Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Sustainable Fishy-ness

Thank you everyone for your patience. I think we'll just leave "Sleep Week" as it is at three posts and move on to better things. The cold from hell that I had is finally tapering off. Thank the freakin' lawd! You never really appreciate how nice it is to breath until you have a horribly stuffy nose.

Yesterday I was perusing my facebook feed and I saw an interesting note from Food Inc. They mention and link to an article which states that Whole Foods continues to sell endangered seafood, but with a warning. I'm kind of on the fence about this. Ultimately, grocers should be able to sell whatever food they wish, but c'mon! We're talking Whole Foods here. Their the ones who have "an unshakable commitment to sustainable agriculture (via their website)." Are fish not considered agriculture? To their credit, WF will stop selling endangered fish by Earth Day 2013.

Check out this post from June 2009. I thought it fit with the fishy theme of today.

Did you see the movie Shark Tale? If you haven't, it's a cute movie and I recommend it. But if you have, then you'll probably remember the scene where Lenny's pop is urging him him to eat the helpless little shrimp (who happens to be pleading for it's life) in an effort to prove that his son really is a tough guy...er..shark. Of course, Lenny, being the sweet, sensitive vegetarian shark that he is opens the restaurant window and frees the little shrimps, while we, the audience, all breath a sigh of relief.

Now, if seafood could talk to us in ways we could understand...well...I don't think we'd be eating it, because that would just be weird. But my point is that if fish could talk, they would probably be telling us some very important things. According to the latest issue of Body and Soul mag, all species of edible fish may be extinct by the year 2048 if we don't change the way we fish. So if you want to offer seafood on your wedding menu, it would be wise to choose a fish that reproduces in large numbers and/or comes from a responsibly maintained fishery. To help you do this, The Environmental Defense Fund and Smithsonian Magazine both have an easy to use web guide to the best, worst, and somewhere in the middle eco-friendly fish out there. EDF even has a downloadable pocket guide perfect for on the go!

Top picture: copyright by Dreamworks Animation (http://www.sharktale.com/)
Bottom pictures: Buckhead Life Restaurant Group, Environmental Defense Fund

2 comments:

Paula@DWItaly said...

As a seafood lover living by the sea this is a problem close to my heart, thank you for bringing it up.

Anonymous said...

Blue Ocean Institute has a great free service (texting rates apply) that you can save as a contact in your phone. Text "fish: (type of fish)" (example- fish: Atlantic salmon) to 306-44. They will text you back all the info about the fish, how sustainable it is, the best type to buy etc. It's a great service that you can have at your finger tips.

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