From Boat to Table

Food is essential to life. It also forms an important part of our cultural identity, and plays an important role in the economy. People are aware that the food they eat is an important factor affecting their health, but what is less well known is the impact producing and consuming food has on the world's resources. Alongside the cars we drive and the energy we use to heat our houses, the food we produce and consume has a significant impact on the environment through, for example, greenhouse gas emissions, the use of land and water resources, pollution, depletion of phosphorus, and the impact of chemical products such as herbicides and pesticides. 

Climate change and environmental degradation are an existential threat to Europe and the world. To overcome these challenges, the European Green Deal will transform the EU into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy, ensuring:

• no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050

• economic growth decoupled from resource use

• no person and no place left behind

The European Green Deal is also our lifeline out of the COVID-19 pandemic. One third of the 1.8 trillion euro investments from the NextGenerationEU Recovery Plan, and the EU’s seven-year budget will finance the European Green Deal.

Common Fishery Policy and “From Farm to Fork” Strategy, as part of Green Deal Action – Environment and Oceans, among other things focus on policies for sustainable production/fishing, distribution and consumption of fish and seafood. 

Common fisheries policy (CFP)

The CFP is a set of rules for sustainably managing European fishing fleets and conserving fish stocks.

Originally part of the common agricultural policy (CAP), the common fisheries policy (CFP) started with the same objectives: to increase productivity; to stabilise the markets; to provide a source of healthy food and; to ensure reasonable prices for consumers

In the course of time, the CFP obtained a separate identity: a specific legislation and structural policy for fisheries. As more and more countries joined what is now the EU, some with important fisheries resources and fleets, it was also necessary to deal with specific fisheries problems and therefore with the latest reform from 2013, the common fisheries policy became the first comprehensive legal framework focusing on: 

• the environmental, economic and social dimensions of fisheries

• fish stock management 

• gradual introduction of a landing obligation

• continued application of the so-called multiannual plans (MAPs) to manage fisheries in different sea basins

• regionalisation to allow EU countries with a management interest to propose detailed measures, which the Commission can then adopt as delegated or implementing act and  transpose them into EU law

• fleet capacity ceilings per EU country in combination with the obligation for EU countries to ensure a stable and enduring balance between fishing capacity and fishing opportunities over time. 

After the evaluation of the current control system, the Commission decided in 2018 to initiate a revision of the fisheries control system. The overall objective of the revision is to modernise, strengthen and simplify the EU fisheries control system, ensure sustainability and increase the level playing field in fisheries control. 

EU Farm to Fork Strategy

National, EU and global food systems are facing sustainability challenges, from primary production to consumption, which could jeopardise food and nutrition security. The farm to fork strategy, which is key to the success of the European Green Deal and achievement of the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs), aims to address these challenges and to deliver co-benefits for environment, health, society and the economy, ensuring that actions leading to recovery from the COVID-19 crisis also put us onto a sustainable path going forward. Research and innovation (R&I) are key drivers steering and accelerating the transition to sustainable, safe, healthy and inclusive food systems, from farm to fork, thereby ensuring food and nutrition security for all.

Fisheries and aquaculture products are important components of a healthy diet. Based on data from 2019, the average person living in the EU consumes 24 kg of fish or seafood per year (3.3 kg more than in the rest of the world). Three-quarters of the fish or seafood consumed in the EU comes from wild fisheries, while the remaining quarter comes from aquaculture. The most popular species are the more un-unsustainable ones: tuna, salmon, and cod.

A dynamic system that connects agricultural producers, fishermen, and seafood farmers with consumers is a food supply chain. Depending on the number of intermediaries involved in the processing and distribution of the final food product to the consumer and on the geographical distance between producers (farmers, fishermen, and seafood farmers), and consumers, food supply chains can differ in terms of spatial proximity (short or long), in terms of business relationships of the involved actors or form. Large conventional food supply chains carry out the largest part of food distribution. These food systems are organized in such a way as to "exclude" contact between producers and consumers. 

This type of food supply system causes different problems, like:

🚩 large food waste, 

🚩 problems with food safety and traceability, 

🚩 environmental damage, 

🚩 unfair redistribution of added value and profit among chain members, etc. 

