…Soylent green. The miracle food of high-energy plankton gathered from the oceans of the world.
Soylent Green, 1973
The New York Times predicts that “if current fishing practices continue, the world’s major commercial stocks will collapse by 2048.” Their solution: lower energy content by eating sardines instead of feeding them to farm-raised salmon.
Mistaking energy content for price is a common mistake. Chew on this: organic lettuce is more expensive than a hamburger.
Wild fish will be eclipsed by farm-raised fish just as farm-raised beef has eclipsed free-range beef. Get used to it, perhaps by preparing to pay an extreme premium for free-range fish. Don’t expect the Chinese middle class to prefer wild cod once a year to farm-raised salmon once a month. Expect the coastal waters to be fenced into fish farms just as the Great Plains was fenced in during the 19th century.
It’s time to manage the pollution and reserve the wild fish parks upcurrent. This tide isn’t going to be turned back by pondering how the old days were until we’re eaten up.
Wild fish will be eclipsed by farm-raised fish just as farm-raised beef has eclipsed free-range beef. Get used to it, perhaps by preparing to pay an extreme premium for free-range fish.
We already do. Where I live, farm-raised Atlantic salmon generally fluctuates between $4.99 and 7.99 a pound. Wild salmon can go for $19.99 or more, depending on the species.
Bittman’s article is typical New York Times elitism. There’s no reason we can’t have both farm-raised fish that are cheap enough for the masses and rarer wild-caught fishes for the food snobs.
Also, farm-raised salmon, properly cooked and seasoned, can be absolutely wonderful. I guess Bittman doesn’t really know “How to Cook Everything.” 🙂
For coastal waters to get fenced in, someone has to be able to own them first, right? I think it more likely, we’ll see mobile boat farms or perhaps just a giant movable box-shaped net, than fenced-in off shore areas. Among other things, with a boat, you can move it to where there’s natural food (assuming the food will go in a netted off box with a bunch of hungry fish) and to your eventual market.