One of the most important things I learned during my career in food science and product development is that the consumer is the driver of the food system.
Every day, we vote with our dollars.
When enough people buy a particular food, companies notice. They make more of it. They invest in it. They develop new products around it. Consumer demand tells the food industry what we value—and what we want to see more of.
In other words:
Whatever we buy, more will be made.
But after years of working in food science and then building a wild seafood company, I've come to realize that wild fisheries work a little differently.
The ocean doesn't work like a factory
If consumers decide they want more wild salmon, we can't simply make more salmon.
We can't increase production next quarter. We can't add another shift at the processing plant. And we certainly can't just go catch more fish because demand has increased.
Wild fish populations are governed by biology, habitat, ocean conditions, and careful fisheries management. There are limits to what the resource can provide.
So what happens when consumers choose to value wild, responsibly harvested seafood?
We create value around the resource.
And that's where I think our choices as consumers become really powerful.
When people are willing to pay for responsibly harvested wild seafood, they create economic value for the fishermen and communities whose livelihoods depend on healthy fisheries. That value gives people a reason to protect the resource—not simply to harvest it.
Because if the goal is to have wild salmon next year, ten years from now, and for the next generation, the answer isn't to catch more today.
The answer is to protect the conditions that allow the fish to return.
That's a different kind of consumer power
In much of the food industry, the relationship looks something like this:
Consumer demand → more production
With a healthy wild fishery, it looks more like this:
Consumer demand → value for the resource → viable fishing communities → incentive to protect healthy fish populations and ecosystems → future returns
It's not quite as simple as that, of course. Consumer demand alone doesn't make a fishery sustainable. Strong science, responsible management, enforcement, habitat protection, and careful fishing practices are all essential.
But consumers are still part of the system.
And I think that's an important thing to remember.
Your purchase is more than a purchase
When you buy food, you're not just deciding what to put on your plate.
You're supporting a farmer or fisherman.
You're supporting a community.
You're supporting a particular way of producing food.
And you're helping determine what kinds of food systems will continue to exist.
That's especially true with wild seafood.
When you choose responsibly harvested wild fish, you're not asking the ocean to produce more. You're saying:
This resource has value. I want it to be here tomorrow, too.
That changes the conversation around sustainability for me.
Instead of thinking about sustainability as simply a label or something that happens somewhere far away from us, we can see ourselves as participants in the system.
So what should we do with that information?
You don't have to become an expert in fisheries management.
You don't have to get every decision right.
Start with curiosity.
The next time you're buying seafood, ask:
Where did this fish come from?
Who harvested it?
How is that fishery managed?
Is the resource healthy enough to continue supporting future generations?
And perhaps most importantly:
Does my purchase support the kind of food system I want to see more of?
Because your dollar is a vote.
And when enough of us vote for healthy oceans, responsible fishing, strong fishing communities, and nutritious food, we can help create a food system that is worth sustaining.
Not by asking the ocean to give us more.
But by making sure there's something healthy enough to come back to.
