Earth systems · Data · Food science · Calamari jerky
Steven Shonts has spent his career following curiosity into increasingly unlikely places — from modeling planetary systems and carbon cycles, to wrangling data pipelines in carbon markets and energy analytics, to asking the question nobody was asking: what if calamari jerky was actually good? Somewhere between earth systems science and food systems science, he found The Hermit Calamari Jerky — a venture born from the conviction that sustainable protein can be delicious, weird, and worth taking seriously. He brings the same analytical rigor to perfecting squid-based snacks that he once brought to atmospheric datasets, which is either very reassuring or mildly alarming depending on your perspective. When he's not engineering jerky or engineering data, he's probably exploring a cave somewhere in Southeast Asia.
The protein industry's flagship trade publication profiles The Hermit and its founder, Steven Shonts, on the inspiration behind a shelf-stable seafood snack built around sustainably sourced squid — and why a category long dominated by beef is overdue for a rethink.
FoodNavigator-USA covers The Hermit's MSC-certified calamari jerky launch — up to 29 grams of protein per two-ounce bag, no added sugar, and Whole30-approved — and how Steven Shonts is opening a sustainable-protein lane in a jerky category dominated by beef.
The Food Institute makes the case for squid as America's most underrated sustainable protein — high in Omega-3s, collagen, iodine, selenium, and zinc, with a fraction of the environmental impact of conventional protein sources. Steven Shonts and The Hermit Calamari Jerky feature as the brand bringing squid to mainstream snack shelves.