The Center for Food Integrity (CFI), a US-based not-for-profit whose sole mission is to build trust in food and agriculture, is partnering with US aquaculture farmers and US Soy on a variety of initiatives to help earn trust and confidence in fish and seafood farming. Over the past three years, CFI, US Soy and Soy Aquaculture Alliance have partnered on several projects to tell the positive story of US farm-raised fish and seafood and answer important questions from consumers and other stakeholders.

Aquafeed.com talked with Donna Moenning, who has helped CFI amplify its mission since 2013. Donna has worked with farmers and food system stakeholders on behalf of CFI in more than 35 states, Canada, South America and Europe, including the United Soybean Board (USB) on various projects to support and promote U.S. aquaculture.

Q. What is CFI, how is it structured and who is behind it?

CFI is a not-for-profit organization that serves as a catalyst for building trust across the entire food and agriculture value chain by providing industry-leading research and resources, consumer insights, emerging trends and food issues management solutions. CFI is overseen by a 17-member board, reflecting a diverse membership that spans the food, farm and agriculture value chain. While our membership is US-based, we have worked with many companies and organizations around the world including in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.

Q. What is the CFI Trust Model?

In partnership with Iowa State University, CFI was the first to build a research-based consumer trust model. This peer-reviewed and published model shows that shared values are the key to building trust in today's food system. In fact, the research shows that connecting through shared values is three-to-five times more important to earning trust than simply sharing information or demonstrating technical expertise.

Q. In common with other producers in the food chain, aquaculture producers are faced with a huge burden of regulatory compliance and consumer expectations surrounding environmental stewardship, worker and animal health and welfare, traceability, food safety, etc. How does CFI help them build trust in the key issues? Would you give some examples?

With soybeans playing a vital role in feed for fish and seafood farmers around the globe, we’ve partnered with soybean producers through USB and state organizations to help build trust in US aquaculture, using the shared-values approach to address barriers to social license, support communications and enhance community relations.

For example, USB and CFI recently launched the “Hooked on Sustainable U.S. Aquaculture: A Deep Dive at Four Fintastic Farms” campaign on BestFoodFacts.org, a website that answers consumer questions about all things food. The campaign features eight videos highlighting food bloggers touring four fish and seafood farms in the U.S. The videos showcase sustainability and farmers’ values of raising safe, wholesome fish and seafood the right way.

As part of the campaign, BestFoodFacts.org also features four expert blogs regarding the important topics of sustainability, water quality, water utilization and the safety and nutritional value of consuming farm-raised fish and seafood.

In animal agriculture, we’ve seen how deliberate and open engagement with leaders in local communities helps increase support when expanding or starting up a new farm or facility, and we have recently helped the aquaculture community host Community Advisory Panels.

Community Advisory Panels (CAPs) reflect a well-defined process for building local relationships, addressing community concerns, sharing information proactively and identifying beneficial outcomes that help align company actions with community expectations. In addition to starting and facilitating CAPs for fish farms and aquaculture businesses, CFI developed a resource guide for others to effectively implement a CAP to help build trust and create social license in a community. The guide can be accessed here: Form (hsforms.com).

In addition, to help farmers and aquaculture industry professionals learn effective ways to build trust, we’ve conducted our Engage™ shared values training and presented the shared-values principles at various aquaculture events.

Q. It would be fair to say that the many positive messages about aquaculture have not always trickled down to the consumer. What can feed manufacturers specifically do to help their customers, the farmers, build trust and convey their story better?

It all boils down to leading with your values. Whether it’s a one-on-one conversation, social media posts or promotional materials, share your company and personal values. Convey to farmers the overarching benefits of quality feed to raise healthy fish and seafood and support farm success. Speak to specific feed ingredients and the role they play in the sustainability and health of fish and seafood for human consumption. For example, focus on the benefits soy provides – a high-quality source of protein that has sustainability benefits while helping farmers become less reliant on fish meal.

Encourage farmers to convey the positive story of what they do and why they do it – leading with those overarching benefits that are important to consumers like safe and healthy food, high standards of animal care, environmental stewardship and sustainability. As a feed manufacturer, do the same in your engagement with the public. Talk about the overarching benefits of sustainably raised US fish and seafood – and the important role quality feed plays.

It's important to connect with younger consumers, too, who have a heightened interest in purchasing sustainable products and knowing where their food comes from, according to CFI’s Engaging Gen Z guide. As feed manufacturers, find ways to engage younger aquaculture producers with shared values messages. The top social media channels include YouTube (video is king), TikTok and Instagram. Encourage Gen Zs and Millennials involved in fish and seafood production to be active advocates for US aquaculture – connect with their peers on social media and in person to share the good that happens on fish and seafood farms. Overall, make the content you’re sharing accessible, engaging and values-based.

Q. There is a lot of public mistrust in GMO. How does CFI approach this issue?

We’ve done significant work around trust in technologies like GMO, and now gene editing, which is emerging as a beneficial innovation for agriculture, food, human medicine and other areas. What we consistently learn and experience is that to build trust, it is essential to connect with audiences on shared values and the benefits that are important to society. It’s all about finding common ground.

In research supported by USB, CFI identified the driving factors of consumer acceptance, or rejection, of technology in agriculture. The research measured consumer attitudes regarding four agriculture and food technologies. Several consistent themes emerged in the study, and we identified five key drivers that are important for consumers to trust technology:

• Belief that food resulting from technology use is safe to consume
• Information on food produced through technology is readily available, so consumers can make an informed, voluntary choice
• The benefits outweigh the perceived risks
• Technology can help ensure a consistent supply of food
• Technology promotes greater sustainability by making more with a lesser environmental impact

If consumers believe the technology in question meets these standards, they’ll likely trust and accept it. If the technology fails to live up to any one of these expectations, trust begins to erode. From this research, we developed two resources that can be accessed here Trust in Ag Tech (foodintegrity.org) for anyone working to build trust in or acceptance of technology in food and agriculture.

Q. And finally, what do you see as the biggest issues facing aquaculture in the future?

Economic viability, regulatory constraints, labor challenges, climate conditions, water access and supplies, and environmental pressures are all key factors impacting aquaculture’s growth and development in the United States.

Another critical challenge is social license. You can check all the boxes to meet regulatory and permit requirements, but if a community doesn’t support your business, that’s a major roadblock. Aquaculture must work proactively and collaboratively to earn public trust.

In today's environment where consumers are crowdsourcing knowledge and rallying movements around their values and social preferences, trust has become the most valuable intangible asset of any organization. Consumers, neighbors, policymakers and others simply want to know that you’re doing the right things for the right reasons.

Just don’t give them information. Engage them. Share your values – authentically and openly.

That’s the foundation for earning trust, which is essential to social license. It’s only an issue if you fail to embrace the opportunity to engage.

There’s a lot more to learn about trust, transparency and community outreach. Please reach out with your questions. We’re here to help.