Each year, we grind up one-third of all ocean-caught fish to feed industrially raised pigs, chickens, and farmed fish. That's 30 million tonnes of fish turned into fishmeal and oil. What a waste.
So tomorrow at the Science Bloggers conference in North Carolina, Shifting Baselines will launch and distribute the first 'Eat Like a Pig' seafood wallet cards.
While I have written extensively about why consumers alone cannot save our fish, I hope this card can raise awareness (to the inexpensive tune of $20 for 1000 cards) about a simple message: we're wasting tasty fish on animals like fish, chickens, and pigs.
When is the last time you saw a pig fishing?
Never. But the industrial food production says that plumping pigs as quickly as possible is best for business, and that means fat and protein, which is why 30 million tonnes of tasty fish like sardines, anchovies, and herring are reduced into fishmeal every year.
But what's best for sustaining global fisheries? As we have seen with anchovies in Peru, we can take fewer fish from the sea and still generate the same revenue if humans, not animals, eat the types of fish listed on the 'Eat Like a Pig' seafood wallet card.
Reduce waste. Reduce overfishing. Turn fishmeal into a meal of fish. And 'Eat Like a Pig'!
Additional resources:
Articles I have written on this subject: Save Our Oceans, Eat Like a Pig, Consumers Alone Can't Save Our Fish, and The Toothfish That Bit Al Gore at The Tyee.
Peer-reviewed research in the journal Marine Policy (co-authored by Daniel Pauly): The Rise of Consumer Awareness Campaigns in an Era of Collapsing Fisheries and Trade Secrets: Renaming and Mislabeling of Seafood.
More on Patricia's Majluf's Extreme Anchovy Makeover in Peru in Daniel Pauly's article Babette's Feast and the article Golden goose or albatross?.
The Sea Around Us Project's report On the Multiple Uses of Forage Fish.
Stay tuned for more on fishmeal at Shifting Baselines as this project continues to grow...
p.s. Thanks to Sherman Lai and Chad Wilkinson of the UBC Fisheries Centre for their artistry!
Comments
But what about bacon? Bacon is delicious! We need our bacon or the world will cease to function.
But I don't know a lot about that. I haven't eaten pork bacon in 7 years and from what I remember of it, turkey bacon is superior.
Seriously though, fish is much tastier than pork or beef. Especially fresh fried crappie with cornbread and green beans.
Posted by: Toaster Sunshine | January 18, 2008 9:49 PM
Great initiative. It's time to raise awareness of this practice, and start leaving more fish in the sea. And sure, anchovies and co. are tasty on pizza, but the marine food chain needs 'em more.
So how much do Science Bloggers drink during this national conference? Enquiring minds want to know. Do the marine biologists drink like fish? The geologists probably stick to the hard stuff, but you never know...
Erik Orion Grassroots Network
Posted by: Erik Hoffner | January 19, 2008 10:31 AM
it's not just fish, it's everything to do with the carnivore lifestyle. We waste tonnes of grain on fattening up animals when cutting out this middle animal would feed all the starving people of the world. And we wouldn't be breeding wholesale resistance to antibiotics if we didn't feel we had to overdose animals with them.
Posted by: Ian | January 21, 2008 7:41 AM
Bloggers were nothing like sailors. And as for anchovies and bacon, eat them both. Just don't feed anchovies to pigs!!!
Posted by: Jennifer L. Jacquet | January 21, 2008 8:34 AM
Ian is 100% correct. Rather than creating an initiative to not feed fish to pigs, let's create an initiative for humans to become vegetarians-- that way, humans will 1.) be eating less fish themselves, 2.) not be eating pigs, who will not need food like fish to fatten them up for the slaughter, and 3.) doing the absolute best thing we could do to be helping the environment (literally a million times better than driving a Prius around!).
Unfortunately, the science conference didn't get that, and the people in my group who were vegetarians had nothing to eat at the barbecue dinner (as we had requested at registration).
Posted by: Libertarian Girl | January 21, 2008 8:42 AM
Reading things like this is very frustrating. I have stopped eating fish, largely due to concern about sustainability, despite enjoying them more than almost any kind of food. Seeing them wasted in this way makes it all feel pointless.
Posted by: Milan | January 22, 2008 8:03 AM
Reading things like this is very frustrating. I have stopped eating fish, largely due to concern about sustainability, despite enjoying them more than almost any kind of food. Seeing them wasted in this way makes it all feel pointless.
Posted by: Milan | January 22, 2008 8:03 AM
It seems like maybe you should go ahead and enjoy them yourself. One person enjoying them can't have the effect of a big corporation grinding them up into fishmeal! And there's nothing you can do to stop the big corporation as far as I know. Dave Briggs :~)
Posted by: Dave Briggs | January 22, 2008 10:01 AM
How fitting that you post this just as I'm reading Jacquet and Pauly (2006) for a brown-bag discussion :)
Posted by: Jonathan | January 22, 2008 10:57 AM
Jonathan, Shame I couldn't join you!
Posted by: Jennifer L. Jacquet | January 22, 2008 2:02 PM
Jennifer, do you REALLY want to brave the traffic to get to Burnaby Mountain? :)
Posted by: Jonathan | January 23, 2008 2:33 PM
This is a real question... are all these fish mercury-safe for us to eat? Is the mercury concentrated in pork, if not?
Posted by: speedwell | January 25, 2008 6:39 PM
Hi Speedwell, Good question, since not even fish oil supplements are safe. However,small forage fish are much safer than fish higher on the marine food web. Check out sardines and mackerel for instance at the Environmental Defense website, which provides health info. along with ecological information for many fish.
Posted by: Jennifer L. Jacquet | January 27, 2008 10:43 PM
What a bunch of moonbeams!
Posted by: rightwingnutjob | January 30, 2008 7:07 AM
Here is what I posted over at grist on your article Jennifer. Great blog!
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/2/12/11332/9852#11
I say switch to earth worms as a replacement protein source. Save the fish, save the oceans! Worms feed on the waste stream. nature's recyclers, leaving huge amounts of worm casting as organic fertilizer to enhance the soil's carbon storage capabilities.
The worms could be fed plant overgrowth from fertilizer run off polluted rivers and lakes. Amongst other waste stream sources.
Posted by: amazingdrx | February 13, 2008 12:15 PM
Using worms is a great idea and judging from some of the comments at Grist might actually have potential. They are making artificial 'fish' flavoring so that's not a problem. But the biomass of worms (or insects) needed would be great. Anything on the economics of raising worms? And any reason to prefer worms to insects (other than that they won't fly away!)?
Posted by: Jennifer L. Jacquet | February 13, 2008 8:21 PM