VISION FOR PACKAGING IN SEAFOOD INDUSTRY

From the time we harvest right through the supply chain to the time we deliver the harvest to the end users we are using many thousand tonnes of plastic, Styrofoam and other packaging which is damaging our oceans, our own ‘backyard’. Since such packaging was invented we have accepted it and it has become entrenched in our businesses.

It is time to challenge such uses and to find solutions to these packaging aids. The Association of International Seafood Professionals (ASIP) has been seeking to work with others who share our concerns and have recently had meaningful discussions with Shiva Balivada, Father of Nanotechnology Applications in India and Co-Founder of Polar Bear International.

“It is estimated three point five million pieces of new plastic enter the world’s oceans daily. Global currents accumulate them into huge circulating ocean gyres causing countless damage to marine life along the way. It is a global issue and as a global group AISP are very supportive of the work of Polar Bear International and will seek to assist in all areas of information, education and communication of this great initiative,” said AISP Executive Director, Roy Palmer on the eve of World Ocean’s Day.

Shiva is well known through Senior Leadership Roles and as a Technology evangelist. He has worked with many world-class organizations which include Home Depot, Johnson & Johnson, Delta, XEROX, FedEx, Compaq, AutoZone and Bank One. He has been a part of the initial team of successful Indian Software companies like Tata Technologies, HTMT and MphasiS BFL wherein he has played a significant role in nurturing them at their nascent stage. Mr. Balivada turned an entrepreneur in 2007 with a focus on Nanotechnology, Telecom and IT. He has many successes like India’s First Online System, First Software India Team in to Comdex in 1987 heralding the Great Software outsourcing revolution, First CASE tool for Software developers, First WiFi phone, First WiMAX Base station and Nanotechnology Applications.

As the United Nations state ‘The Ocean is the heart of our planet. Like your heart pumping blood to every part of your body, the ocean connects people across the Earth, no matter where we live. The ocean regulates the climate, feeds millions of people every year, produces oxygen, is the home to an incredible array of wildlife, provides us with important medicines, and so much more! In order to ensure the health and safety of our communities and future generations, it’s imperative that we take the responsibility to care for the ocean as it cares for us.’

Shiva has long recognized how we can change poor habits through innovation and technology and turn pollution activities into positive solutions for the oceans and increase sanitation, water and food opportunities.
AISP aim to work with Polar Bear International and our partner charity, Aquaculture without Frontiers, to create specific projects which will maximise these concepts and be seen as a catalyst for change in packaging right through the global seafood industry and assist the poor and hungry improve their health, nutrition and food security.

THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE

The AwF Women’s Network decided to break with the regular Woman of the Month Award for June and dedicate the June 2015 award to Paula Kantor, someone who has made the ultimate sacrifice in her untiring efforts with WorldFish on the gender transformative approach and specifically through work in Bangladesh and Zambia.

We appreciate the link with aquaculture is somewhat tenuous but our Network was greatly saddened to read about Paula’s death on May 13, in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on the hotel where she was staying in Kabul, Afghanistan. Authorities said she was staying at the Park Palace Hotel when it was stormed by Taliban gunmen, sparking a siege that left 14 people, including nine foreigners, dead.

We therefor announce this special posthumous award in lieu of Woman of the Month.

We learned from articles at Worldfish and Huffington Post about the great work of such a well-respected lady who worked all over the world and specialised in gender and development issues. Ms Kantor was back in Kabul to work on a project involving wheat production with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico. Our sincere condolences go out to her family, friends and colleagues.

We share the words of Stephen Hall, Director General, WorldFish: “Paula’s clear vision was a great driver for the gender transformative approach that remains a key pillar in Worldfish’s work. Her commitment to improving the livelihoods of women in some of the world’s most impoverished regions will be her legacy. Paula’s passing is a loss to the whole development community.”

Ms Kantor was a well-published, established and respected scientist. Among many noteworthy achievements, she mentored an international non-governmental organization in its efforts to deliver gender programming to women fish retailers in Egypt. Paula was initially based in Kabul in 2008-10, working as director and manager of the gender and livelihoods research portfolios at the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), an independent research agency. From 2010 to 2012, Paula was engaged at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) in Washington, D.C., developing intervention research programs in the area of gender and rural livelihoods, including a focus on gender and agricultural value chains.

AwF will continue with its ‘Woman of the Month’ in July so please get your nominations in for July onwards – see https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Womaw
R D Palmer