From farmed versus wild to sustainable versus unsustainable, experts have many tips to help consumers get their hooks into the best fish selection for one’s diet. NY1’s Health reporter Kafi Drexel filed the following report.

When it comes to picking the right fish, sometimes it can feel more like a big-game competition than a shopping trip.

Fishmongers say a bulk of their time is still spent sorting out conflicting information on a debate that has been going for years. Which is healthier, farmed fish raised commercially in tanks or enclosures or wild-caught fish from natural waters? 

”There has just been a lot of negative media that’s focused on the ill effects of farmed salmon,” says Brendan Hayes, the retail director at The Lobster Place in Chelsea. “People make sweeping generalizations based on the entire farmed fish category because of certain things they might read. And the fact of the matter is over the past 10 years there’s been tremendous innovation within the aquaculture industry.”

Health experts recommend eating fish like salmon at least twice a week because of heart healthy Omega-3 content, but the verdict is still out whether wild or farmed fish has more nutritional value.

Something to look out for is new subcategories of farm-raised fish. To stay competitive, some companies are creating their own.

The online grocer FreshDirect, which has a warehouse in Long Island City, Queens, is one of the first to sell a new salmon product from fish company Verlasso which is being dubbed “harmoniously raised.” 

”‘Harmoniously raised’ salmon is different than traditionally raised salmon because it takes a lot of care into healthy environments, the health and welfare of the fish itself and then the health of the consumer,” says Maggie Moon, RD, a nutritionist at FreshDirect.

Other fish sellers and nutritionists will say it is a smart marketing tool, but the fish, which is supposed to be leaner because of their diet, may be a healthier choice for both consumers and the ecosystem. 

”With these ‘harmonious fish,’ they are only feeding off of one pound of fish, whereas regular farmed salmon are feeding off four pounds of feeder fish, and that’s what they are getting their Omega-3s from,” says nutritionist Amie Valpone of TheHealthyApple.com. “So if we think about it the four pounds for feeder fish versus one pound, it’s a heck of a lot better for the environment.”

Original article and accompanying video can be found here.

Farm-Raised salmon gets better, in all kinds of ways.

Farm-raised fish has gotten a bad rap, and not entirely without reason. Water pollution, the spread of disease and parasites, negative impact on both wild salmon and forage fish, and other issues have made aquaculture a dirty word to many environmentalists.

It doesn’t have to be, according to a relatively new company called Verlasso, which raises fish in the cold, clear waters of Chilean Patagonia. Verlasso, says Scott Nichols, one of its six directors, strives to be “the best salmon farmers on the market.”

As another Verlasso director, the appropriately named Allyson Fish, explains, healthy protein sources are becoming more and more difficult to find, while demand for them increases, and responsible aquaculture can help satisfy the need. Nichols has worked on biodiversity projects in Africa and South America and Fish is a former Fellow of the Environmental Defense Fund, so both realized the necessity of creating a better salmon product without damaging the environment. They call their approach “harmonious evolution” — a term they prefer to “sustainable,” which they think has been overused.

One of Verlasso’s tactics is reducing reliance on herring, mackerel, and other feeder fish by 75 percent without sacrificing the omega-3 oil content of their salmon. As Fish explains it, like us, salmon get omega-3’s from what they eat — it’s found in the fish oil of smaller fish. Verlasso has been able to create a food based on an algae-based yeast that provides their salmon with all of necessary protein, oil, and nutrients they need, while cutting down on their reliance on feeder fish. Because of this, Verlasso is able to provide a consistently high level of omega-3’s in their salmon, as compared to other farm-raised fish or wild salmon (which see fluctuations in their levels depending on their diet).

Additionally, the waters where the fish are raised are not depleted of natural resources and left full of waste, because after each harvest the waters are left fallow — much like fields on a farm — by removing all the salmon for four months so that the water can rejuevinate. There is minimal human interaction and absolutely no industrial development, as you can see by the video on their site.

The most important part of this all that we haven’t touched on yet is the taste. It may be all well and good for the environment and be a healthy product, but if it doesn’t taste good, then it’s really of no help to anyone. Lucky for them and us, the salmon tastes fantastic.

Our editorial team was lucky enough to sample Verlasso’s salmon to create the delicious recipes below and we all noticed the same thing: the salmon was less fatty and oily than other farm-raised salmon, but had an incredibly clean mouthfeel and lightness to it. Now sold on Fresh Direct and in Portland, Ore., Verlasso is making its way around the country and into our kitchens.

Choosing to purchase fish responsibly at home is not a new concept, but it is a growing one. We realize that making the right choice can seem difficult, so make sure to check out resources like our Sustainable Seafood Guide and other sites like the Monterey Bay Aquarium, as well as the Environmental Defense Fund.

And when you do make your salmon choice, we hope you decide to try one of our recipes below.

Original article can be found here.

Congratulations to Verlasso, Copious, and the Addis Creson team!

CommArts: What new challenges will brands face in the future?

John Creson: A challenge that brands will face in the future is moving beyond the transactional to the lasting relational. A citizen revival has awakened the expectation for greater authenticity, engagement and mindfulness. As the principles of social business and good business collide, designing a brand with purpose and meaning at its center will be vital to creating enduring value, experiences and relationships.

If you’ve ever been confused about making the right seafood choices for you and your family, you’re not alone. Among the competing concerns out there are: health benefits vs. sustainability issues vs. mercury levels. And if you’ve grown to love the taste of farmed salmon, you may be especially conflicted, because on the one-hand, it’s a heart-healthy fish with omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D and selenium that is also low in mercury; but on the other hand, it’s gotten a bad wrap for being a poor choice when it comes to sustainability.

Salmon is one of the most popular fish today, and it may be in everyone’s interest (for health and sustainability) to have a better alternative to both wild-caught and conventionally farmed salmon. That’s why the sustainable seafood team at FreshDirect was so impressed with an innovative company named Verlasso, who offers what they call a “premium salmon raised in harmony with the natural environment.” If you haven’t seen this quick 2-minute video on how they’re taking care of the oceans and producing a high quality product, check it out:

Verlasso - Vision

The most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 encourages Americans to eat more seafood as one of its key recommendations, but more than 80% of Americans fall short of the twice-a-week rule. The Guidelines include seafood in its list of protein foods to eat more of, in addition to lean meat and poultry, eggs, beans, peas, soy products, and unsalted nuts and seeds. All of these foods are what Registered Dietitians call “nutrient-dense” or “nutrient-rich”, which means you get more nutrition for fewer calories, an important way to eat for healthy weight management. But the Dietary Guidelines goes ahead and plays favorites, and really pushes us all to “increase the amount and variety of seafood consumed by choosing seafood in place of some meat and poultry.”

If you’re still worried about mercury and PCBs, you may be comforted to know that the bottom line for human health is that the benefits of eating a variety of seafood outweigh the risks from contaminants. The key word being “variety.” Harvard School of Public Health agrees, and provides a good evidence-based overview of their position.

Highlights from the Harvard article are:


• Eating about 2g per week of omega-3 fatty acids from fish (equal to 1-2 servings of fish per week), reduces the risk of dying from heart disease by more than a third


• Omega-3s are important to baby’s brain and nervous system development


• Pregnant women can still benefit from eating seafood regularly, by choosing lower-mercury fish such as salmon, shrimp, Pollock, and catfish.


• The Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, the Institutes of Medicine, and analysis by lipid (dietary fat) experts Mozaffarian and Rimm, all agree that the heart-health benefits outweigh the risks from contaminants.


• The easiest way to minimize contaminants is to eat a variety of fish and shellfish. Though, as a caveat, women and children should take care to avoid a few species known to have higher mercury levels. They are: tilefish, shark, swordfish, and king mackerel (TSSK). Thankfully, there are plenty more types of fish in the sea – and the choices of what you should eat is much larger than the short list of what to avoid.

Original post can be found here.

“Salmon, like people, get their omega-3s from their diets,” explained Scott Nichols, director of Miami-based Verlasso, a brand and trademark of AquaChile. “Currently, these omega-3s come from fish oils provided by wild-caught feeder fish. Our most significant farming innovation is that we use 75 percent fewer feeder fish to produce healthy salmon rich in omega-3s.”

In addition to the ground-breaking reduction of feeder fish, Verlasso’s farming practices fundamentally change the relationship between salmon farming and the oceans in the following ways:

• Verlasso salmon are raised in the waters of southern Patagonia, away from industrial development, ensuring a healthier salmon

• Verlasso salmon swim freely in spacious pens — fewer than four fish per ton of water –resulting in a leaner fish than traditionally farmed salmon

• Every phase of the salmon’s life, from egg to harvest, is accounted for, which means integrity and freshness all the way to the consumer

• Growth hormones are never used, so the fish grow at their own natural rate

“We want our customers … to have access to the freshest and most sustainable seafood options to feed their families a healthy, great tasting product,” said Maggie Moon, nutritionist at Long Island City, N.Y.-based FreshDirect.

Added FreshDirect Seafood Category Manager Jeff Ludwin: “Verlasso offers our customers a quality sustainable salmon that is unmatched in the marketplace.”

Freshly cut-to-order Verlasso salmon is now available through the online grocer. Additionally, recipes, videos, and cooking and pantry tips using the salmon can be found at www.verlasso.com.

Original post can be found here.

THE “fact” that junk food is cheaper than real food has become a reflexive part of how we explain why so many Americans are overweight, particularly those with lower incomes. I frequently read confident statements like, “when a bag of chips is cheaper than a head of broccoli …” or “it’s more affordable to feed a family of four at McDonald’s than to cook a healthy meal for them at home.”

This is just plain wrong. In fact it isn’t cheaper to eat highly processed food: a typical order for a family of four — for example, two Big Macs, a cheeseburger, six chicken McNuggets, two medium and two small fries, and two medium and two small sodas — costs, at the McDonald’s a hundred steps from where I write, about $28. (Judicious ordering of “Happy Meals” can reduce that to about $23 — and you get a few apple slices in addition to the fries!)

In general, despite extensive government subsidies, hyperprocessed food remains more expensive than food cooked at home. You can serve a roasted chicken with vegetables along with a simple salad and milk for about $14, and feed four or even six people. If that’s too much money, substitute a meal of rice and canned beans with bacon, green peppers and onions; it’s easily enough for four people and costs about $9. (Omitting the bacon, using dried beans, which are also lower in sodium, or substituting carrots for the peppers reduces the price further, of course.)

Another argument runs that junk food is cheaper when measured by the calorie, and that this makes fast food essential for the poor because they need cheap calories. But given that half of the people in this country (and a higher percentage of poor people) consume too many calories rather than too few, measuring food’s value by the calorie makes as much sense as measuring a drink’s value by its alcohol content. (Why not drink 95 percent neutral grain spirit, the cheapest way to get drunk?)

Besides, that argument, even if we all needed to gain weight, is not always true. A meal of real food cooked at home can easily contain more calories, most of them of the “healthy” variety. (Olive oil accounts for many of the calories in the roast chicken meal, for example.)In comparing prices of real food and junk food, I used supermarket ingredients, not the pricier organic or local food that many people would consider ideal. But food choices are not black and white; the alternative to fast food is not necessarily organic food, any more than the alternative to soda is Bordeaux.

The alternative to soda is water, and the alternative to junk food is not grass-fed beef and greens from a trendy farmers’ market, but anything other than junk food: rice, grains, pasta, beans, fresh vegetables, canned vegetables, frozen vegetables, meat, fish, poultry, dairy products, bread, peanut butter, a thousand other things cooked at home — in almost every case a far superior alternative.

“Anything that you do that’s not fast food is terrific; cooking once a week is far better than not cooking at all,” says Marion Nestle, professor of food studies at New York University and author of “What to Eat.” “It’s the same argument as exercise: more is better than less and some is a lot better than none.”

THE fact is that most people can afford real food. Even the nearly 50 million Americans who are enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps) receive about $5 per person per day, which is far from ideal but enough to survive. So we have to assume that money alone doesn’t guide decisions about what to eat. There are, of course, the so-called food deserts, places where it’s hard to find food: the Department of Agriculture says that more than two million Americans in low-income rural areas live 10 miles or more from a supermarket, and more than five million households without access to cars live more than a half mile from a supermarket.

Still, 93 percent of those with limited access to supermarkets do have access to vehicles, though it takes them 20 more minutes to travel to the store than the national average. And after a long day of work at one or even two jobs, 20 extra minutes — plus cooking time — must seem like an eternity.

Taking the long route to putting food on the table may not be easy, but for almost all Americans it remains a choice, and if you can drive to McDonald’s you can drive to Safeway. It’s cooking that’s the real challenge. (The real challenge is not “I’m too busy to cook.” In 2010 the average American, regardless of weekly earnings, watched no less than an hour and a half of television per day. The time is there.)

The core problem is that cooking is defined as work, and fast food is both a pleasure and a crutch. “People really are stressed out with all that they have to do, and they don’t want to cook,” says Julie Guthman, associate professor of community studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and author of the forthcoming “Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice and the Limits of Capitalism.” “Their reaction is, ‘Let me enjoy what I want to eat, and stop telling me what to do.’ And it’s one of the few things that less well-off people have: they don’t have to cook.”

It’s not just about choice, however, and rational arguments go only so far, because money and access and time and skill are not the only considerations. The ubiquity, convenience and habit-forming appeal of hyperprocessed foods have largely drowned out the alternatives: there are five fast-food restaurants for every supermarket in the United States; in recent decades the adjusted for inflation price of fresh produce has increased by 40 percent while the price of soda and processed food has decreased by as much as 30 percent; and nearly inconceivable resources go into encouraging consumption in restaurants: fast-food companies spent $4.2 billion on marketing in 2009.

Furthermore, the engineering behind hyperprocessed food makes it virtually addictive. A 2009 study by the Scripps Research Institute indicates that overconsumption of fast food “triggers addiction-like neuroaddictive responses” in the brain, making it harder to trigger the release of dopamine. In other words the more fast food we eat, the more we need to give us pleasure; thus the report suggests that the same mechanisms underlie drug addiction and obesity.

This addiction to processed food is the result of decades of vision and hard work by the industry. For 50 years, says David A. Kessler, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and author of “The End of Overeating,” companies strove to create food that was “energy-dense, highly stimulating, and went down easy. They put it on every street corner and made it mobile, and they made it socially acceptable to eat anytime and anyplace. They created a food carnival, and that’s where we live. And if you’re used to self-stimulation every 15 minutes, well, you can’t run into the kitchen to satisfy that urge.”

Real cultural changes are needed to turn this around. Somehow, no-nonsense cooking and eating — roasting a chicken, making a grilled cheese sandwich, scrambling an egg, tossing a salad — must become popular again, and valued not just by hipsters in Brooklyn or locavores in Berkeley. The smart campaign is not to get McDonald’s to serve better food but to get people to see cooking as a joy rather than a burden, or at least as part of a normal life.

As with any addictive behavior, this one is most easily countered by educating children about the better way. Children, after all, are born without bad habits. And yet it’s adults who must begin to tear down the food carnival.

The question is how? Efforts are everywhere. The People’s Grocery in Oakland secures affordable groceries for low-income people. Zoning laws in Los Angeles restrict the number of fast-food restaurants in high-obesity neighborhoods. There’s the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, a successful Pennsylvania program to build fresh food outlets in underserved areas, now being expanded nationally. FoodCorps and Cooking Matters teach young people how to farm and cook.

As Malik Yakini, executive director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, says, “We’ve seen minor successes, but the food movement is still at the infant stage, and we need a massive social shift to convince people to consider healthier options.”

HOW do you change a culture? The answers, not surprisingly, are complex. “Once I look at what I’m eating,” says Dr. Kessler, “and realize it’s not food, and I ask ‘what am I doing here?’ that’s the start. It’s not about whether I think it’s good for me, it’s about changing how I feel. And we change how people feel by changing the environment.”

Obviously, in an atmosphere where any regulation is immediately labeled “nanny statism,” changing “the environment” is difficult. But we’ve done this before, with tobacco. The 1998 tobacco settlement limited cigarette marketing and forced manufacturers to finance anti-smoking campaigns — a negotiated change that led to an environmental one that in turn led to a cultural one, after which kids said to their parents, “I wish you didn’t smoke.” Smoking had to be converted from a cool habit into one practiced by pariahs.

A similar victory in the food world is symbolized by the stories parents tell me of their kids booing as they drive by McDonald’s.

To make changes like this more widespread we need action both cultural and political. The cultural lies in celebrating real food; raising our children in homes that don’t program them for fast-produced, eaten-on-the-run, high-calorie, low-nutrition junk; giving them the gift of appreciating the pleasures of nourishing one another and enjoying that nourishment together.

Political action would mean agitating to limit the marketing of junk; forcing its makers to pay the true costs of production; recognizing that advertising for fast food is not the exercise of free speech but behavior manipulation of addictive substances; and making certain that real food is affordable and available to everyone. The political challenge is the more difficult one, but it cannot be ignored.

What’s easier is to cook at every opportunity, to demonstrate to family and neighbors that the real way is the better way. And even the more fun way: kind of like a carnival.

Original post can be found here.

Part 1 of 2

30 August, 2011 - For Scott Nichols, the launch of Verlasso™ salmon — a brand and trademark of AquaChile, one of world’s largest salmon-farming companies — is much more than a new business venture. It’s also about changing the way people think about farmed salmon and developing a new category of “harmoniously raised” fish.

This fall, Verlasso will roll out its premium “harmoniously raised” salmon (fresh fillets and whole, gutted fish) selectively amongst a few retailers and restaurants in a few U.S. cities.

Part of what sets Verlasso apart from the competition is that its fish, raised in southern Chile and processed at AquaChile’s facilities, are fed a feed that achieves a fish in-fish out ratio of 1:1. Through a partnership with AquaChile forged in 2007, DuPont has developed a feed made with yeast rich in omega-3 fatty acids to replace the fish oil in a salmon’s diet, reducing by 75 percent the number of wild-caught feeder fish required to raise salmon. Currently, according to AquaChile, the industry standard is a fish in-fish out ratio of roughly 4:1, meaning 4 kilograms of feeder fish are required to produce 1 kilogram of salmon.

In addition to the feed, the salmon are raised in an environmentally responsible manner. Verlasso enforces a maximum pen density of 12 kilograms of salmon per 1 ton of water, compared to 17 kilograms of salmon per 1 ton of water, the maximum set by Chilean authorities. And the nets that house the salmon are not treated with copper-based anti-foulants (at elevated levels copper can be toxic).

The result is “harmoniously raised” salmon that strikes a balance between the marine ecosystem, wild fish, farmed fish and the people who raise and eat the fish, explained Nichols, a Verlasso director based in Wilmington, Del.

SeafoodSource recently caught up with Nichols to talk about the challenges of creating a new category of farmed salmon, what the future holds for Verlasso and his passion for sustainable aquaculture. This is part one of a two-part interview. Click here to read part two.

Hedlund: How did Verlasso get its start?

Nichols: This began within DuPont, as a program to make omega-3 fatty acids in yeast. And the original target market for that program was human supplements. I came to it with the view that this would be extremely useful in salmon aquaculture, because what we would be able to do is to replace pelagic fish oil with the omega-3s made in the yeast. So one of the first things I did was to talk to Alfonso Marquez de la Plata, who’s the CEO of AquaChile and now one of the directors of Verlasso. Alfonso has a tremendous interest in providing an expanding supply of healthy food to people, and this matched really well with my interest, which was to find the most environmentally conscientious way of providing food for people, particularly with salmon aquaculture. And that was the beginning of what lead to the creation of Verlasso.

Was there a lot of testing associated with the new feed?

There were two phases. First we did a number of feeding trials. By removing the fish oil from the diet of the fish and replacing it with the omega-3s made in the yeast, we provided a revolutionary change in the diet [in terms of] FFDR (feed fish dependency ratio). And what we wanted to do at first is show ourselves that this was, in fact, good for the salmon and that we would be able to produce the same high quality, good tasting salmon that people expect. We did a number of feeding trials, and we did achieve that. And then what we did is begin to feed fish for commercial production last May, and those fish will be ready to harvest in late September or early October, at which time they’ll be ready for market delivery.

What sets Verlasso salmon apart from conventionally raised salmon?

The primary thing that we think we’re bringing to the market, amongst many, is the change in FFDR from 4 to 1. We really fell like this is a revolutionary change in the way that fish are being farmed, and that it takes something that is inherently unsustainable and makes it sustainable. As we began, our focus was on FFDR. But there’s a totality of things that go into salmon aquaculture. And we began to take a broader view of a completely balanced approach that takes into account the pelagic fish, the ocean environment, the health of the salmon, the health of the people who eat the salmon and the community of people who raise the salmon. All of these things come together into a whole compendium of best practices.

What type of initial feedback is Verlasso receiving about its salmon?

There is a lot of excitement around what harmonious aquaculture can deliver, and that Verlasso is committed to this continuous improvement of practices wherever we can find ways to improve ourselves. Sustainability and environmental stewardship resonates with a lot of people. There’s also the taste and texture of the fish. One of the things that I’ve tried to tell myself is, ‘If I’m going to talk about this fish, it behooves me to eat a lot of it.’ So that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. I’ve been able to cook it in many different ways. And it really is a different eating experience. What we find is that we go to seafood buyers who have a really discerning palate with respect to seafood, they comment on it immediately. The taste and texture of the fish is really pleasant.

Original post can be found here.

Part 2 of 2

By Steven Hedlund, SeafoodSource editor

31 August, 2011 - SeafoodSource recently caught up with Scott Nichols about the launch of Verlasso™ salmon, a brand and trademark of AquaChile. The company is working to change the way people think about farmed salmon and develop a new category of “harmoniously raised” fish. In part two of a two-part interview, Nichols talks about the importance of education, product attributes, prices, salmon-farming practices and whether Verlasso salmon will raise the bar for the industry.

Click here to read part one, which ran on Tuesday.

Just how crucial is educating buyers, and consumers, when you’re trying to develop a new category of farmed salmon? 

This is different that what people are used to. And so we need to have a discussion with people about that. And we have certainly found a great cohort of people for whom there is a really big interest in conscious cuisine. We want to communicate to them that Verlasso is providing fish with an FFDR (forage fish dependency ratio) of 1. We want to talk about our pen densities. And these are conversation that people aren’t used to having. So we do need to have those conversations with the people at the counters, and with the customers are well.

Describe the taste and texture of Verlasso salmon. 

The fat content of our fish is at 11 to 12 percent. Wild-caught fish have a fat content of about 8 percent. And most farmed fish have a fat content of 18 to 19 percent. So one of the things Verlasso is trying to do is provide a fish that is more like wild with respect to its texture and taste. We’re not wild-caught fish, but we’re not traditionally caught fish, and that requires a conversation with people. And that’s what we’re trying to do right now.

Will Verlasso salmon come at a premium price? 

We are raising a very premium fish, and we also will also have a premium price for the fish. We believe that there are many people out there searching for fish in a new category that are harmoniously raised, and this will resonate with them. They will see that value. What we’re finding in our discussions with buyers is that they do recognize that the new category of harmoniously raised fish is, in fact, a new category, something different. So the conversations that we have with retailers are not necessarily comparisons with the prior categories, but they’re really new discussions about what the new category is.

What’s Verlasso’s production forecast for 2011 and 2012? 

We want to provide enough fish for the initial city launch. As our capabilities allow us, we will expand that. In particular, what we hope to do is for people with whom we are partnering is that we will be able to continue to meet their needs as they see Verlasso expanding.

Is it your hope that Verlasso’s practices will raise the bar for the salmon-farming industry worldwide?

 
Yes, we do hope to set an example and raise performance with our new approach. To us, of course, harmonious aquaculture is an ethic that would be very useful if broadly embraced. We realize fully that we see this from a lens that includes years of our own research and ongoing collaboration with the NGO community. But consider this: If the industry as a whole could focus on the idea of continuous improvement of practices, which is a foundational tenet of harmonious aquaculture, imagine how quickly we could solve problems? Actually, aquaculture, particularly salmon aquaculture, is a relatively new business. Changes are happening in many areas. We have every hope and expectation that Verlasso will be successful, and that we will plant the seeds for further change and improvement in the industry for generations to come.

As Verlasso salmon goes to market, what does this accomplishment mean to you on a personal level? 

I’ve been working years on this. I have a really, really strong belief that as we interact with our planet that we mustn’t treat it as it’s infinite; it’s not. And we need to adopt practices for growing good and healthy food that are in harmony with the environment. We need to leave a minimal footprint as possible. This is something that’s meant a lot to me for a long time. I’m thrilled to be doing this. And it gives me, without sounding overly sappy, a chance for me to live my love. It’s important that we leave a legacy for our kids. I want to have salmon for generations, as much as for the next 10 years. It’s a dream come true for me.

Original post can be found here.

The latest Apple (AAPL) expansion will be unveiled Saturday morning on Berkeley’s chichi Fourth Street — another store from the Cupertino company that rewrites old rules of business.

A decade after Steve Jobs showed off the company’s first retail store in Tysons Corner, Va., the company has perfected a retail strategy that makes buying iPhones, iPads and other electronics gadgets as much a cultural experience as it is a shopping excursion.

“Just as every device-maker is saying, ‘I want to be Apple,’ I think every retailer is looking at them, taking notes and saying, ‘I want to be like Apple,’ ” said Steven Addis, CEO of Berkeley-based branding company Addis Creson.

The new Berkeley outlet, which opens at 10 a.m. and is located at 1823 Fourth St., will be the 11th Apple store in the Bay Area and arrives as the company aggressively rolls out new stores across the globe. Apple will open two international stores this weekend. Last week, it opened five new stores — two in the United States and three overseas, including one in Florence, Italy. During a recent conference call with analysts, Apple said it would open 30 new stores before the end of September.

In Apple’s third quarter, the company said, nearly 74 million customers visited Apple stores around the world, up from 60.5 million during the year-ago period.

“Apple can’t open the stores fast enough, particularly the international stores,” Needham analyst Charlie Wolf said. “Over half of Apple’s business is international.”

Apple’s stores, uncluttered and well-defined by polished wood tables with iPhones an MacBook laptops and open spaces, have become destinations for customers. They are consistently crowded with customers from across the demographic range, from teens to seniors.

“These stores are bulging at the seams,” Wolf said. “I went into the Fifth Avenue store (in New York City) a week or two ago, and I couldn’t move,” he said. “It was unbelievably packed.”

The stores not only offer some of the world’s hottest-selling devices, but also provide well-informed staff for one-on-one tech tutorials, help desk services at the Genius Bar and assistance in setting up new product purchases.

“As soon as you buy a product, there is someone there who can help you,” Wolf said. “There is no fumbling around.”

Initially, Jobs envisioned a chain of no more than 100 stores. The decision to sell its own products came as the company struggled to get the attention of consumers in a Microsoft-dominated PC world. Apple’s tiny share of the computer market meant resellers were reluctant to allocate sales resources to Macs, Wolf observed in a recent note to investors.

“Apple’s only recourse was to open company-owned stores,” he wrote.

That was when Apple just sold desktops, laptops, software and accessories. By adding the iPod, and then iPhone and iPad, Apple became the world’s tech Zeitgeist. Its products helped redefine the relationship between people and computing devices. The gadgets were no longer simply about productivity, but also entertainment and fashion. And that transformed Apple stores into hubs for people’s digital lifestyle.

By the end of September, Apple will have 357 stores around the globe. Last year, it reported that it had 2.5 million square feet in retail space, equivalent to 7,740 square feet per store, Wolf noted. In 2010, the company had average annual store revenue of $34.1 million. That, he added, “translated into sales of $4,406 per square foot, undoubtedly the highest among retail chains in the world.”

Apple now overshadows Microsoft, which in 2009 decided to copy its competitor and roll out its own retail stores.

Apple’s stores are as much about marketing as selling. In the third quarter that ended June 25, Apple said, revenue from its brick-and-mortar stores soared 36 percent from the year-ago period. About half of the Mactinosh computers sold at stores that quarter were to customers who had never owned a Mac before.

Apple is exacting in deciding where to locate a new store, often choosing the world’s most prestigious retail locations — near the Louvre in Paris, in the heart of Shanghai’s gleaming financial center and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, a store that’s open 24 hours a day.

On Saturday, it will remove the window covering on its Berkeley outlet, located in a high-end shopping area in a building that once housed a furniture store and a few doors down from the famous Bette’s Oceanview Diner. It will be the first new Apple store in the Bay Area since the company opened one in San Mateo in 2008.

“Fourth Street is one of the nicest shopping areas in the country,” Addis said. “It’s really beautiful.”

(Original article can be found here.)

Her career began at Landor Associates, where she worked for over a decade on several award-winning accounts such as H&R Block, NCAA, YMCA, Accenture, Abbot Laboratories, Motorola, Cadence Design Systems, and SKYY Vodka. While at Landor, Kisitina earned several honors, including a gold Clio for H&R Block, a bronze Clio for NCAA, and inclusion in the prestigious AIGA 365 Year in Design 22 and 23.

Kisitina’s design experience spans multiple business sectors including finance, retail, packaged goods, technology, and entertainment.

John Creson, Executive Creative Director at Addis Creson, commented: “Kisitina’s creative sensibility and design expertise will complement our design group at Addis Creson perfectly. Her leadership and creative capabilities in the area of corporate identity, print, and digital design have helped us achieve the goal of transforming our studio, allowing us to offer fully integrated design solutions for our clients. I am thrilled to have her on our team.”

About Addis Creson:
Addis Creson is a design and brand consultancy based in Berkeley, California. Founded in 1987, Addis Creson shapes brands whose value is measured by the positive change they create. Their positive change practice areas are based on their passion, expertise, credentials, alliances, and points of view. As client needs overlap practice areas, the firm deploys interdisciplinary teams to develop solutions that are integrated, actionable, and meaningful.