Beyond the Board with Fable Fish [Trend Spotlight: Year of the Female Farmer]
Whole Foods Market: Beyond The BoardShow Notes
In this special episode filmed at Expo West 2026, we sit down with Meghan Luck, co-founder of Fable Fish, to explore how a childhood spent on Alaskan fishing boats transformed into a mission-driven snack brand. As part of 2026's Year of the Female Farmer trend, Meghan represents a new generation of female entrepreneurs reimagining traditional food systems by turning her family's smoked salmon recipe into an everyday snack that makes wild, nutrient-dense protein more accessible. Fable Fish isn't just about functional snacking, it's also solving a problem in the seafood industry. When Bristol Bay's 2022 sockeye run reached a historic 79 million fish, Meghan and her dad, a longtime Alaskan fisherman, saw an opportunity to add value to underutilized byproduct: the perfectly good "necks and tails" that didn't meet retail specs for center-cut fillets. Meghan shares how Whole Foods Market's Local and Emerging Accelerator (LEAP) program has provided a community of founders facing similar challenges from packaging decisions to scaling sustainably. Her advice? Trust your gut, never cut corners on quality, and surround yourself with people who know what you don't. At a glance: 00:46 – Inspiration for Fable Fish 02:32 – Historical Bristol Bay sockeye run 03:32 – Salmon byproduct 06:12 – Early iterations of product development 07:08 – Career history and evolution 11:45 – Whole Foods Market LEAP Program 16:10 – Business challenges 19:50 – Backstory on Fable Fish packaging 21:03 – How customers are consuming the product 22:58 – What is sockeye salmon? 26:50 – Meeting customers where they are 27:50 – Where Meghan hopes to see Fable Fish in 5-10 years 31:54 – Impactful drivers for Success 33:40 – Family ties 35:24 – Building the brand and responsibly scaling 38:51 – Delightful customer stories 40:26 – Lightning round
More from Whole Foods Market: Beyond The Board
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