Fresh Blogging
Posted on September 14, 2011 - by Zoe Carpenter
Flickr: Thelonius Gonzo
It’s high season for tomatoes, that luscious fruit that the French once called pommes d’amour—apples of love. Here in Oregon, vines in street-side gardens bend low beneath the weight of the red and yellow orbs. Fantastically shaped heirloom varieties overflow their boxes in the grocery stores and farmers markets.
In a few short months this seasonal bounty will be replaced by stacks of red tomatoes, uniform in their size, shape, and firmness. Most of them will have been grown in Florida.
From October to June, nearly all of the fresh tomatoes available in America’s grocery stores come from the Sunshine State, which produces a third of the country’s total tomato harvest. That’s a billion pounds of succulent fruit every year.
But Florida tomatoes are neither delicious nor healthful, writes Barry Estabrook in his new book Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit. The tomatoes that Estabrook encounters during his undressing of Florida’s industrial tomato industry are flavorless, rock-hard, and lacking in the nutrients once concentrated in the fruit. That’s because tomatoes have been bred to be durable and uniform—so that they can be shipped thousands of miles in the winter and still catch the consumer’s eye—but not necessarily to taste good.
The taste and texture of the insipid Florida tomato are but the smallest of its evils. The true focus of Tomatoland is the human and environmental cost of the system that satisfies our off-season cravings for fresh produce—the tons of chemicals dumped, the workers poisoned, beaten, and enslaved. Estabrook’s expose shines a harsh light on the many injustices inherent in Florida’s tomato industry, but it raises just as many questions about our food system as a whole. Estabrook isn’t just out to bemoan the ruin of his favorite sandwich-stuffer. He’s protesting the decline of American agriculture as it sinks beneath the weight of market pressure. It’s not just Floridians. We’re all living in Tomatoland.
Estabrook swiftly outlines the journey of the tomato from its birthplace in Peru to domestication in Latin America and Europe, to genetics laboratories in California, and finally to Florida, where a businessman exporting tomatoes to New York in the early twentieth century established an enduring model for commercial success: the tomatoes he shipped were green, cheap, and produced in the off-season.
As it happens, Florida is a terrible place for growing tomatoes. The state’s sandy soil holds few nutrients, and so demands intensive fertilization. The heat, humidity, and infrequent frosts nurture hordes of destructive pathogens and pests that growers control with toxic pesticides and fungicides. Each year, Florida tomato farmers spray eight times the amount of chemicals on their produce as do growers with similar crop sizes in California, the second leading tomato producer.
Estabrook offers chilling accounts of the consequences of such chemical-intensive farming techniques. He tells the story of three mothers who worked in tomato fields belonging to Ag-Mart, whose babies, born within seven weeks of one another, were either deformed or died soon after birth. Estabrook goes on to share a riveting report of the legal hearings that ultimately established that Francisca Herrera’s preventable contact with pesticides was responsible for her son Carlitos’ disability; he was born with no arms or legs.
Perhaps the most important question raised in Tomatoland is about the vulnerability of the people who harvest our food, particularly undocumented immigrants. Workers like Herrera who are injured—accidentally or intentionally—on the job are often reluctant to seek legal protection because of their undocumented status (as was the case for Herrera). Poverty, as well as language and literacy barriers make it easier for employers to exploit a migrant work force. Work in Florida’s tomato fields often amounts to very real, modern slavery, with workers locked up at night, and beaten for refusing to work or for trying to run away.
The stories of abuse are emotional, but Estabrook honors his role as a journalist by including the voices of the big men in the tomato business. Estabrook challenges the excuses given by the industry for its shameful practices, but Tomatoland doesn’t argue that the root of the problem lies with exploitative tomato farmers. It’s the system that demands the cheapest product, with no mechanism of accounting for the hidden costs. It’s an appalling lack of enforcement of already-weak agricultural labor laws. It’s industry cartels, like the Florida Tomato Committee, that manipulate the market for self-interest.
Tomatoland does document positive signs of change. He writes at length about the success of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), which fought to improve labor conditions and ultimately established a “fair food agreement” that gave workers rights to and extra penny per pound picked. He tells the stories of several farmers, activists, and researchers who are finding more sustainable and just ways of growing and buying tomatoes.
The one thing Estabrook doesn’t do is suggest a fix for America’s broke-down industrial agricultural model. If his assertion that the 1 cent a pound raise for tomato pickers amounts to 20 to 30 dollars more per day falls a bit flat, perhaps it’s because there really is no satisfying fix to a system that never worked to begin with.
Posted on September 9, 2011 - by Zoe Carpenter
Why the Farm Bill matters
Flickr: TonyParkin76
A tall stack of paper will determine what you and your family eat for the next five years.
It’s a piece of legislation known as the Farm Bill, and it’s up for reauthorization in 2012. The bill helps the government set the agenda for our food system, by allocating billions of dollars to back up agricultural policy and nutrition assistance. We believe it could use some rethinking.
Currently, many families don’t have access to affordable, healthy food; small-scale farmers can’t compete with big agribusiness; and our land is being diminished by pollution and erosion. Thanks to deregulation and consolidation, a small but powerful group of companies controls the prices that farmers receive for their products, leaving small and midsized farms vulnerable to market fluctuations. Meanwhile, supermarket mergers have left just five firms collecting more than half the retail profit, so that the cost of groceries stays high for consumers even while farmers settle for low prices.
The 2012 Farm Bill presents an opportunity to fix a broken food system. Activists, entrepreneurs, and consumers are making strides locally, but we need policy at the federal level that supports small and midsize farms, protects public and environmental health, and upholds the right of low-income families to healthy food.
The bottom line? If you eat and pay taxes, this bill matters.
What is the Farm Bill?
The Farm Bill is a hefty piece of legislation that determines how our tax dollars are put to use in the food system. Initiated during the New Deal, the legislation was originally intended to stabilize commodity prices. Now the bill generally keeps the price of certain commodities artificially low.
Overall, the bill dictates which programs and producers get government funding, and how much; it influences how our food is grown, processed, and distributed; and ultimately the bill determines what kinds of foods are affordable and available locally.
Congress reauthorizes the farm bill every four to five years. The 2008 version is up for renewal in 2012, in the context of growing public interest in food and agriculture, economic instability that particularly affects food access for poor families and the prospects for small producers, and political leadership bent on cutting social and environmental programs in the interest of corporate greed.
What does the Farm Bill really do?
The greatest percentage of the funding allocated in the Farm Bill goes to nutrition programs. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food stamps, is the country’s largest food assistance program. Nutrition assistance is a particularly important issue in the 2012 bill thanks to the recession. Enrollment in the program has grown dramatically since 2008. SNAP serves 43 million Americans, half of them children.
The next largest slice of the budget goes towards farm subsidies. Subsidies largely support corn, wheat, rice, soybean, and cotton production in the Midwest. Because subsidies drive down the cost of a few dominant crops, those products have been increasingly used by food companies, for energy, and in livestock feed—to the detriment of marketplace diversity, regional networks, and consumer health.
The farm bill also allocates funding for conservation. The legislation supports some of the United States’ largest and most effective conservation programs. The programs pay farmers to take fragile land out of production, encourage erosion control, and protect the water supply by increasing wetland and riparian buffer habitat.
Finally, a tiny fraction of the funding supports a variety of other projects, including rural development and investment in organics.
Who is involved?
In the House, the Agriculture Committee will be led for the first time by Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK), known as a supporter of commodity producers. The Ranking Member is Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN). Sixteen of twenty-six Republican members of the committee are new to Congress, as are several Democrats from non-traditional and urban districts.
The new chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry is Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who has shown her support for specialty crops. Pat Roberts (R-KS) assumes the role of Ranking Member.
What’s Next?
While the powerful agricultural industry lobbies hard in Congress to influence the redrafting process, representatives aren’t used to hearing from all the other Americans who have a stake in the legislation. That means that your input matters. Stay tuned for information about taking action in support of fair, healthy, and sustainable food systems.
