Aquaculture

By Jill Schwartz

© Mary Smith

Mary Smith knows food. She enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America for a year to learn how to be a better cook and baker. For Chicago’s welfare-to-work program, she ran a culinary “boot camp” for low-income people for two years. And she worked as a filleter at a seafood business for one year, while also selling and buying food for the company.

Given her experiences on both sides of the food counter, as well as her appreciation for the natural environment, it’s no wonder that she cares about sustainable seafood. If fisheries and aquaculture farms do not become more sustainable, there might not be enough fish in the sea for her to savor.

That is why Mary is immersed in a variety of initiatives – including the Aquaculture Dialogues – designed to make seafood healthy for humans and the environment. Since 2000, she has made this a full-time job for herself at the Chicago-based Plitt Company, which is recognized as a leader in the sustainable seafood movement. Her current job at Plitt is marketing director, but she said a better title for her is sustainability director, as she knows that what consumers want to hear now is that their food is healthy and safe.

“Marketing is all about telling stories,” she said. “And the stories people want to hear now are about where their fish came from and how it was produced. In a way, our stories are shrinking the chain of custody for them by bringing them closer to the source.”

Mary is hopeful that aquaculture can and will be sustainable. But she considers “hopeful” to be a passive word. To make sure sustainability becomes the norm, she wants to be actively involved in the process of transforming the seafood industry. For that reason, she decided to participate in the newest World Wildlife Fund-initiated Dialogue: the Seriola and Cobia Aquaculture Dialogue that began in February.

“I am so intrigued by the Dialogue,” she said. “It’s amazing to me that anybody can come to a Dialogue meeting and people there will listen to what they have to say because the process is so open and democratic. Being in the room is like being behind the curtain – like in the “Wizard of Oz.”’

Mary knows that the Dialogue standards will be based on sound science. She is the daughter of a scientist, but she is not a scientist herself and, admittedly, does not have a scientific mind. What she does bring to the table are her communications skills, which she began building at Northland College in Wisconsin, where she studied creative writing and was the editor of the school newspaper.

“It is great to meet all of the people involved in the Dialogue who are working hard to produce more sustainable products. What we need to do is tell their stories, put a face on the product.”

Mary’s enthusiasm spreads beyond the Dialogues. In partnership with the Ocean Conservancy, Mary (on behalf of Plitt) also is supporting an end to overfishing of red snapper in such places as the Gulf of Mexico. She participates in the Sustainable Seafood Forum and is working with the Ontario Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance on a yellow lake perch traceability project.

“It is great to be part of something that could change the face of the industry,” she said. “We are beyond ready for the sustainable seafood movement to take off.”