quotas. in the united states, the fish wars were a notable series of conflicts between the washington state government and native american tribes in the 1960s and 1970s. the state government tried to enforce fishing laws that were in conflict with hundred-year-old treaties held by the tribes, and the u.s. government eventually sided with the tribes.

tribal governments and organizations can help people organize and assert their rights, and franz has noticed an uptick in organizing among young indigenous people, especially.

“it’s an expression of this growing awareness and interest to get organized, to get the voice into processes, and to see how the particular issues that indigenous peoples depending on small-scale fisheries are also facing on top of what already is often a challenge for small-scale fishers,” franz said.

climate change threatens livelihoods

you may be wondering why any of this matters, since climate change is acidifying and warming our oceans, killing our fish, and driving people away from their coastal and island homes. but climate change only makes the need for fisheries-focused work even greater, because the people who rely on fish for income or food will be hit hardest. the role of the fao, then, is to figure out how to increase the resilience of coastal fishing communities.

“we have colleagues (who) work on climate change impacts on fisheries because obviously, in particular, coastal communities are very, very exposed, and the vulnerability to the impacts of climate change are considerably higher in coastal areas,” franz said. “they’re looking at the impact both on the resource, in terms of, for example, how stocks are shifting patterns based on the change of temperature in the sea, but also the impacts of increased climate vulnerability on coastal communities.”

multibillion-dollar fisheries in the united states are threatened by ocean acidification, which impedes the structural development of corals, lobsters, and other marine organisms. one state that is particularly threatened is alaska, the home of the nation’s largest crab fishery. alaskans tend to rely more on subsistence harvests than many other americans, so communities that rely on subsistence crab harvests are especially threatened by the changing ocean. thousands of miles away in the caribbean, ocean acidification is harming the coral reefs that are critical to the economies of florida, puerto rico, and the u.s. virgin islands. coral reefs bring in tourism, produce fish to be harvested, and reduce coastal flooding and erosion.

women and indigenous fishers are especially vulnerable to climate change because their more limited rights and mobility make it harder for them to migrate when their current homes no longer yield enough fish. increasing their economic mobility and power in the market can make women and indigenous fishers more resilient to climate change.

the social costs of conservation

destructive fishing practices and overfishing can transform ecosystems and reduce fisheries, sometimes to the point of no return. when there are few regulations over access to a fishery, resources become depleted and communities are devastated.

“what we see often is that there are no regulations for access, and that’s part of an issue in terms of environmental sustainability, because we see growing populations, increased pressure on coastal areas,” franz said. “on the other hand, for many of these communities, fishing is the only way to make a living, to get food.”

the presence of industrial fishing companies puts pressure on the already tenuous balance of access and protection. common resource management models include coastal zones that are reserved for small-scale fishers, quota systems assigned to a community or an individual, and co-management systems that allow governments to directly collaborate with small-scale and industrial fishers. but monitoring and enforcement is always a challenge for a government, which is a benefit of co-management.

“it’s about handing over, in many ways, the responsibility for the stewardship directly to the communities by generating a system in which they really recognize and value those management measures because they have co-designed them,” franz said.

conflicts between conservation efforts and fishing communities are also a growing issue, especially since national or state governments may create marine protected areas without consulting small-scale fishing communities that will be affected. conservation has social costs, and just access to resources is sometimes overlooked in pursuit of environmental protections.

“in fao, what we’re using is the ecosystem-based approach to fisheries, which tries to look at the environmental, the human, and the institutional dimensions together to make sure that these tradeoffs and tensions are identified from the beginning, and that whenever management measures are decided or the use of an area is decided, this is kept in mind,” franz said.

when negative impacts on the community are unavoidable, it’s important to look out for them in other ways.

“you make sure that either there’s a compensation mechanism or there’s some kind of a safeguarding function to ensure that you’re not having these unintended impacts afterwards that you haven’t even thought about,” franz said.

wild-caught vs farm-raised: the aquaculture debate

not all fish are harvested from the wild, which is a good thing since climate change and overfishing are shrinking fisheries worldwide. aquaculture is responsible for about half of global fish production.

here’s another mental image you may need to adjust: for the most part, aquaculture is not done in factories by large corporations but in backyard ponds by individuals and families. most aquaculture is small-scale, and 90% of the world’s aquaculture takes place in china and southeast asia, according to fao aquaculture biosecurity consultant omar elhassan. and again, about half of the people involved are women.

elhassan believes aquaculture is the future of global fish production, and he notes that aquaculture has been the fastest growing sector of food production since the 1980s. but cultural opinions about it differ greatly from place to place.