What would you like to see in the 2012 Farm Bill? Leave your ideas and questions in the comment section.
zoe@freshthemovie.com
Posted on September 1, 2011 - by Crystal Cun
Photo: Blue Water Cafe
Today’s guest post is courtesy of Ana Simeon from Sierra Club BC and Seachoice.
You’re watching your favourite cooking show and the chef is putting together something mouth-watering like “Pan-Seared Chilean Seabass” or “Grilled Monkfish with Olive Sauce.”
Enthused, you may be tempted to rush out to get the Chilean seabass. With candles and wine, the meal is a success and your culinary prowess toasted by your family and guests. And then a niggling thought pricks the bubble of contentment: isn’t Chilean seabass on the taboo list? You look up “Chilean Seabass” on your Seachoice iPhone app and, true enough, there’s a long laundry list of crimes against the ocean – from illegal overfishing (over 50% of Chilean seabass on the market is thought to be illegally obtained) to by-catch of internationally endangered wandering albatross and grey-headed albatross. Oh dear, oh dear!
Although many chefs are beginning to take ocean health into account when concocting their creations, this is a process that has taken root most strongly at the restaurant level, but has yet to penetrate the TV networks.
Does it mean you have to stop watching those benighted cooking shows? Not at all. For every red-listed fish there is a delicious, and more sustainable, alternative waiting to take its place. For example, sablefish has been described as the “fish version of chocolate” and its smooth, silky taste (with 50% more Omega 3’s than salmon) more than holds its own against the commercially touted Chilean seabass. To get you started, here’s a recipe for Caramelized Sablefish with Tangy Orange-Tamarind Sauce from Vancouver’s fabled Blue Water Café: http://houseandhome.com/food/recipes/sablefish-caramelized-soy-and-sake-recipe
As a cooking show viewer, you’re also in a perfect position to educate chefs and networks about sustainable seafood. Call in or drop them an email – spread the word!
The table below lists ocean-friendly substitutes for red-listed seafood in your favourite recipes:
| Red-Listed Species |
Best Choice Alternative |
| Chilean Seabass |
Sablefish(AK, BC)
Cobia (US Farmed) |
| King Crab |
Dungeness Crab (Canada; US West Coast) |
| Flounder or Sole |
Halibut (Pacific) |
| Marlin (Blue or Striped) |
Swordfish (harpoon and handline from Canada,
North Atlantic and East Pacific) |
| Monkfish |
Sablefish (AK, BC) |
| Orange Roughy |
Pacific Cod (Alaska) |
| Red Snapper |
Tilapia (US farmed) |
We’d love to hear of your experiences substituting these ocean-friendly choices! Email us at info@seachoice.org or comment below.
Ana Simeon works as communications coordinator and grassroots organizer for Sierra Club BC and Seachoice, a coalition of five internationally respected Canadian conservation organizations working to shift the market to sustainable seafood. Ana also writes for BC print and online media on environmental topics. Providing social media and online content for Seachoice taps into her passion for local food, food security and all things culinary.
Ana enjoys hiking, bird-watching, and grows a sizeable vegetable garden with her husband Tom. On cold, rainy days, she keeps to her fireside with a book from her extensive collection of 1930 British detective fiction.
Posted on August 30, 2011 - by Crystal Cun
Image: Scallop and roe over polenta, courtesy of Print Restaurant
Today’s guest writer is Johanna Kolodny, the forager for Print Restaurant in Manhattan, discussing the challenges of sourcing local products and seafood for restaurants.
I’m the forager at Print Restaurant located in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen. Print is a busy operation, offering breakfast, lunch, and dinner, every day of the year. We provide room service and catering for the adjacent Ink 48 Hotel, and we run Press Lounge, a rooftop bar with sweeping city and river views.
When most people think of a forager, they conjure up images of someone in the forest harvesting mushrooms or other wild edibles. I struggle with my job title for that reason. You should think of my job as forager in a broader sense of the term, as someone who gathers things. My primary responsibility revolves around sourcing ingredients for the kitchen. I collaborate with the chefs to source produce, meat, dairy, seafood, and added-value products for the restaurant and bars.
