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from the pages of
August 2003
Farming Fish
by Michael Ballon
The educated eating public has had a lot of information to contend
with the over the past few years, as various concerns about the
healthfulness of the American diet, and the manner in which food is
produced in this country has become front page news. Warnings about the
dangers of eating meat and cholesterol have perhaps been displaced
lately by fear of carbohydrates, and concerns about chemical additives
and fast food have received a lot of attention, but until very recently
one food item has enjoyed a status as almost universally regarded as
being part of a healthy diet-fresh fish. Consumption of fresh fish has
boomed in this country in recent years, as those trying to moderate
their intake of red meat have switched to eating more fish, and even
those on Atkins type diets rely on fish as an important part of their
meals. The recent widespread popularity of sushi in this country is
just one measure of the change in American eating habits.
Alas, even this refugee from the pervasive anxiety about the safety
healthfulness of our diet has been under assault lately, as information
about the environmental harm caused by modern practices of fish farming
have received prominent attention in the NY Times, and other
publications. The sad fact is that the plummeting population of wild
fish swimming freely in the ocean has led to an increasingly reliance on
aquaculture to produce he fish we eat. When commercial aquaculture was
first introduced about 20 years ago in Norway and Canada, it was hailed
by chefs and consumers as a boon to fish consumption, and indeed the
supply and price has been remarkable. However, years later, the
environmental issues are causing concerns.
The impetus for developing commercial aquaculture is clear: there
are fewer and fewer fish left in the oceans. In just the last
generation, fishing stocks have been reduced by giant industrial
fishing fleets, which have left the size and number of fisheries
diminished. Some species, like Chilean Sea bass, have gone from being
commercially negligible and not widely eaten, to an endangered species,
in scarcely one generation. The once fertile Chesapeake and Cape Cod
Bays, renowned for their shellfish, are experiencing diminished
harvests. Other areas, like our own Housatonic and Hudson, are off
limits because of PCB and other pollution. Global warming and the
damning of rivers have also taken their toll. As a result, the vast
majority of the salmon and shrimp we now eat are produced on commercial
aquaculture farms, rather than caught swimming wild. The once wild
Atlantic salmon, found throughout the rivers of New England, is
officially an endangered species.
Among the concerns about commercial aquaculture are the threat to
wild fish stocks from escaping farmed fish, and the contamination of the
ocean from the concentration of vast fish populations in a small area.
Just as heirloom plant growers strive to protect the biological
diversity and heritage of the plant world, as an alternative to crop
monoculture, the same is true if those trying to protect the same in the
fish world. And just as independent farmers are widely being replaced by
a handful of multinational corporations which control vast quantities of
the world's food supply, independent fisherman are being replaced by a
few multinational corporations which control most of the aquaculture.
All is not grim. As a result of stringent regulation, the once
endangered striped bass has had a resurgence, and is more widely
available now. For a few weeks of summer, these majestic fish are caught
in the wild, and are available in fish markets. For those too
accustomed to eating their farmed brethren, the experience of eating a
fish caught wild in the ocean is without comparison.
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