Blue foods can help India improve nutrition, livelihood: Study

Subject : Environment

Section: Climate change

Context:

Blue food, sourced from aquatic environments, can reduce nutritional deficiencies and contribute to employment and export revenue in India, according to a new study.

Details:

Compared to terrestrial meat, blue foods generate lower emissions.
They can also contribute to the health, well-being and livelihoods of rural communities.
India can use aquatic foods to address B12 and omega-3 deficiencies.

Four ways blue foods can help achieve food system ambitions across nations:

Ensuring supplies of critical nutrients,
Providing healthy alternatives to terrestrial meat,
Reducing dietary environmental footprints and
Safeguarding blue food contributions to nutrition, just economies and livelihoods under a changing climate.

What is Blue Food?

They are food derived from aquatic or marine animals, plants or algae that are caught or cultivated in freshwater and marine environments.
Examples
- Seaweeds, Sea Cucumber
- Bivalves (mussels, oysters, etc.)
- Fishes like tilapia, salmon, catfish and carp, etc.
- It also involves Capture Fisheries.
  - Capture fisheries refers to all kinds of harvesting of naturally occurring living resources in both marine and freshwater environments.

Advantages:

They have higher nutritional benefits in comparison to terrestrial food.
- Many blue food species are rich in important nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins and minerals.
More sustainable as they release less greenhouse gasses.
The aquaculture and marine farms free the space which was needed for feeding the growing population by conventional agriculture.
They can address the problem of ‘real hunger’ and the ‘hidden hunger’ both. They helps in fulfilling the SDGs (SDG2 Nutrition and SDG14 Sustainable use of marine resources).

Blue food vs Red meat:

Countries with high red meat intake, above the threshold recommended as environmentally sustainable and healthy, have an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease.
India’s consumption of red meat was around 50 grams per capita per day, which is not high, moreover, the country does not suffer from high levels of cardiovascular disease.
Promoting blue foods over red meat overconsumption could address health and environmental concerns for about 82 per cent of the 22 countries suffering from a high cardiovascular disease risk.
Over 91 per cent of countries with vitamin B12 deficiencies also show high levels of omega-3 deficiency.

Issue in blue food production:

Almost 90 per cent of global marine fish stocks are now fully exploited or overfished, according to the World Bank.
- There are issues with overfishing, illegal fishing and other unsustainable aquatic food production.
Danger of invasive species.
Technology and capital intensive sector.

Schemes and policies related to blue economy:

Draft Blue Economy Policy:

The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has rolled out the draft Blue Economy policy, inviting suggestions and inputs from various stakeholders.
- It is in line with the Government of India’s Vision of New India by 2030.
Key Highlights of the Policy
- It categorised the blue economy as one of the 10 core dimensions for national growth.
- It emphasizes policies across several key sectors to achieve holistic growth of India’s economy.
- It recognizes the following 7 thematic areas:
  - National accounting framework for the blue economy and ocean governance.
  - Coastal marine spatial planning and tourism.
  - Marine fisheries, aquaculture, and fish processing.
  - Manufacturing, emerging industries, trade, technology, services, and skill development.
  - Logistics, infrastructure and shipping, including trans-shipments.
  - Coastal and deep-sea mining and offshore energy.
  - Security, strategic dimensions, and international engagement.

Pradhan Mantri MatsyaSampada Yojana: