« November 2006 Table of Contents 
No better time to champion the health benefits of
seafood
By Fiona Robinson, Editor in Chief
November 01, 2006
I was relieved to see the government finally put some muscle
behind its advice that Americans should eat seafood at least
twice a week. Environmentalists have claimed for years that
methylmercury exposure from seafood consumption puts consumers
at risk and have warned people to cut back on their intake of
the protein. But on Oct. 17 both the Institute of Medicine and
the Harvard School of Public Health released studies lauding
seafood's health benefits and downplaying the risk of mercury
exposure (see cover Newsline).
Now the seafood industry has to take the good news and run
with it. There's no better time to arm your sales force, your
waitstaff or counter staff with this positive story about
seafood. Don't wait until your customers ask about seafood's
role in a healthy diet; provide your staff with talking points
and a flyer or brochure for shoppers who are on the run. It
doesn't take a huge marketing effort to educate your employees
and
customers.
There will always be critics of government advisories and
policies, but the NGO statements regarding the studies - one of
which was released even before the two press briefings were
held - were ludicrous. The groups switched the announcements'
focus from seafood and health to fit the NGO sustainability
agenda, which is reprehensible.
Don't these folks see that if Americans just ate a little
bit more seafood they could reduce their risk of cardiovascular
disease? Studies that tout the health benefits of omega-3 fatty
acids in seafood seem to appear weekly. Take advantage of this
perfect marketing opportunity now, because you never know when
the next anti-seafood campaign will begin.
On a final note, with this issue of SFB we bid farewell to
Managing Editor Linda Skinner. Linda has been with Diversified
Business Communications for more than three decades. She
started with the company as advertising production manager for
National Fisherman in 1973, and soon moved into the editorial
department, starting as editorial assistant and working her way
through the ranks to managing editor of both NF and SeaFood
Business , and editor of SFB and the Seafood Handbook . SFB has
maintained high editorial standards because of Linda's
"professional nitpicking," as she likes to refer to her work.
Whenever a question arose over content, grammar or style, Linda
would inevitably have the answer, or at least know where to
find it. She has worked with many editors during her years at
Diversified, and I'm sure all would agree there is no finer
person to work with. Thank you, Linda, for your dedication to
the magazine and the industry. We're going to miss you.