Issues of Access in U.S. Seafood Systems

Background Seafood is increasingly recognized as an integral part of broader food systems, offering a multitude of social, economic, and environmental benefits. These benefits include contributing to sustainable diets, promoting human health and nutrition, preserving cultural practices and connections, supporting food sovereignty, enhancing livelihoods, fostering identity, and improving overall well-being. However, access to these benefits is more complex than the physical availability of the resource and legal rights to it. Access depends on one’s social location and varies across the food system, from harvest to processing, distribution, marketing, and consumption to waste. Access challenges (and pathways) in the United States (U.S.) and its affiliated islands are shaped by forces including globalization, colonization, the consolidation of fishing fleets, loss of post-harvest processing jobs and infrastructure, competition with cheap imported seafood, volatility in markets, vulnerabilities in supply chains, and traceability issues, among other challenges. In response, a multitude of recent policy initiatives have called for efforts to strengthen local and regional seafood systems in the U.S., including the Trump Administration’s Executive Order, "Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness." Scope In this special issue, we aim to understand what the benefits (and shortcomings) of accessing local and regional seafood systems are, who is benefiting (both past and present), how (i.e., through which mechanisms), and the possibilities for enhancing access for more equitable seafood systems and greater food sovereignty. We define access as the ability to benefit from seafood systems, drawing on the work of political ecologists Jesse Ribot and Nancy Peluso (2002). Seafood system access is mediated by a variety of mechanisms in different contexts (e.g., formal rights, customary rights, capital, markets, technology, knowledge, authority, and social relations) that together shape who is able to benefit from aquatic resources, the marine environment, employment in the seafood sector, and the seafood ultimately produced. Explore barriers and pathways to access in local and regional seafood systems in the U.S., including cases in affiliated islands, territories, and internal sovereignties, as well as systems influenced by them. Embrace a broad definition of “seafood,” inviting contributions on both inland and marine systems, capture fisheries, aquaculture, and for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. GoalHighlight the diversity of seafoods and aquatic foods considered, including fish, invertebrates, algae, and more. Encourage discussion of access issues across the entire food system, such as: Access to fishing licenses. Physical access to intertidal zones or fishing grounds.Availability of working waterfronts and seafood processing infrastructure. Entry to emergent species and new markets. Access to sufficient, affordable, culturally relevant, and safe seafood for consumption. Recognition and mitigation of issues such as contamination. Shift the perspective of seafood from purely economic resources to essential components of broader food systems and communities. Foster interdisciplinary insights into how access is shaped by social, economic, environmental, and cultural dynamics. Topic editors: Joshua S. Stoll, Caroline E. Ferguson, Hillary Smith Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/74605/issues-of-access-in-us-seafood-systems