The recently adopted UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development are highly relevant for the seafood industry and opens up a number of exciting opportunities for the industry to take a leading role. As overfishing is driving many marine ecosystems towards collapse, the issue demands new solutions fast. During the Sustainable Growth Summit, which will take place 29-30 October in Bergen, marine researchers, seafood industry leaders and policymakers will develop a plan of action that puts the Norwegian seafood industry at the forefront of achieving the ambitious UN goals.
The summit is the first of its kind and is led by a coalition of Norwegian seafood industry leaders, including some of the world’s largest salmon producers. Together they provide over 14 million meals globally every day. The aim of the summit is to align positive forces between policy makers, scientists and seafood companies in order to develop solutions for ocean farming that can be exported and used all over the world.
The Food and Agriculture organization (FAO) and the World Bank highlight aquaculture as one of the most important fields to look for solutions. Aquaculture is an industry whose technology and knowledge could hold the key to a solution. Norway is a world leader in Aquaculture and the industry continues to invest significant sums into Research and Development of healthier, more sustainable aquaculture.
Marine Harvest, the world largest producer of salmon and a key partner of the summit, believes the seafood industry can contribute to finding the sustainable solutions the world needs. The CEO of Marine Harvest, Alf-Helge Aarskog, points out that farmed salmon has already become a highly efficient and sustainable way to produce animal protein:
“The world needs safe, nutritious and good food produced sustainably and effectively. With a planet that is 70 percent covered of water combined with the technological developments we have done the last years, I believe that the solution to our food challenges can be solved by farming the ocean”,
Director at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Professor Johan Rockström, one of the world’s most influential scientists on sustainability and partner to the summit says: “If we get it right on food production and nutrition, we will get it right for both people and planet.”
He believes the seafood industry will have a direct impact on several of the Global Sustainability Goals:
Goal 2 – Zero Hunger
Goal 3 – Good Health and Wellbeing
Goal 8 – Decent work and economic growth
Goal 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production
Goal 13 – Climate Action
“The adoption of the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development represent an unprecedented opportunity for the seafood industry to take a leadership role in the transformation towards a more sustainable world”