Seeing, Connecting and Accelerating Transformation Systems in the Gulf of Maine | Product

Rapid warming of the Gulf of Maine is well documented, collective response to this change is not! The recent report from the Lancet Commissions (Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems) report identifies the potential for the seafood sector, urging a “global transformation” of the seafood system. To enable this scale of change, we recognize that transformations-systems (T-systems) are needed to enable the scope and scale of systems change outlined in this report and many others. A T-system comprises all those initiatives nudging, shifting and disrupting the status quo in a more positive transformational direction. These efforts may operate alongside a status quo system, but T-systems are inherently focused on significant, large-scale change and innovation, compared with status quo systems’ emphasis on production and administration. T-systems require their own distinctive identity, skills, capabilities and organizing space to operate. There is now an emerging field of understanding T-systems and with it, an emerging practice of how to better visualize them through mapping and analysis. We are learning that many transformational efforts simply muddle along without coherence or guidance, with fragmented efforts going in different directions. This webinar will introduce a global working group headquartered at the recently launched New England Ocean Cluster in Portland Maine, the ten Workstreams and one that is “place-based” with a sharp focus on the Gulf of Maine. The focus for the webinar will be on the seafood sector and will invite all participants to contribute to this voyage of discovery.