Seafood processing: a vital yet overlooked aspect of seafood systems

We argue in this paper that we cannot understand or change seafood systems if we do not look specifically at the history of industrial seafood processing in the U.S. Seafood is a vital part of human food systems that are imbricated with economic, social, and ecological processes, all of which have consequences for individual and collective culture, nutrition and health. Fisheries render seafood into food by capturing/harvesting, processing, and transporting it for human consumption, all within the context of policy and regulatory regimes and market imperatives. Seafood systems are implicated in the reproduction (or potentially, we argue, in the interruption) of social processes that result in food insecurity. Seafood is also culturally significant and similar to farming; fishing evokes a specific trope in the north American imagination. However, when asked to think about fishing or seafood, most people will likely think of men in boats catching fish. Some will think of the fish/seafood they buy at the grocery store, often frozen or in a can, or possibly fresh. Very few will think about what happens in between - how the seafood gets from the ocean, lake, or tank/cage to the grocery store. Thus, stories about seafood systems, the process of getting seafood from water into bellies, often ignores a vital link - seafood processing. Understanding seafood processing is vital because it highlights global flows of capital, products, labor, and fish. It also highlights how these flows are shaped by different policies and practices, which shape whether and how people are fed and are made vulnerable by the climate crisis. What would it mean for communities’ access to fish if fish, people, and capital could flow in different ways? What would this mean for seafood systems and how they could address food sovereignty and climate change?