Somethin' fishy goin' on here!

[John Barrows]

In Mark Bittman's Wednesday June 10th (2009) "Dining" essay, he describes the modern fish-eater's dillema - i.e what kind of fish is safe, and sustainable, to eat - and how much.

Seems like everything these days is a dilemma - especially things one eats to survive and enjoy life. Guilt, cost, and fear of death from food-borne disease haunt our every day food choices. Why is that?

Well, with more people living on the planet (Catholics, Mormons, and Muslims - among others - don't seem to want to address that particular issue - though they all seem to have other food related restrictions in their books) there are more mouths to feed - and with a general rising of the world's standard of living (due in part to out-sourcing but somewhat tempered currently with "the great recession") more people are eating more, and more expensive stuff.

So for instance the world's supply of wild fish is under attack. The Japanese, for example, are raping the blue fin tuna populations of the Mediterranean gulping down 90% of that body of water's annual production. Fancy restaurants and rich clientele are demanding from their celebrity chefs the freshest of the world's most exotic and depleted seafood varieties.

And all the while this is going on, we are told not to eat all the fish that we've been told previously we need to eat - because so much of it is tainted with chemicals as to make it downright toxic - akin to nuclear waste. ("Not to worry", say the non-fish-lovers, "we won't exacerbate the problem - leave us out of this mad marine mayhem").

To me though, this fishy story is simply another symptom of what's gone wrong with our eating habits. If we ate like our fathers did - i.e. what was fresh, seasonal, and local (or otherwise suitably preserved by pickling, smoking, and salting) the the dilemma would not exist (oh, did I forget to mention to stop being gluttons).

Let's eat those lowly sardines, squid, salted cod, and herring - and while we're at it some kidneys, oxtails, and tripe. How about some wild dandelions? Grow your own potatoes by throwing potato peels into the leaf pile. Leave the blue fin to the starving Sicilians. Banish food factories in Iowa where pigs and cows are stamped out of nutritionless corn.

Boycott Japanese products and restaurants. Offer some "family planning" to those Muslims and Mormons.

The other day I mistakenly bought and "heirloom" brandywine" tomato trucked in from Mexico. Tasteless. I can wait until my own delicious ones ripen in August. I can eat grass-fed beef grown in the countrysidejust outside of the town I live in. I don't need kobe beef flown in from Japan. I don't need caviar flown in from Russia.

Well, maybe you get my point (maybe). But in the end, it's just being rational. Then maybe a lot of these dilemmas would go away and cease to exist.

In Bittman's accompanying blog, a commenter offered this realistic advice: you can't depend on consumers to make these rational choices. Sometimes "big brother" needs to step in and make some hard choices for those among us who are incapable of thinking outside the confines of our own self interest.

In the meantime, I'm stickin' with the fish that's locally caught by small local family fisheries, abiding by the catch limits laid down by local and regional maritime restrictions. I don't need to agonize over all the choices that cheap air freight can bring to my table. If I need blue fin tuna, I can always go to Japan. They have 90% of it.

[Patrick]

Another fine example of this world gone mad in the name of money.

[Debbie]

Common sense. The human race does not have it. And the commenter's "realistic" advice is quite scary.....while I understand what he is stating, I also disagree in that we do not need to have "big brother" making choices for us. Perhaps the government can make choices for those out there without half a brain; but not for me, I will continue to use my common sense with the food I consume and if what I need or want is not available, I will just need to improvise!

[John Barrows]

I think that big brother's potential role is in protecting the wild fish from being fished from extinction - and ensuring that farmed fish are safe to eat.

[Debbie]

That I can understand. I apologize for the misunderstanding.