By Lou Cooperhouse
BlueNalu President, Co-Founder & CEO
Why federal investment in cell-cultured seafood, and the entire alternative protein sector, is so important for our future.
Last night, President Biden stressed the importance of reducing our federal trade deficit in his State of the Union address. Our trade deficit, which signifies when the value of a nation’s imports exceeds the value of its exports, has been steadily growing for years, garnering national attention and public concern. Given the importance of this bipartisan issue, I couldn’t help but think about the role seafood plays in our national trade landscape and how this effects the food security of our future.
This has been an ongoing challenge for our nation and was recently addressed through an Executive Order from the White House. Just last September, the Biden administration announced its National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative, a program committing millions of dollars in federal funding to create a more stable and resilient supply chain that can improve health outcomes, reduce carbon emissions, and create higher-paying jobs in the United States through innovative biotechnology solutions. The initiative includes efforts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and sister federal agencies to advance and accelerate innovation in agriculture and our food supply chains, a mandate that could strongly champion federal support for alternative protein products using cell-cultured, precision fermentation and plant-based technologies as a food security solution. This couldn’t come at a more important time. Food security is an increasingly important issue for our nation as estimates show that we will need a 50% increase in food production by 2050.
In January 2023, the USDA requested information from leading food-tech companies on how advancements in biotechnology could help expand sustainable products and foster new opportunities for food production that strengthen national security. My comments to the USDA stressed the critical importance of our seafood supply chain as a primary area of focus for our nation’s food security and climate future. The FAO reports that there will be a supply chain gap representing 28 million metric tons of new seafood production that will be needed by 2030, unless there are new solutions available to meet growing demand. Factors like rising incomes, urbanization, and changes in dietary trends are projected to drive a 15 percent increase in aquatic food consumption by 2030. There simply aren’t enough “fish in the sea” to feed our growing population – a critical challenge for both humans and the environment.
According to the FAO 2022 State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculure Report, marine fish stocks have been declining since the 1970s.
According to the FAO 2022 State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculure Report, marine fish stocks have been declining since the 1970s.
When it comes to animal protein, seafood has become an increasingly popular choice for consumers due to its variety of offerings and many nutritional benefits. While seafood can provide people with healthy and delicious protein, our seafood supply chain is facing a plethora of challenges. In the United States, we’re heavily reliant on other nations for seafood production to feed our citizens. We import 70–85 percent of our seafood and it’s estimated that our national seafood trade deficit grew to $17 billion in 2020. With geopolitical tensions around the world potentially disrupting our supply chain, this could pose some big risks to food security in the United States if other nations are unable to export to us in the future.
Our country needs a new alternative to provide citizens with nutritious and versatile seafood products. Fortunately, a complementary solution is now being developed through cell-cultured technology that can produce real seafood directly from fish cells resulting in the same sensory and nutritional characteristics as conventional products. With proper support, this new technology could help to transform our nation’s seafood supply chain with a consistent, safe, traceable, efficiently produced, and high-quality product to fill the growing gap in supply without negatively affecting the environment.