The ocean with its deep blue swells is the lifeblood of the Earth, carrying with its diverse wildlife and livelihoods as it sits upon the precipice of sustainability challenges. One of the closest connections people have to the sea is through the very fruits of it, from oysters and clams to favored fish like salmon and tuna. This bountiful sea, however, is not endless and holds more unknown information beneath its swells. Helping to reimagine the way humans interact with seafood and the sea is Shannon Consentino-Roush ’06. She and others are paving the way for innovative seafood through Finless Foods, a biotech company aimed at bio culture fish and plant-based alternatives.
Consentino-Roush’s journey began with a collection of books about the ocean and trips to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Early on, the exhibits she saw at the aquarium would spark a passion for sustainability and prompt many talks about tuna fishing at the dinner table.
“Honestly, even in high school I knew I wanted to be an environmental lawyer and I knew I was really fascinated about international fisheries and the ocean because, to me, it was the commons,” Consentino-Roush said. “How are we globally working together to manage something that's for the benefit of not only all of humanity, but for the benefit of biodiversity on this planet?”
Taking this passion, Consentino-Roush started her career at the UN as a legal consultant. A search for innovation and new solutions to the problems she witnessed led her to Finless Foods. As Chief Strategy Officer, Consentino-Roush works on government relations, marketing, regulatory approval for the products, and maintaining their mission to create a future for seafood where the ocean thrives. While her job has given her many hats and her tasks vary with each milestone, Consentino-Roush relishes in the challenge and has a trusty team to back her up.
“We're looking to the ocean for more and more, but also realizing that the way in which we take from the ocean is going to have to change as well,” Consentino-Roush said. “It's up to us to be able to have a sustainable blue economy where we get resources and livelihoods from the ocean, but it also continues to regenerate for generations.”
Creating this sustainable blue economy requires educating people on the key issues that exist, however, Consentino-Roush argues that needing to become an expert in these areas is not essential. Instead Consentino-Roush advocates for meeting people where they are and keeping education at a broad scale to make the information more accessible and avoid oversaturation of information. Reaching this balance is especially important to Consentino-Roush as newer generations have become further separated from their food.
“I think it's even more important to really just educate about the connections of our data to actions that may seem small, to the bigger implications,” Consentino-Roush said. “Maybe that's on seafood, maybe that's in the ocean. I also think it's on agriculture, [and] it's also on climate. I think we have to get away from this expectation that folks need to be experts to improve their decision-making. I also think we need to get out of this culture of shame because I do think when folks feel guilty, it pushes them away from wanting to make changes.”
While shifting to plant-based foods and becoming vegetarian can be a part of these changes, Consentino-Roush states that everyone has their own reason and can make these choices at their own pace. What matters most for her is looking at continuous improvements and seeing what else can be improved upon. Consentino-Roush also believes that Finless Foods and other plant-based companies have made vegetarian options more accessible and raised awareness of people’s individual impacts on the environment.
“We want to meet people where they are and make their decisions a little easier and I think plant-based seafood alternatives is the first stop on that journey,” Consentino-Roush said. “I do think that plant-based seafood is much more novel than a plant-based burger. So it's great to be a leader of that pack and to provide these options for people, but also, I think it helps us set the stage.”
Finless Foods is also working on its own mission and setting new milestones as they progress. There is still plenty of work to do and areas to innovate, in Cosnetino-Roush’s opinion, if fisheries and on a larger scale human consumption is to become sustainable. These areas of innovation can include continuing to improve fishing gear types, catching only the targeted fish, and improving fishery management.
According to Consentino-Roush these ideas, though not new, have been in the works for a long time. These policy and management decisions are not easy and involve plenty of compromises that reflect different needs and expectations.
“I've been pushing for a while to integrate climate change into those decisions because the oceans are already and will continue to be extremely impacted by climate change,” Consentino-Roush said. “If we don't factor that into our fisheries management, then we are not setting ourselves up for success.”
While people may yearn for a one-size fits all solution to overfishing and meeting increased consumption demands, Consentino-Roush argues that no such thing exists. Having dedicated her life to searching for such a solution and grown up watching the conversation surrounding healthy oceans shift from fisheries to climate change, Consentino-Roush knows well that the future and health of the ocean have as many knots and loops as tangled up fishing wire.
A thriving ocean doesn’t simply mean eliminating human influence or restoring dolphin and whale populations. Rather, Consentino-Roush believes a thriving ocean is one that is beyond healthy and one that is in balance with itself including keeping in harmony with humans. Fishing will continue to be an essential part of many communities, however, plant alternatives like
Finless Foods and new innovations can lessen the burden upon the ocean and bring people closer to the thriving ocean Consentino-Roush has envisioned since she was a child.
“I think it's imagining a world where we're in harmony and balance, where the benefits we reap from the ocean are also in harmony with its ability to regenerate and stay, providing for generations to come both for the animals in it and for humans.”