My goal is to bring the chefs as much product as possible directly from farmers, fishermen and food artisans, ideally from our region. I’d like to think I’m continuously pushing the envelope, steadily increasing my percentages. When necessary, I look beyond this region and apply the same principles further afield, looking for producers who follow sustainable practices.
The word “sustainable” is thrown around a lot these days. But to me, the essence of the word is not corruptible. It means having something last for the long term, by implementing techniques like rotational planting, cover cropping, traceability, and local animal composting. Non-sustainable practices include synthetic chemicals, tilling, and inputs like petroleum-based fertilizers.
I can’t know for sure that our farmers always follow sustainable practices, but at least I know where our food comes from and we’re supporting our local economy. I’m continuously expanding our network of suppliers, seeking out those individuals who have the same philosophies. Before making purchases from a producer, I ask lots of questions. To gather information, I have visited a number of the farms with which we work, and still have a few more to go.
One of the most challenging ingredients to source is seafood. Oysters, clams and lobster are on the easier side because it is possible to sustainably cultivate them through aquaculture. Fish are just tough. We use a handful of sources for our seafood: two standard distributors, Sea 2 Table (a direct fishermen to chef network), and a few regional oyster and mollusk producers. This year, we started working with a Louisiana shrimper, who ships directly to us. I’ve found it challenging to find fishermen in our region who will deliver. Furthermore, the chef feels his choices are even more limited by which local fish customers are willing to buy.
We rely on several reference organizations, like the Monterey Bay Aquarium, to determine what seafood is sustainable. But even such organizations and references are not totally reliable. There is such a grey area when it comes to seafood—the ocean is so vast and we know so little about it that we’re really taking a shot in the dark. If we wanted to save seafood populations, we’d cut back on our consumption drastically, no matter the species. But are we really going to run a restaurant without offering fish options? I know the powers that be won’t let that happen, so we have to compromise. All we can do is continuously ask questions and stay up to date on the latest data.
Our sources include Sea 2 Table, which works directly with the fishermen and makes sure they are not offering at-risk seafood. We have to trust that these for-profit companies truly have the health of seafood populations in mind. The chef also works with two more mainstream distributors. One is quite transparent about sourcing and concerned with the sustainability status of its seafood offerings. I believe the chef would not source seafood from someone he doesn’t trust, however the other distributor doesn’t have as thorough traceability like our other sources.
Ultimately, the chef doesn’t choose fish whose populations are threatened, and tends to rotate through a handful of different fish depending on the season. These days, he offers snapper, halibut, black sea bass, and salmon, just to name a few. There are numerous other fish that we would like to offer that are even more sustainable, however the challenge is in selling it to the customer. We can buy any fish, but if the dish doesn’t sell, then it’s a moot point.
In the next post, I’ll discuss some examples of these fish, along with the challenges of purchasing fish we want versus what the customer is willing to buy.
For more information on Johanna Kolodny’s work as a forager, check out the Print Restaurant blog: http://www.printrestaurant.com/blog/
Posted on August 24, 2011 - by Zoe Carpenter
Reviving Cultured Foods
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It all started with a pickle.
It was a sour New York pickle, to be precise, and what started was Sandor Katz’s obsession with fermented foods.
“It’s a flavor I’ve always been drawn to,” said Katz, a self-described “fermentation revivalist” and the author of the books Wild Fermentation and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved. While most of the pickles that are available in grocery stores today are preserved in vinegar, the pickles of Katz’s childhood were fermented in brine, lending them the tangy flavor associated with fermented foods.
If the mere suggestion of fermentation, not to mention its taste, makes you queasy, consider this: you probably ate a fermented food for breakfast. Bread, cheese, yogurt, and coffee are just a few of the staples for which we have fermentation to thank. According to Katz, as much as one-third of food eaten worldwide is subjected to some kind of enriching microbiotic transformation.
