At the United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, Wholechain had the honor of co-sponsoring the conference’s official high-level working dinner, “Blueprint for the Future: Good Food for All”. The picturesque Ruinas do Carmo held space for government representatives, business leaders and technology providers to discuss building fully traceable and responsible blue foods supply chains.

Hosted by the UN Global Compact, Envisible, Fed by Blue and The Chefs’ Manifesto, the dinner showcased sustainably-sourced and traceable seafoods prepared by The Chefs’ Manifesto’s award-winning Chefs João Rodrigues, Grace Ramirez, Cristina Bowerman, Conor Spacey and Kamilla Seidler.

Building Fully Traceable and Responsible Blue Foods Supply Chains

The dinner highlighted sustainability initiatives and technologies advancing Sustainable Development Goals 14: Life Below Water, and 17: Good Food for All. The dinner and presentations throughout the evening advanced the idea of building fully traceable and responsible seafood and aquaculture supply chains — part of the five UN Global Compact Tipping Points for Healthy and Productive Oceans.

Guests enjoyed courses of sustainably sourced octopus, shrimp, white fish and seaweed, including South African yellowfin tuna from Cape Fish and Norwegian salmon from Kvarøy Arctic that were traced from the source by Wholechain’s blockchain based traceability technology.

Storytelling around sustainable supply chains and ingredients accompanied each course. Entrepreneurs, fishers, government representatives and nonprofit leaders involved in ocean and aquaculture sustainability efforts participated in the storytelling, including folks from the Environmental Defense Fund, the Global Seafood Alliance, IDH: The Sustainable Trade Initiative, Startup Portugal, Cape Fish (a South African fishery), Cruz Foam and ORIVO.

Throughout the evening, guests scanned QR codes created using Wholechain’s transparency tool to learn more about aquaculture and ocean sustainability efforts:

• The Global Seafood Alliance and Envisible’s sponsorship model for scaling certification of small-scale fishers, starting with Cape Fish South Africa, which supplies fully traceable Yellowfin Tuna and Swordfish enabled with Wholechain

• Kvarøy Arctic salmon farmed with algae- and sustainable-soy based feed and fully traceable with Wholechain

• The Environmental Defense Fund and FAO’s collaboration to support sustainable octopus fisheries in Portugal’s Algarve region

• IDH: The Sustainable Trade Initiative in Brazil and Wholechain collaborate to enable fully traceable, deforestation-free soy for aquaculture supply chains

Technological innovations advancing sustainable supply chains

Alongside Wholechain, the dinner hosted two other technologies advancing supply chain transparency and sustainability: Cruz Foam and ORIVO.

• Cruz Foam produces a biodegradable styrofoam alternative that is naturally derived from shrimp shells.

• ORIVO leverages biotechnology to deliver evidence-based transparency and verify the origin of ingredients such as fish oil.

The Ruinas do Carmo: “Life Below Water”

At sundown, the Ruinas do Carmo transformed into a vessel underwater. Inspired by the “Lisbon Under the Stars” light show, the “Life Below Water” light show highlighted the roles that sustainability initiatives and fully traceable supply chains play in supporting the prosperity of oceans, aquaculture, small-scale fishers, and coastal communities.

We want to thank the UN Global Compact and especially Sandra Ojiambo, Assistant to the Secretary General and CEO of UN Global Compact, for the opportunity to showcase fully traceable supply chains with fishers, chefs and leaders from across the world at the 2022 UN Ocean Conference. And a special thanks to Paul Newnham and Keren Allen of the SGD2 Advocacy Hub, and the entire Chefs’ Manifesto Network and LOHAD teams for their hard work in bringing the event to life. Finally, thanks to our hosts, partners and co-sponsors: Fed by Blue, Envisible, the UN Global Compact, Startup Portugal, the Environmental Defense Fund, IDH: The Sustainable Trade Initiative, the Global Seafood Alliance, ORIVO, Cruz Foam, Kvarøy Arctic, Akua and Sea & Flour.