“all the fishing zones are essentially at capacity,” elhassan said. “the only thing that’s going to boost food fish production is (aquaculture), but also it really depends on the cultural mindset towards aquaculture.”

in asia and europe, aquaculture tends to be widely accepted, but in the united states, wild-caught fish is believed to have superior freshness and nutrition. 

“in the u.s., (fish) is one of the largest trade deficits. all of the fish in the u.s. is essentially just imported from other countries, and it’s a mix of aquaculture and wild-caught,” elhassan said. but false or misleading labeling leads americans to believe all of the fish they’re eating came from an ocean or a lake.

in elhassan’s opinion, there’s nothing inferior about fish, shrimp, or other animals that come from aquaculture versus from the wild. in terms of nutrition, health, and safety, the american distaste for aquaculture has little factual backing.

protecting aquaculturists’ livelihoods through biosecurity

the main risk faced by aquaculturists is aquatic animal diseases, which can rapidly infect an entire population of animals because it is hard to pinpoint the original source of infection and stop the spread of disease in a pond. biosecurity is a set of measures that people involved in aquaculture undertake to fortify an aquaculture production facility against aquatic animal diseases, and it’s what elhassan focuses on at fao.

“if you’re a small-scale farmer and you lose your entire stock, that can be quite devastating for livelihoods,” elhassan said. it’s like a corn farmer who loses his entire crop to a flood or a sheep herder who loses his herd to an animal attack.

“let’s say i’m a small scale aquaculturist and i lost all of my shrimp stock because of a disease, and let’s say that i’m not even in the worst case; i lost my whole stock but i still had some money or i could still take a loan. there’s still persisting problems of having this disease in my pond. now i have to take all the water out, i have to disinfect the water – can’t just throw it into the environment – and i’m going to have to dry my pond and my soil and sediment and disinfect the things for like at least three months before you would be even allowed to try to produce again,” elhassan said.

the role of the fao is to work with governments that request aquaculture biosecurity assistance to try to protect small-scale aquaculturists from losing their livelihoods in this way.

“what really drives a lot of the work, at least for us in the aquaculture branch, is trying to connect different stakeholders such as national, international, government, academia, and small-scale to recognize aquaculture as a truly profitable enterprise,” elhassan said.

getting fisheries to the global stage – or not

fisheries and aquaculture are profitable, important industries that employ and feed millions of people – especially women and indigenous peoples – around the world. in recognition of this, the fao is working to ensure that the needs of fishers, aquaculturists, and the people who rely on their harvests are addressed by the un. but most public-facing policy conversations in the international community still focus on terrestrial agriculture. despite the love that many cultures share for the ocean, it seems unlikely that fish will ever hold our attention like cows have.

but on the other hand, elhassan and franz measure success through the local impacts of their efforts, not through the global perception of their work. their focus is the small-scale fisher, not the large-scale policymaker. and maybe that’s for the best – maybe the most impactful work is done when policies for fisheries and aquaculture remain on the smallest scale.

it was a fitting end to a week spent learning about human-environment issues from some of the world’s preeminent experts at the united nations food and agriculture organization’s 46th committee on world food security. just as pompeii experienced a catastrophic environmental event in 79 a.d., we in 2019 are facing down climate change on a global scale. the difference is that unlike the unfortunate souls of pompeii, we have advance warning and the tools to adjust how we interact with the environment – if only we can agree on how to do so.

agriculture is one of the major contributors to the processes causing climate change, and it’s also incredibly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. the ways that we’ve manipulated the land to produce food are not sustainable if we want to continue living on this planet, and many delegates to the committee on world food security seemed to acknowledge that. but at least in the sessions i attended, few speakers gave climate change the attention that it demands. the only climate change moment that stood out to me from the week was when an official from nicaragua spoke to the plenary about how his nation is one of those most vulnerable to climate change despite contributing negligible greenhouse gas emissions. it was a powerful moment, but it was fleeting.

spending a week with researchers and officials from around the world taught me so much about the issues we’re facing and what governments and institutions are doing to address them. most of my personal interests in sustainability are focused on energy and climate, so it was an amazing opportunity to learn about issues that are unfamiliar to me and gain new research interests. but i did find myself wishing climate was more central to the week’s discussions of sustainable development, and my visit to pompeii helped me realize why: none of our accomplishments in development will matter if our environment becomes inhospitable. we must address climate issues in every goal, plan, and agreement, even if the issue at hand seems far removed from climate change. if we don’t, we will be seeing more lost cities and civilizations in the future.

thank you, planet forward and fao, for this experience!