“I’ve tried, and have not found, a tradition or culture that doesn’t include fermentation,” said Katz. “People might not have thought about fermentation, but no one is unfamiliar with fermented foods.”
Getting more familiar doesn’t only provide fodder for cocktail party conversation. It’s also a way of improving intestinal health and supporting alternative food systems, and of reclaiming a process that lies at the heart of many culinary traditions.
We’re trained to think of microbes as the enemy—evasive killers that must be boiled, steamed, fried, or otherwise driven out of the kitchen. “One of the triumphs of microbiology in the twentieth century was identifying pathogenic organisms,” Katz told me. “But now in the popular imagination, bacteria equal disease.”
Much more than disease, bacteria are essential to human existence. They are the most basic building blocks of life, and our bodies teem with them. More than a thousand species live in our stomach, intestines, mouths, and skin, but only fifty of those are known to be harmful. As Katz put it, “All life exists in a bacterial context.”
So do all cultures. Katz noted that the word culture is itself related to fermented or “cultured” foods. Farming—the cultivation of seed—and preserving the harvest through fermentation are at the core of modern ways of life. “Humans could never have made the transition to a sedentary agricultural lifestyle without insight into fermentation as a form of food storage,” said Katz. Since the microbial transformation of food is inevitable—often as rot—humans had to find a way to deal with it. And what ways they found. Culinary achievements like wine, cheese, miso, chocolate, and kimchi are all part of the legacy.
But the bacteria so fundamental to our biological and cultural existence are under constant assault thanks to an industrial food system that emphasizes processed foods, and the pervasive use of antibiotics, chlorine, preservatives, and antibacterial cleansing products. Several studies suggest that our immune and digestive systems pay the price for the latter. While a sterile environment is essential for open-heart surgery, depriving our immune systems of opportunities to develop antibodies makes us weaker over a lifetime.
Accordingly, Katz told me, it’s become important to replenish and diversify the bacteria in our gut. The easiest and most delicious way to do so is by consuming live fermented foods. Live cultures (unlike cooked fermented foods like bread, or pasteurized commercial products) contain beneficial Lactobacillus acidophilus, which produces lactic acid, a natural preservative, and a tender texture and complex flavor.
For those looking for a way into the healthy and delicious world of fermentation, Katz recommends brining any favorite vegetable. Sauerkraut was Katz’s “gateway ferment.” He made his first batch after he’d moved to rural Tennessee and planted a garden, to solve the practical problem of having too much fresh cabbage. Many years later Katz still bears the nickname ‘Sandorkraut.’
His “totally straightforward” instructions are to “chop up some veggies, salt them lightly to taste, squeeze or pound them and then stuff them into jar or crock so they’re submerged under liquid. Let them sit for two weeks, or months, or years.” Other easy ferments include mead (honey wine), yogurt and kefir, and sour-tonic beverages. “It really depends on what you like to eat,” said Katz. “You can ferment anything.”
When I asked Katz about the safety of home fermentation, he replied that fermented vegetables are really the safest kind. “There is a pervasive fear in our culture in aging food outside the refrigerator,” he said. “But according to USDA’s microbiologist, there has never been a case of food poisoning in the U.S. related to fermented vegetables. If you were to take vegetables that had been contaminated by factory farm uphill, and fermented them, the lactic bacteria would rapidly overpower pathogenic bacteria.”
The strength of fermented food doesn’t just lie in its biological capacities. “Fermentation challenges the notion that food is just another commodity that can be produced in far-away places,” said Katz. Part of bucking the corporate system and re-localizing food is also reclaiming the processes that are essential to preserving fresh produce and enjoying its complexities.
“Empowered” is the word Katz used repeatedly , and I understood him to mean it on physiological and personal terms. And isn’t that really what it means to be fed, or nourished? We should receive nothing less from our food.
Here a few tips to get you started:
- Make sure your vegetables are submerged in liquid—this prevents mold growth and is the difference between rotten vegetables and fermented ones. Usually the liquid is salty water (brine), but you can use plain water, wine or whey too.
