Events World Food Day 2026
October 16, 2026 - 1:21 PM
World Food Day October 16, 2026
Seashell public interface homepage screen capture, depicting area status and data index.
The theme of this year’s World Food Day is “Innovate today, nourish tomorrow," centered on science, technology, and sustainability in agrifood systems. In celebration of this day, J-WAFS is featuring an MIT News story focused on a J-WAFS seed grant project led by Professor Michael Triantafyllou with MIT Sea Grant researchers Ben Bray and Carolina Bastidas. The project's initial main challenge was: can we streamline efforts of natural resource managers and increase transparency of information and decision-making among managers and their stakeholders in order to support productivity of shellfisheries, safe human consumption, and vitality of coastal economies? Bray and Bastidas were interviewed as part of developing this article.
The project’s outcome, and article discussion, features Seashell, a cloud-based platform developed to help Massachusetts coastal towns and the state manage shellfishing closures in real time. Seashell works to replace a patchwork of phone calls and paper notices with shared, up-to-date data. This story is a timely illustration of how scientific and technical innovations can strengthen local food systems.
Seashell Public Interface webpage: https://seashell.mit.edu/public/view-public.php
Built in close collaboration with local shellfish officers and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), Seashell now supports thousands of permit holders across 738 classified growing areas, strengthening both coastal economies and local food security.