more than ever, after attending cfs, i have a renewed sense of passion for using the camera to shed light on injustice. for me, this revelation couldn’t have come at a more necessary time.

while i have clung onto my dream of being a journalist, amid the rigor of college, my passion for storytelling has, admittedly, taken a backseat. when people would ask me about my plans post-grad, i would hesitantly reply, “possibly, journalism… but maybe finance, or marketing, or business. i’m not sure yet.”

however, at cfs, i was reminded that journalists serve a worthy and righteous cause as the recordkeepers of history. as attacks on the free press are made around the globe, persisting to tell the truth is a responsibility that is worth the risk; even if it means stepping on the toes of corrupt bureaucracies and being considered a nuisance.

furthermore, given the complexities of environmental issues, i realized it is not enough to be able to regurgitate facts and statistics. while i have committed myself to the mastery of the production elements of journalism, as delegates from the sahara to the pacific spoke, i recognized that developing intellectual insight was an equally, if not more, important element to telling informative, powerful stories. 

as the plane lifted off of the ground from san francisco, i felt a shedding of my old self. i knew that i was in for a dramatic internal transformation, but i did not know in what ways they would come. however, as i strapped into my seat and left the city of seven hills, rome, i realized that i didn’t necessarily become a new person but rather i shed the fear, self-doubt, and uncertainty that were quieting my inner self.

i returned back to the 6th grader in me that beamed when she saw her classmates excitedly watch her documentary. i reunited with the 16-year-old version of myself that spent nights studying amanpour, winfrey, and lisa ling. most importantly, i made the declarative decision that my aspirations of being a professional journalist wasn’t going to be a mere “possibility,” but my reality.

my name is marisa umeh, i’m a planet 世界杯欧洲预选赛免费直播 , and i am going to be a professional journalist.

for one week i joined planet forward at fao’s committee on world security (cfs) 46th conference in rome, italy. as i sit down to reflect on the gathering, i feel as if a million doors have opened before me. 

i’m a college student at suny’s college of environmental science and forestry, a small stem campus in syracuse, new york, studying environmental studies. that said, it often feels like a bubble, and that bubble can sometimes be blinding. in rome, we’ve met and heard from delegates, stakeholders, youth, and others from around the globe working to solve issues around world hunger and nutrition. my mind has opened to a greater understanding of what is going on on a national level, and of course, a global level. i know this will be useful information to know as i move forward in my life and career surrounding environmental and humanitarian issues. 

prior to this week, i have had an ingrained way of thinking that encompassed a relatively strong distaste for technology. i thought that the issues facing the earth, such as world hunger, and climate change could not be fixed by technology, because in my mind, these issues were caused by technology. as i moved forward through the week, i listened. i heard what the technology advocates had to say, i heard from the farmers themselves, and the people fighting for the right to food, that technology holds a great deal of space in the solution to world hunger. i don’t believe that it is the only solution, but i can now zoom out from the space i am from, and understand there are other ways to go about addressing issues of this suffering. this is just one example of the many takeaways i have received from the past week.

this all said, as a correspondent with planet forward, i viewed much of this week through the lens of a storyteller. as of late, i am in the process of creating a story highlighting the fine balance of technology in development. as my perspective and understanding transformed throughout the week, i recognized its relevance in the battle against troubling issues, such as world hunger. through a series of journal entries, tracking the days i spent in the fao building in rome, i will unravel my fear of technology in development, and refer to its power in reducing suffering and actually getting humans closer to the land; closer to the earth.

“i want to solve climate change!” i said in a jet-lagged voice, hoping to entice laughter from him.

i could not help but wonder, why would someone be interested in hearing more about solving global issues through science and technology? 

i had impatiently waited to attend the committee on world food security in rome for the past four months. little did i know that i was about to step inside a place that would dramatically change my perspective on global issues that i am so passionate about solving, and give me a new hope to address them through the lens of technology. 

as i stepped foot in the plenary hall on the first day of the conference, i felt myself being surrounded by the world. while hearing the diplomats speak on their country’s plans for action to combating global hunger, i could witness the power dynamics in the room. i realized what the former president of the general assembly, maria fernanda espinosa, meant when she explained in one of her speeches that i attended on why things don’t always work the way they are supposed to at the united nations. 

it was heartwarming to see a plethora of side events on addressing malnutrition and climate change by leveraging technological innovations. after one of these sessions, i had the amazing honor and opportunity to interact with the keynote speaker, the first lady of colombia, maría juliana ruiz sandoval, and interview her about colombia’s plans for enhancing their technical resiliency to engage more youth. it was a pleasure to see dr. jeffrey sachs present live on the sustainable development goals and hear his perspective on solving these issues. 

