Richard Gaines Reports- What do you think the odds that the Eco Foodie Nazis change their position? My guess is that they will still call codfish unsustainable while they choke on their rabbit bones from their dead bunny stew.
Read on as government scientists call cod stocks recovered (unless of course you yourself are an Eco Foodie Nazi). We wouldn’t want you have to admit you’re a fucking sheep that believes whatever your spiritual foodie Nazi guru advisor has been telling you even though the regulators themselves call the stocks rebuilt to sustainable levels.
Read Richards article below-
http://www.gloucestertimes.com/topstories/x1961025787/Legal-blacklist-meal-backs-fishermen
http://www.goodmorninggloucester.com Do you get it?
Good Morning Gloucester 
BRAVO ! I’ve sent the piece to fishermen down here just so they know…..
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“…dispute any need to reduce domestic harvests while the nation imports more than 80 percent of its seafood — largely from Asian economies with a poor record of conservation.”
This seems to be terribly relevant since the international community has to be on board in order to facilitate any kind of fair sustainability rules. Imports should be taxed relevant to conservation costs if these rules aren’t followed (and taxed anyway) so that the US fish industry can compete while maintaining sustainability. It sounds likely the blacklisting of Cod would be on the way out soon though, after they are listed as officially recovered if I understand the article correctly, which sounds like this year they will be considered “recovered.” Is that correct? Great that Legal Seafoods is promoting this issue to bolster discussion and support the local fishing industry.
I tend to think that someone had a good idea to say these fish are not sustainable and let’s notify the public so they can make smart decisions about where to spend their money and to encourage chefs and restaurants to support this so they can become sustainable again. If not done on good faith, what would be the political motive for blacklisting? Money from other meat industries? Encouraging the consumption of fish that are harvested more easily through big fishing corporations? Foreign interests? What do you think?
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Beth did you read the comments from the post yesterday? Fishermen have been telling these groups that the stocks have been rebuilt but they already have it in their heads that cod is no good. The damage has been done to the publics image of cod. The Eco foodie Nazis don’t want to hear that the stocks are rebuilt as the people that put out the list still have cod on it’s blacklist even after they’ve been told for two years now.
At a food bloggers dinner I sat through and listened to this woman who was soohong off to me about how she wouldn’t seve cod to her customers as an executive chef because she was much more informed than I was about the state of the codfish and how they are in danger of being extinct. Even after I tried to reason with her and explain that our fishermen can’t even set their nets for more than ten minutes because they will catch their limit of cod while 20 years ago they wouldn’t catch that amount of fish all day long.
This is THE MAJOR PROBLEM. They listen to these environmental psycho foodie people that don’t even know what the fuck they are talking about and they devastate markets. These people have a national voice and all their blind followers swallow everything they have to say without question.
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I read some of the comments yesterday. I understand how the fishermen would know best what is happening in their area, of course, and their advice and real-world experience should be respected and help inform the environmental studies to maintain their interests in sustainability of the fishing industry as well. But aren’t these studies based on a much larger picture where more than just the local ecosystem is a decision factor of if they are listed or not? And aren’t these foodie lists based on the government studies? So if the cod is to be un-blacklisted this year, wouldn’t the lists follow suit? I just wonder how some regular person is to make conscientious decisions? I guess I also wonder at the fact that the studies and the fishermen’s reports aren’t more in accord? Are the fishermen looking at a too micro level and the government taking a too macro level view? Is it just a lag time in between the two responding to one another or a lack of respect for the fishermen – plain and simple? Your advice is appreciated! I have a lot of foodie friends who do pay attention to these lists, but I don’t think they are idiots – just busy and have wee ones and so forth!
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Have you ever heard of the PEW foundation? They sponsor the studies. do you know who the major contributors of PEW are? Oil companies. Oil companies that want to drill for oil where our fishermen fish. Try to piece the two together.
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So is it to trust the fishermen full stop then? How can we be sure their knowledge is based on global fish stocks and not just local pockets of recovery?
Oil companies suck and I wouldn’t put it past them as the money is so big, but wouldn’t they not be able to drill if there are protected fish in the area?
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Beth it isn’t just about cod for me but knowing the cod story and how these Eco foodie Nazis influence the public just makes me aware of how they operate. There is no reasoning with them. They are hypocrites. I’ve written about it before as in the case of whole foods who stopped selling lobsters because of some absolutely stupid reason.
Ill say it again. I don’t personally give a shit if someone eats rabbit but how does someone preach about not eating cow or wear leather or whatever other animal product but say it’s fine to eat bunny rabbits?
To me if you wanna have credibility stop eating any animal products, and then you can preach about this shit.
Just having to endure that conversation with that know-it-all Eco Foodie Nazi last summer told me what I need to know about these people who regurgitate everything they read as if it were gospel as long as it comes from the green source.
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I guess I feel that making judgment calls about what to eat is important to me. I’m not going to eat a burger laced with ammonia that was butchered so fast they didn’t even have the time to clean the shit off of it beforehand – hence needing the ammonia treatment. I’m going to try to avoid fish that are over-fished. If the lists you mention are based on inaccurate information – that needs to be corrected. Luckily I live in an area where I feel confident and have the luxury of going to the docks to get it and trust the people that put it there. People inland have no clue and trust these lists. Rabbit is actually quite a sustainable food though as they reproduce quickly, don’t require a large habitat, can be raised in your backyard, and provide a good protein source. I guess some things are hypocritical when you look at the big picture (like I’m typing on a petroleum-based product while railing on oil.) We’re all just trying to make good choices and trying to figure out what our moral boundaries are for ourselves. I would rather eat local fish than beef from Iowa and I think that’s sound rational judgment. I don’t think I need to eat all meat or none to be considered reasonable. I want the facts and will try my best to get them, usually from more than one source.
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If I didn’t know first hand about what goes on behind the scenes in the so called education of America about our own fishing industry I’d be a lot less skeptical about how these decisions are made as to what these groups call right and wrong. More times than not it isn’t about the facts, it’s about misleading the naive followers of these Eco foodie Nazis for greater financial gain in the name of environmentalism but really it’s about bigger issues like oil.
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I’m skeptical of everything! I just don’t have time to research everything thoroughly. That and things keep changing. Probably why I never got on the ball enough to post a list I have somewhere of unsustainable fish on my fridge! I trust my CSA, my farmer’s market, and my fish market – mostly. *LOL*
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We’ve all heard the phrase, ” follow the money “. DUH ! I know that things ‘politic’ are not discussed here but I have to say that any time the primacy, sanctity, and judgement of the individual is trumped by an ideologically driven bureaucracy you should be very wary.
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Just show me some empirical evidence – not anecdotal! I don’t dwell on this stuff too much but I am totally sympathetic to blackswanbeth’s POV and it breaks my heart to see an industry dying. I don’t think catch shares is the solution and fear that the family fisherman is going to go the way of the family farmer.
Bunny if prepared correctly can be very tasty. As does Bambi…
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