Christina Hicks

Our global food system is poised for transformation; with the goal increasingly to ensure diets are healthy and sustainable. Fish and other aquatic foods are afforded an increasingly prominent role in this new narrative, primarily for their comparably low greenhouse gas emissions and rich micronutrient content. While a refocus towards healthy and sustainable diets is needed, it is imperative that efforts do not create or exacerbate inequities. In this talk, I first explore the role of aquatic foods in this transformation, and establish how distal drivers of foreign fishing, international trade, and climate change undermine the participation of small-scale producers and local consumers. Next, and drawing on theories of Social Justice I establish how social structures including class, gender, and ethnicity, create barriers to participation and explain unequal distributions of benefits. Finally, I evaluate whether patterns of injustice are associated with a lack of political voice or recognition in food systems policy. In doing so, I identify promising examples of how policy can be used to support a more equitable distribution of food system benefits.