- Play with chopping your vegetables or leaving them whole. If shredded, simply salting the vegetables will typically pull enough juice out via osmosis, so adding water isn’t necessary. Whole vegetables require brine.
- Traditionally, vegetables were fermented with lots of salt to preserve them for longer periods of time. However, less salt can be better for flavor and nutrition. Salt lightly, to taste—there’s no magic proportion. As a starting point, try 3 tablespoons of salt per 5 pounds of vegetables.
- Use a heavy cylindrical ceramic crock, if you can. Glass containers also work well, but avoid plastic and metal, as they can leach chemicals or be corroded by the fermentation. Pack your vegetables at the bottom and submerge them with a weighted plate or jug.
- If mold develops on the surface of the liquid, scrape it off as best you can; it will not hurt the vegetables underneath.
- Taste your ferments early and often to find out what you prefer. Longer fermentation and warm temperatures mean tangier flavor.
- Nearly any vegetable can be fermented—be bold! Seaweeds and fruits can be fantastic, and spices play a big role in giving kimchi and sauerkraut their distinctive flavors.
For more detailed information and recipes, check out Sandor Katz’s Wild Fermentation website and his books.
Photos from Flickr: little blue hen
zoe@freshthemovie.com
Posted on August 17, 2011 - by Zoe Carpenter
A sting operation targeting a small food club raises questions about food safety, consumer freedom, and the influence of the corporate food system.
Flickr: Kthread
On August 3, armed federal and county agents raided Rawesome Foods, a food club in Venice, CA. They seized computers and cash, loaded a flatbed truck with watermelons and coconuts, and poured out gallons of fresh milk. They arrested James Stewart, Rawesome’s owner, on criminal conspiracy charges. His alleged crime? The production and sale of unpasteurized goat milk, goat cheese, yogurt and kefir.
Stewart was later charged on 13 counts, 12 of them related to the sale of “raw” or unpasteurized milk. Healthy Family Farms owner Sharon Palmer and her employee Victoria Bloch were also arrested on related charges.
The raid was the culmination of a year-long sting operation targeting the club, which began twelve years ago as a collective of raw-milk drinkers who sourced unpasteurized milk from local dairies. While the sale of raw milk is legal in California, retailers are legally required to buy from state-certified dairies. Organic Pastures, which produces milk from Holstein cattle, is the only certified raw-milk dairy in California. Rawesome’s members had been buying uncertified cow, goat, sheep and camel milk from various producers. They did so as a private club of consenting adults, freely choosing raw milk from local sources.
That same day, while prosecutors attempted to set Stewart’s bail at $121,000, food industry giant Cargill issued a voluntary recall of more than 36 million pounds of ground turkey. The meat was contaminated with a strain of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella and had caused at least one death and 76 illnesses. It took Cargill, which sells turkey under multiple brand names and is a major supplier to public school meal programs, more than four months after illnesses surfaced to issue the recall.
Rawesome’s members have been declared criminals, but no one affiliated with Cargill has been charged with a crime. In fact, the USDA can only recommend “voluntary recalls” in cases related to pathogen-contaminated products, leaving companies like Cargill to self-police.
While the austerity-obsessed government struggles to find room in the budget for food safety oversight of massive multinational corporations, American tax dollars are funding multi-agency sting operations directed against neighborhood food co-ops, anti-raw milk ads and press releases, and lawsuits against small-scale farmers.
As the FDA maintains, unpasteurized milk presents a potential health threat because it can carry bacteria such as Salmonella and E. coli. But according to the FDA’s own statistics, sickness related to raw milk only accounts for about 0.00008% of food borne illnesses.
And there’s plenty of other data suggesting that the regulatory crackdown on raw milk is a waste of time and money. According to the CDC, approximately 800 people have become sick from raw milk since 1998. That’s an average of 62 people per year, compared with the 76,000,000 Americans who become ill, the 325,000 who are hospitalized, and the 5,000 who die annually from federally inspected/accepted ‘safe’ foods. Milk, pasteurized or unpasteurized, isn’t even on the list of the ten riskiest foods regulated by the FDA. The number one risk? Leafy greens.
