The Seafood Industry Research Fund (SIRF) held its annual benefit dinner during the Global Seafood Market Conference in Las Vegas. In addition to recognizing seafood industry leaders, Russ Mentzer, SIRF chairman, covered the organization’s work regarding seafood traceability, EMS research and seafood economic analysis.
Mentzer called on attendees to support their businesses through SIRF’s industry-focused studies. “Everyone in business knows that it is important to take care of issues as they come up,” Mentzer said. “For the seafood business, it is time to get ahead of these issues and have solutions in place before they impact the marketplace. SIRF is an important part of that forward thinking game plan.”
Guests of the event pledged enough to close out the Mike Voisin Memorial Fund and the Ethel Feigon Memorial Fund, as well as add substantially to SIRF’s general fund.
The evening’s program also featured chef and seafood sustainability advocate Barton Seaver as guest speaker. Seaver addressed attendees on the importance of asserting seafood as a diverse protein and an important part of America’s culinary heritage.
“Seafood has a rich history of founding and sustaining American communities,” Seaver said. “Unfortunately that story has not yet become a part of seafood’s legacy and has been left out of the sustainability discussion. Seafood needs to speak up for itself as a thriving food system that fosters health and drives economies.”
