Rights and representation support justice across aquatic food systems

Hicks CC 1 , Gephart JA 2 , Koehn JZ 3 , Nakayama S 3 , Payne HJ 3 , Allison EH 4 Show all authors , Belhbib D 5 , Cao L 6 , Cohen PJ 4 , Fanzo J 7 , Fluet-Chouinard E 8 , Gelcich S 9 , Golden CD 10 , Gorospe KD 2 , Isaacs M 11 , Kuempel CD 12 , Lee KN 3 , MacNeil MA 13 , Maire E 2 , Njuki J 14 , Rao N 15 , Sumaila UR 16 , Selig ER 3 , Thilsted SH 4 , Wabnitz CCC 3 , Naylor RL 17

Affiliations 

  • 1 Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK. christina.hicks@lancaster.ac.uk
  • 2 Department of Environmental Science, American University, Washington, DC, USA
  • 3 Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
  • 4 WorldFish, Batu Maung, Penang, Malaysia
  • 5 Ecotrust Canada, Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada
  • 6 School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
  • 7 Berman Institute of Bioethics and Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC, USA
  • 8 Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
  • 9 Instituto Milenio en Socio-ecologia Costera (SECOS), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
  • 10 Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
  • 11 Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
  • 12 Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia
  • 13 Ocean Frontier Institute, Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
  • 14 International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC, USA
  • 15 School of International Development, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
  • 16 Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada
  • 17 Department of Global Environmental Policy and Center on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
Nat Food, 2022 Oct;3(10):851-861.
PMID: 37117898 DOI: 10.1038/s43016-022-00618-4

Abstract

Injustices are prevalent in food systems, where the accumulation of vast wealth is possible for a few, yet one in ten people remain hungry. Here, for 194 countries we combine aquatic food production, distribution and consumption data with corresponding national policy documents and, drawing on theories of social justice, explore whether barriers to participation explain unequal distributions of benefits. Using Bayesian models, we find economic and political barriers are associated with lower wealth-based benefits; countries produce and consume less when wealth, formal education and voice and accountability are lacking. In contrast, social barriers are associated with lower welfare-based benefits; aquatic foods are less affordable where gender inequality is greater. Our analyses of policy documents reveal a frequent failure to address political and gender-based barriers. However, policies linked to more just food system outcomes centre principles of human rights, specify inclusive decision-making processes and identify and challenge drivers of injustice.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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