No matter what food you choose to purchase, cook, or order from a menu, there’ll be some discussion about the wisdom of the choice. Is it farm-raised? Are the eggs cafe-free? Was it humanely slaughtered.? The list seems endless as we have become more aware of our surroundings and the impact of our decisions.
Fish and seafood selections are often the core of heated dialogue. Knowing which fish to eat and determining its sustainability: Is it wild, farm-raised, US waters, etc creates a complicated conversation.
A handy pocketsize guide from the Monterey Bay Aquarium takes the guesswork out of the equation. Each section of the country has its own regional seafood watch. A so-called “best choice” fish has high availability and is caught or farmed in environmentally friendly ways. The guide also has updated recommendations for some of the most popular fish choices such as shrimp, cod, and tilapia.
Greenpeace recently issued its annual supermarket report card (”Carting Away the Oceans,” a retailer scorecard) for fish.Some grocers improved, but Trader Joe’s , a progressively smart chain, still fails in the sustainable seafood category, but plans to make adjustments and follow the guidelines from Monterey Bay Aquarium.
In other grocer/sustainability news, Wegmans took marlin off the menu in response to the national campaign to prevent the fish’s extinction. Giant Food partnered with the experts from the New England Aquarium to make certain they are following sustainable practices. These are significant changes; all welcome news.
No single program can change everyone’s eating habits, but the ongoing program from The Humane Society, the Canadian fish boycott (The ProtectSeals Network) encourages chefs, grocers, and shoppers to avoid Canadian fish until the fishermen stop clubbing and killing seals for the highly prized fur. A quick tip: Avoid crab legs from Canadian waters.
We worry about so many issues: Overfishing, under supply, extinction, and mistreatment. All these considerations help us narrow our choices into smart decisions.
#1 by Steve at August 19th, 2009
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This is a very nice piece. You’ve highlighted an important issue of human and environmental health. As consumers, we have choices to make and the better informed we are of the options, the better able we all are to make intelligent choices. For what it’s worth, we keep the SeafoodWatch card in our wallets.
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