If our regulatory agencies were solely concerned with the potential for food to cause disease, closer scrutiny would be placed on the opaque network of industrial producers that are responsible for deadlier and more frequent outbreaks of foodborne illness. For example, a recent technical review by the USDA acknowledged the connections between antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the prophylactic use of antibiotics on animal farms. But as Tom Philpott reported last week in Mother Jones, the report disappeared from the USDA website after complaints from the meat industry. Regulatory agencies have continually shied away from limiting antibiotic usage in industrial feedlots in spite of a vast body of scientific evidence pointing to the serious health threats related to that practice, like the resistant strain of Salmonella in Cargill’s turkey meat.
So the raw milk debate isn’t really about public health. It’s about the right to choose local, non-corporate foods. Rawesome members signed a form acknowledging the possibility of microbe contamination in the food they received, and records in the Rawesome office would have helped members trace contamination back to the source if illness had ever occurred. In comparison, consumers who eat federally accepted foods have much less information about what they eat, where it comes from, and how it’s produced.
The real health problems caused by the American food system have little to do with raw milk. Sign now to tell the FDA: we have the right to choose what goes into our bodies.
zoe@freshthemovie.com
Posted on August 17, 2011 - by Crystal Cun
Image: Flickr/nhankamer
Today’s guest blog post is brought to you by FishWise, a non-profit sustainable seafood consultancy that helps seafood businesses improve the sustainability of their seafood offerings.
Yes, all aquatic animals have birthdays. Some live for a matter of days or weeks, and others can live forever. (Yes, really.)
Although we can’t ask a fish its age (it’s simply impolite), there are ways we can determine the length of time that an individual fish has been alive. One popular method for aging fish involves analyzing bones in their heads called otoliths (“oto” meaning ear and “lith” meaning stone). When an otolith is removed from a fish, sectioned into thin slices and viewed through a microscope, it reveals a pattern of light and dark concentric rings. The darker, denser rings are often formed in the winter when growth is slow and in the warmer months, when a fish is growing more quickly, a clearer ring is formed. A pair of rings is called an “annuli” and is similar to the rings found in trees. Count the annuli and you can determine a fish’s age.
So what does this have to do with the seafood you buy and eat? Often, slow-growing fish take a long time to reach reproductive age, which leads to a greater risk of that fish being caught, or dying of natural causes, before it has a chance to reproduce. Consider the orange roughy, which takes around 30 years to reach sexual maturity. Whenever you take a fish that is younger than that out of the water, that fish has not had a chance to reproduce, which in turn affects the abundance and diversity of the next generation. Additionally, you run the risk of negatively affecting other animals in the food chain.
This would all be easier to swallow if fisherman were catching a responsible amount of orange roughy, taking into account the number of fish in each year class becoming sexually mature and selectively catching only those individuals. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and instead we are seeing fewer, younger and smaller orange roughy reach our plates.
There are a number of species that are characterized by a very high growth rate and abundance, Pacific sardines being an excellent example. Most sardine fisheries are considered a “Super Green” option by the Monterey Bay Aquarium due to these biological factors and because they are generally well-managed and recognized for their low levels of bycatch and clean fishing techniques. Choices that are similarly sustainable are handline-caught mahi mahi from the U.S. Atlantic and U.S. farmed crawfish.
We don’t suggest you memorize the longevity of all of your favorite seafood; scientists have done that for you. Rankings systems such as that by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program take longevity and reproduction rates into account, so shop for seafood only on the green and yellow lists and you’re assured they’ll be around for you to eat well into your twilight years.
FishWise is a non-profit sustainable seafood consultancy that helps seafood businesses improve the sustainability of their seafood offerings through environmentally responsible business practices, such as policy development, employee training, sourcing assistance and point of sale information. This approach empowers consumer to make environmentally informed choices when purchasing seafood.
To learn more about sustainable seafood, visit www.fishwise.org or sign up for their mailing list.