Additionally, the large supply chain excluded a large number of small producers from the market and harmed rural areas (unemployment, depopulation due to migration, etc.). 

Local food producers can use two main forms of distribution channels to reach their customers: 

👉🏼 direct distribution 

👉🏼 use of intermediaries

Whatever form of distribution they choose, it should be organized in a different, more sustainable, and efficient way.  Increased awareness and concern about global climate change and lack of confidence in large distribution food chains have led to local food consumption being recognized as a way to reduce food miles and preserve the environment. In the last years, different initiatives started to improve sustainability and efficiency of distribution. Different types of Local food systems (LFS) and short food supply chains (SFSC) were created, such as on-farm direct sales, farmers' markets, and shops, delivery schemes, and more formal partnerships between producers and consumers, etc.  

At the same time, the EU has developed, in an implicit way, a broad policy framework for food — including policies related to environmental protection, agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, research and innovation, trade and development — which is now embedded in long‑term sustainability objectives. 

These policies influence how activities and actors in the food supply chain interact with each other and use natural resources from land and sea.

PRIZEFISH is an INTERREG Italy-Croatia project on sustainable fishing. The main objective of PRIZEFISH responds to the ambitious territorial challenge of developing a valuable transnational fish supply chain and to capitalize on this innovation to increase the potential for long-term economic, environmental, and social sustainability in the coastal territories of the Adriatic.

The project deals with the Best Practices from the Adriatic Sea fisheries in Italy and Croatia, in particular with the ones regarding Supply-chains to Market.

The Gargano LAG integrated the promotion of cultural and gastronomy heritage into their local development plan. This includes the development and promotion of the seafood sector. To do so, it supported the development of the Pesca Mia app, which connects the seafood sector, restaurants and private consumers.

The Project deals with the Best Practices in promotion of this particular Italian territory through culinary heritage and local seafood.

In Dalmatia (Croatia), fishermen and restaurants received support from Galeb FLAG to create the ‘Fishermen recommend’ scheme and quality label, endorsing local fish products.

This project has been funded by European Maritime and Fisheries Fund EU Operational Programme for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the Republic of Croatia (Measure I.3 Partnership between Science and Fisheries).

Partnership:  

• Ruđer Bošković Institute 

• University of Zagreb Faculty of Agriculture 

Due to its importance in global fisheries and its nutritional value, small bluefish, especially the sardine family (Clupeidae), is considered the most valuable fish family in the world. In the Adriatic Sea fishing area of ​​the Republic of Croatia, the share of small bluefish catches (in the period 2013 - 2016) was 76% of the total catch. The traditional way of fishing with coastal trawl nets was replaced by fishing with boats with surrounding nets - purse seines, which brought about a kind of revolution in fishing. The project aims to recognize the possibility of diversification and adaptation of equipment on a fishing boat in terms of manipulation of the catch in order to improve the quality of the catch as well as the selection of the fish catch, i.e. the possibility of separating immature and unwanted fish that have already been caught.

This project deals with the Best Practices in Fish Stock Safeguard.

This project has successfully linked increasing demand for fresh and local fish with the use of cheap and widespread IT technologies. The project developed a direct sales system for fish coming from the “AktivRegion Ostseeküste” (Baltic Sea Coast Active Region) that makes use of a dynamic website. Fishermen send details of their catch and their estimated landing time using their mobile phones via SMS to this website while at sea. Customers can then see where, when and what fish will be available for sale directly from the boat when it comes to port.

Partnership: FLAG: AktivRegion Ostseeküste; Schleswig-Holstein, Baltic Sea, Germany

This project deals with the Best Practices in IT.

Online sales have generated new interest since the COVID-19 pandemic, giving a renewed boost to projects such as Cabaz do Peixe. This virtual platform to sell fish to the general public from the local artisanal fishing fleet ensures the delivery of fresh and high-quality products, as well as consumer safety. 

This project deals with the Best Practices in IT.

This cooperation project aimed to apply a technology based on the “blockchain” principle to fisheries. By using this trustworthy shared recording system, the three FLAGs implemented a traceability system which provides complete and accurate information to consumers of artisanal fishing products.

This project deals with the Best Practices in IT.

TRANSPOLVO is a research project which explores the conditions for transporting octopus live to consumers.

This project deals with the Best Practices in Trasports.