Summer 2025 Publisher’s Letter

Story by Megan Marshall

I love seafood—like really, really love seafood. I recently celebrated my birthday at Shaw’s, make frequent appearances at Dirk’s for the uncommonly good shrimp salad, live for the sashimi plate special from Joong Boo, and even have a large oyster tattooed on my forearm.

And yet, for me and many of you, awareness around sustainable seafood remains… murky.

I’ll admit I’ve carried my own cognitive dissonance on this front. I was lucky to grow up with the Great Lakes as a backdrop—eating fish and chips in Tobermory, picnicking on the St. Lawrence, beaming over the stove as my grandma pan-fried perch for summertime perch rolls. My mom’s deep connection to the Canadian wilderness, especially its expansive waterways, is something I’ll always carry with me.

Even as we became more landlocked and moved to the States, seafood stayed central. My dad used to bring home giant salmon fillets from Sam’s Club—half for dinner, half for the freezer. We loved it. I was raised to value fish in our diets, long before omega-3s were a supplement aisle staple.

But with time and a better understanding of how climate change intersects with our food system, I’ve started to question our collective distance from sustainable seafood choices. We’ve made major strides in how we source meat and produce, but we’ve lost the plot focusing first and foremost on “fresh,” without considering “sustainable.”

So, in this issue, we’re dipping a toe in exploring wild Alaskan salmon, regional freshwater fish like walleye and whitefish, and even alternative seafoods made through fermentation right here in Chicago. The goal isn’t to be prescriptive—but to offer context and access. Because the more we understand, the more we can eat with intention.