Seagriculture 2019 “Seaweed Success Stories”

Posted on by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Mussel served with seaweed pesto and a side of Arame seaweed, by pioneering Seaweed chef Donald Deschagt, Ostend, Belgium for Seagriculture 2019 dinner. The following article also appears on Forskning.no, Fra Fjord til bord.
Text & Photo © JW van Hal, JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019

An impromptu session of new product testing with a group of friends in northern Norway ensued after I returned from a seaweed trade fair with new product samples of chocolate infused with seaweed or chocolate seaweed. I grew up in Singapore, and one of my first encounters at age of about five with seaweed was at a cousin´s wedding dinner. Seaweed is often served in conjunction with jellyfish at Chinese wedding banquets as cold dish appetizers. As such, I had taken for granted that the chocolate seaweed samples would bring positive reviews with thereafter queries of where to purchase such chocolate bars or when do we see them at the local grocery stores in Tromsø. But the immediate reactions to the chocolate seaweed was tepid at best. Most concluded that chocolate infused with seaweed was not a palatable product, and that a perfectly good product like chocolate was ruined.

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Ecology values in seaweed aquaculture: A visit to Ocean Rainforest, Færoe Islands 2019

Posted on by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Air dried seaweed at Ocean Rainforest, Færoe Islands 2019. Ocean Rainforest produces high quality seaweed of various types. The seaweed are farmed in the pristine offshore waters of the Færoe Islands. Their products include Saccharina Latissima (sugarkelp/kombu/breiðbløðkutur sukurtari), Alaria Esculenta (winged seaweed/wakame), Laminaria Digitata (tangæe / oarweed/tarablað) and Palmaria Palmata (dulse/dilisk/søl).(Ocean Rainforest, 2010)
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019

Ecology values of seaweed aquaculture

The use of marine algae/seaweed in culinary presentations and gastronomy in Far Eastern countries such as China, Japan, South Korea and parts of Southeast-Asia is well known. In Scandinavia however, seaweed is mainly associated with humble origins, local coastal activities and historical narratives (Efstathiou & Myskja, 2018). In Norway, seaweed was regularly washed ashore during storms, making harvest of the seaweed accessible for use for animal feed and as soil fertiliser (Indergaard, 2010). During the 18th century in the Scandinavian coastal regions, seaweed was also gathered to produce potash and soda ash that were used for cleaning and to make glass. The alginate industry blossomed in the 1960s in Norway when seaweed was harvested manually from the coast for applications in the food industry as a thickening agent.

Moving on about fifty years to modernity, the past decade has witnessed a (re)discovery of seaweed as a natural resource and raw produce. Seaweed is increasingly studied and understood for its fundamental grounding in ecological values that are much needed in the management of today´s natural resources and marine environments. Seaweed is proving to be not only a valuable industry resource with potential applications as biofuel that can help mitigate carbon dioxide emissions in terms of substitution for fossil fuels (Milledge, Smith, Dyer, & Harvey, 2014), but it can also help with global adaptation to the effects of extreme weather condition in a warming hemisphere, for example, by damping wave energy and protecting shorelines, and by increasing oxygen supply in the waters that mitigate ocean acidification (Duarte, Wu, Xiao, Bruhn, & Krause-Jensen, 2017).

To that extent, the aquaculture of seaweed is the fastest-growing component of global food production (FAO, 2018). And while that is good news, considering the increasing market demand and applications of seaweed in various industries, seaweed aquaculture is currently constrained due to competition for suitable aquaculture areas. Other challenges that seaweed aquaculture faces are inadequate engineering systems capable of coping with rough offshore conditions, such as the type of weather we encountered for the day, on our way to visit Ocean Rainforest, as well as the lack of environmentally friendly automated harvesting and processing technologies.

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Torskefiskkonferansen 2019 Tromsø, Norway

Posted on by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Geir Sogn-Grundvåg [1], Senior Researcher at Nofima, and keynote speaker at Torskefiskkonferansen 2019, Clarion Hotel, The Edge, Tromsø, Norway.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019

Hosted by the Norwegian Seafood Council [2], Torskefiskkonferanse 2019 took place on 10 October 2019, in Tromsø at Clarion Hotel, The Edge. The event saw a convening of more than 400 participants from various industry sectors, as well as academia and research. This one-day event is an excellent arena for the exchange of knowledge and for networking purposes.

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26-28 Jun. EURAM 2019 Conference, Lisbon, Portugal

Posted on by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Paper presentation at EURAM 2019, SIG12 Research Methods and Research Practice at ISCTE – Lisbon University Institute, Lisbon, Portugal.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019

The annual conference for the European Academy of Management, EURAM 2019, took place between 26 to 28 June in the beautiful historic city of Lisbon in Portugal. EURAM was founded in 2001 and today has members from more than 49 countries around the globe. This year’s theme, “Exploring the future of management” [EURAM 2019 Conference Program PDF] saw a high degree of involvement with more than 1700 paper submissions on a variety of management themes that were organized in 14 Special Interest Groups (SIGs).

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In search of China produced red wines: International wine pavilions, the 100th China Food & Drinks Fair (CFDF) spring fair 2019, Chengdu, China

Posted on by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Headed for the international trading pavilions for wine, at the 100th China Food & Drinks Fair (CFDF) spring fair 2019, Chengdu, China.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro 2019

One of the oldest and largest international food fair, the China Food and Drinks Fair (CFDF) saw its 100th anniversary this year held in Chengdu, China. The exhibition was held in two parts. The first event, the Táo IWSS (International Wine & Spirits Show) took place from 17 to 20 March 2019. This event had decentralized locations, held at the hotels Shangri-La and Kempinski in Chengdu. In 2018, this 4 day trade-only show exclusive for wine, spirits and beers sector had 15 pavilions showcasing both renowned and emerging international wine-producing countries and regions that included China. 32 innovation events with industry keynote speakers were held with specific themes. A total of 80 000 traders gathered in this 4 day event in 2018, with the Shangri-La hotel in Chengdu housing more than 600 exhibitors and the Kempinski hotel housing more than 500 exhibitors. The second event, the 100th CFDF took place from 21 to 23 March 2019 at the Chengdu Western China International Expo City.

