Mapping the social economy of dried fish in South and Southeast Asia for enhanced wellbeing and nutrition

Mapping the social economy of dried fish in South and Southeast Asia for enhanced wellbeing and nutrition

Successor Projects

Reimagining Food Systems for Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation, and Social Justice (RFS)

Reimagining Food Systems (RFS) is a large, international, interdisciplinary research initiative led by the University of Manitoba and funded through the New Frontiers in Research Fund (International). The project responds to the growing climate crisis by addressing how food systems can simultaneously support climate adaptation and mitigation while advancing human rights, nutrition security, and social justice for Indigenous and other marginalized communities .

Grounded in a Human Rights–Based Approach, RFS recognizes that climate change threatens fundamental rights to food, health, water, culture, and self-determination, and that solutions must empower affected communities as rights-holders rather than treating them as passive beneficiaries. The project brings together Indigenous knowledge holders, small-scale food producers, and researchers from across the natural sciences, social sciences, engineering, nutrition, and law to co-design equitable and climate-resilient food system pathways .

The research focuses on three interconnected pillars:

  • Circular and Indigenous food economies – Testing closed-loop, low-carbon food production systems inspired by Indigenous worldviews, including integrated farming and aquaculture models that reduce waste, restore ecosystems, and strengthen local food sovereignty.
  • Small fish for climate change (SFCC) – Examining how nutrient-rich small fish (such as sardines and anchovies) can be redirected from industrial fishmeal and fish oil uses toward direct human consumption, improving maternal and child nutrition, supporting small-scale fisheries, and lowering the carbon footprint of global food systems.
  • Food as medicine and traditional knowledge – Documenting and strengthening the role of traditional foods and medicinal plants in community health, climate resilience, and cultural continuity, while ensuring Indigenous control over knowledge and intellectual property .

The Small Fish for Climate Change (SFCC) component of the Reimagined Food Systems project represents a major intellectual outcome of the Dried Fish Matters (DFM) Partnership Grant. SFCC is very much a brainchild of DFM’s long-term engagement with dried fish and small-fish value chains, and intentionally builds forward from DFM’s rich empirical base, conceptual framing, and methodological innovations.

Dovetailing with DFM’s ongoing work on India’s west coast, SFCC carries forward core questions on the social economy of small-fish value chains while extending the analytical lens to explicitly foreground human rights, climate risk, and social justice. The project also draws on the experience of African partner initiatives such as SmallFishForFood, enabling cross-regional dialogue on nutrition, livelihoods, and climate vulnerability in small-fish systems.

Methodologically, SFCC builds directly on DFM’s value-chain and social-economy approach, while adding new dimensions: a human-rights-centred analytical framework, a systematic focus on climate exposure and adaptive capacity, and the integration of mass-balance methods to track flows of small fish across human consumption, non-food uses (such as fishmeal and fish oil), and nutritional outcomes. In doing so, SFCC both consolidates and advances DFM’s interdisciplinary legacy ensuring continuity in long-standing research partnerships while opening new pathways for policy-relevant, climate-focused, and globally comparative work on small fish and food systems.