A country of 17,000 islands is at the forefront of a global effort to sustainably feed billions of people in the coming decades.
A country of 17,000 islands is at the forefront of a global effort to sustainably feed billions of people in the coming decades. Because it is rich in blue foods – fish, shellfish, seaweed, and aquatic plants – Indonesia is well positioned to pioneer a model for other countries to tap the ocean’s vast potential while conserving it. In collaboration with the Indonesian government, civil society, organizations, and businesses, Stanford University researchers are co-designing approaches to capitalize on sustainably produced blue foods to improve nutrition, food security, and livelihoods for the country’s 280 million people.
The “Blue Food Transformations in Indonesia” project identifies regions and populations that can most benefit from greater blue food consumption and where access to such foods will need to increase to meet those goals. The effort grew out of a 2023 collaboration between the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and Indonesia’s Ministry of National Development Planning to integrate blue foods into the country’s national development strategy and economic strategy. It also builds on research generated by the Blue Food Assessment, a global effort by more than 100 scientists that filled knowledge gaps related to the role of blue foods in global food systems.
“Clearly, we can’t provide healthy, sustainable diets to a world of 10 or 11 billion people if we continue to produce food the way we do today,” said Jim Leape, project co-principal investigator and co-director of the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions. “Indonesia is by any measure one of the most important blue food nations on Earth. It could show us how better stewardship and use of these resources can help build a more sustainable and equitable future.”
Read More: Stanford University