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Food packaging and technology: The 100th China Food & Drinks Fair (CFDF) spring fair 2019, Chengdu, China

Posted on by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

At the food and food technology halls 1-3 at the 100th China Food & Drinks Fair (CFDF) spring fair 2019, Chengdu, China.
Text & Photo © M Svorken, CM Cordeiro 2019

With a population that is 18.41% of total world population, China ranks top of the list of countries and dependencies by population [1]. Standing on the exhibition grounds, in the midst of the CFDF 100th spring fair in Chengdu, you certainly feel as stardust, that make part of the constellation of individuals moving through just this one fair. The vast spaces and large numbers of individuals walking by, easily masks one of the country’s upcoming significant challenges, which is a decline in birth rate and an increase in life expectancy [2]. As such, the upcoming domestic issues for the country is one that needs multiple levels and time-frames of strategic policy planning that includes food, agriculture and technology.

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Intelligent packaging at the Táo IWSS (International Wine & Spirits Show), 17-20 March, Shangri-La Hotel, Chengdu, China 2019

Posted on by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

At the Táo IWSS (International Wine & Spirits Show), 17-20 March, Shangri-La, Chengdu, China 2019
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro 2019

The 2019 Táo IWSS (International Wine & Spirits Show) took place from 17-20 March in Chengdu, China. It was a 4-day trade-only event of the 100th CFDF (China Food and Drinks Fair), where exhibitors move from showcasing at hotels to the Chengdu Western China International Expo City from 21-23 March. In 2018, Táo IWSS had 15 pavilions between the Kempinski hotel and the Shangri-La hotel housing exhibitors from both renowned and emerging wine-producing countries and regions, including China. Record trade visitors were documented in 2018 with over 550 international and domestic exhibitors at the Kempinski hotel, and over 600 exhibitors in Shangri-La hotel. There were over 80,000 trade buyers from China alone to the Táo IWSS in 2018.

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Liability of outsidership: The example of Norwegian produced fish for Norway

Posted on by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

The Norwegian farmed Atlamtic Salmon is one of Norway’s favourite fish, if fish were chosen at all for a meal in Norway.
Text by CM Cordeiro & Photo © Nofima, 2019

It was a gathering of about 30 international individuals who had moved to Tromsø for various purposes. I was born in tropical Singapore and had moved to the Swedish west coast when I was 26 years old to pursue a doctoral degree in applied linguistics at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. The intention back in 2002 when I landed in Sweden was to go back to Southeast-Asia to continue teaching and research at a university based in the region, but as life flows have it, that was not to be. At just about the time when I had acquired good enough Swedish to order food so that it comes as I had ordered it (in my early years in Sweden, I had tried ordering blueberry ice-cream and got instead some warm water in a glass), I received confirmation of a research position in Northern Norway, with geocoordinates even farther than what I initially thought was wintry Sweden. So, seated around me in the room for this international gathering in the Arctic Circle city of Tromsø were fellow internationals. and about 12 Norwegians, some of whom were born in the county of Troms or who had immediate family members who lived in Troms.

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Torskefiskkonferansen 2018 Tromsø, Norway

Posted on by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

At Torskefiskkonferansen 2018, I had the opportunity to meet and speak with Jarle Aarbakke, Norwegian politician with the Labour Party and current Deputy Mayor of Tromsø. He is also Professor Emeritus in Pharmacology (Medicine) at the Department of Medical Biology at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tromsø (UiT) and formerly served as Chancellor of UiT and the Higher Education Council. Mayor Jarle Aarbakke opened Torskefiskkonferansen 2018 with a Welcome Speech.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro 2018

Hosted by the Norwegian Seafood Council [1] who has its headquarters in the city known as Paris of the North, Torskefiskkonferansen 2018 was held in Tromsø, Norway, on Thursday, 18 Oct. 2018 at Clarion Hotel, The Edge. An important annual event for the cod fish industry sector of Norway, this year’s working theme for the conference was “Torskefisk (Cod Fish) goes global!”. The purpose of the event was to provide a platform for the industry as well as academics to exchange knowledge and views on the continued development of the Norwegian cod fish industry and its position in global markets.

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New publication, Oct 2018

Posted on by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Title

Language as heteroglot: The bridging qualities of Swedish-English (SweE) and Singapore Colloquial English (SCE) in cross-cultural working environments

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to reframe the role and function of perceived “bad English” in an international business (IB) context to illustrate that “bad English” could in fact facilitate cross-cultural communication in individuals who do not have English as first language.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses the Bakhtinian concept of heteroglossia as a theoretical framework. For the method of analysis, applied linguistics is used in particular through the lens of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) as discourse analysis method to analyze transcribed interview texts. Data collection is via long interviews with 33 top level managers in Swedish managed organizations in Singapore offices.

Findings

The study illustrates, through respondent interviews and discourse analysis, that perceived “bad English” could help facilitate communication across cultures in a cross-cultural working context. The study also shows how different individuals, depending on personal experience and cultural background, employ different means to navigate and manage language differences at work. Continue reading “New publication, Oct 2018” →