i could not have been more astonished by the humility and the willingness to engage in discussions of all the leaders, diplomats, and presenters i had the chance to interact with. i connected with people that are currently using data science and ai to solve climate change and fight global hunger. to save a life. 

most importantly, i had the great pleasure of spending the week with an incredible team of individuals from across the united states. answering frank’s curiosity every evening at dinner made me think about topics that i had never given enough thought to. sharing my love for pop music and taylor swift with marisa was a heartfelt moment. walking the streets of rome with lindsay and matilda made the experience only more memorable. going into a bar and ordering “chocolate-flavored” milk with “my man” dan was a moment i’m sure both of us will share with our grandchildren. running into my biggest celebrity crush, alexandra daddario, on the streets of rome and talking about her for the rest of the night to kim, ahdi, and edona. 

at the end of it all, i finally realized that “rome wasn’t built in a day” and “all roads [do] lead to rome.” all i know is, if given a chance, i would come back to this place in a heartbeat.

sadly, we also heard figures that batter the soul: 820 million people around the world who are hungry. two billion who live on the edge amid “food insecurity.” war, political instability, drought, climate change, corruption, economic collapse that deprive too many of their right to sustenance and security. the crises have multiplied in the past few years as instability has grown.

we heard debate and controversy, too. the urgency to innovate and modernize. the contribution the rich, developed world should make. the role of science and technology. the potential for gmo and biotech to revolutionize productivity. 

on one thing everyone agreed: if the world is to achieve the u.n.’s sustainable development goal to eliminate hunger by 2030, there is massive work to be done. 

student reflections

• hear reflections on the experience from our student travelers: 
• rohan agrawal
• lindsay eberhart
• matilda kreider
• marisa umeh

the 46th committee on world food security conference in rome, hosted by the food and agriculture organization of the u.n., with 111 countries in attendance was a crash course in food diplomacy for planet forward and four amazing students who had written winning stories to join us. the students, who were sponsored by the fao liaison office of north america, came from universities across the united states: matilda kreider from the george washington university, the home of planet forward; marisa umeh from uc-berkeley; rohan agrawal from the university of mississippi; and lindsay eberhart from suny’s college of environmental science and forestry. 

each student brought a different major and a distinct life experience to rome. all have dedicated themselves to the future, wanting to find answers to hunger, climate change, inequality. each wants to leverage that commitment through storytelling to engage others and catalyze informed, solution-oriented action to 2022年卡塔尔世界杯官网 .

the students attended plenary sessions and side-events. they listened and they interviewed. they had access to global diplomats and local activists. they heard david beasley, executive director of the world food program, the biggest humanitarian organization on the planet, call on countries to end hunger by ending war, embracing education and technology, and empowering women. 

“we understand the impact on the world when women get the same access to credit and finance as men,” he said. “that can lift 150 million people out of poverty.” 

they heard aishatu ali from cameroon, a country on central africa’s west coast, talk about her work as an advocate for women, girls, and land rights. an advocate and a stirring role model, she is the agenda and women promotion program coordinator for the mbororo social cultural development association. in her pastoral community, women do not own cattle and have little access to capital. ali’s mother never even went to school. but ali did, and she told us eloquently that things are starting to change. women still don’t own cows, but they’re starting to own sheep. and they’re asserting their rights 

the students met with ambassador kip tom, a seventh-generation american farmer who is now the united states permanent representative to the united nations agencies for food and agriculture in rome. he said it’s unlikely hunger will be eliminated by 2030. but there can be dramatic progress. he’s worked the land and he knows how dramatically agriculture has changed. he says farmers should have access to seeds that resist pests, be able to grow where drought is increasingly common, take advantage of productivity on farms large and small. he calls for a greater acceptance of science, biotechnology, and the farming know-how that can bring life-saving productivity to farmers from southern asia to sub-saharan africa where heat and drought, worsened by climate change, climate threaten entire communities.

for all of us, this was a sobering trip. but a hopeful one, too, because we heard about solutions and breakthroughs. we met incredible, committed people — a lot of them — who have dedicated their lives to helping others grow nutritious food, protect their land, drink their water, assert their rights. we met inventors and investors, leaders from business and nonprofits, activists and advocates, and brave pioneers of change.

it is my belief that the students who traveled with us to rome will be motivated, now and throughout their lives, to add to stories that educate, inform, and inspire change. watch for their stories. watch what they will do. they are part of a generation that must rise to unprecedented challenge to 2022年卡塔尔世界杯官网 .