Give a Man a Fish Feed Him for a Day Teach Him to Fish Feed Him for a Lifetime
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish (sustainably) feed him for a lifetime
Blog post DP3 of 4 for the subject Socio-Economic Development Perspectives
As an international student in Madrid, I don't get much mail in the post.
When I come home and check my mailbox, the majority of what I receive is junk mail or promotional flyers. Most of it I discard directly into the recycling. However, for the past three weeks, I have started a collection….and I am now up to five different menu-flyers advertising sushi and sashimi. These flyers impact me, because they remind me of something I have witness in the past two decades of my life….
When I was growing up in my area of Melbourne, I remember when the first Japanese restaurant opened in the nearby high street shopping area in the early 1990s. This restaurant became very popular. Not only did this particular restaurant become very popular but as a society, in Australia our demand for sushi (and sashami) has exploded. Delicious and nutritious, sushi has undoubtedly become a regular part of the diets of many lifestyle, fashion and health conscious consumers around the world. Every time I go back to Melbourne, I am shocked at the saturation of sushi restaurants and takeaway places throughout the city and suburbs alike. In my local high street, where there was only 1 Japanese restaurant in the early 1990s, on last count, by 2012…I counted 12 different places now selling sushi – that is, selling numerous types of different fish and seafood, most commonly, Tuna and Salmon but also Eel, Yellow Tail, Swordfish, Prawns…etc.
But this seemingly insatiable appetite and demand for sushi has not just been happening in Australia. In my experience, it is a semi-global metropolitan trend. When I traveled to Rio De Janeiro in 2006, I was amazed at not only the popularity of sushi but the relatively low price…I remember being able to buy huge platters of Salmon and Tuna for about $20 Australian dollars, something that would have cost well over $60 dollars at the time back in Australia. Similarly, in Berlin, in just the three years I was living there, I witnessed the explosion of availability and demand in "Rabatt Sushi" (discount sushi)…and now in Berlin, it is not just available in Japanese restaurants…many Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants have also started offering sushi specials on their menus in order to capture the trend and meet the demand.
Which brings me back to the numerous flyers I have recently received in my mailbox in Madrid. For an international capital city, Madrid has maintained a very strong emphasis and availability of Spanish food culture. However, even in a city like Madrid, the demand for sushi restaurants has done a pretty good job at market penetration (or at least penetrating my mailbox).
So, let's take a step back from our mailboxes and a step back from our chopsticks, and ask ourselves, with such a growing demand for sushi, for tuna and for salmon, and for all other types of fish and seafood in general…is there a point where our demand will exceed the supply?
Unfortunately, the answer is yes.
It is hard to imagine, given the immense varsity of the oceans which cover 71% of our planet, that man, thanks to the industrialization of commercial fishing operations is fast reaching this point. And in some cases, this point has sadly already been reached, such as the case of cod fishing in Newfoundland in Canada as mentioned in the below video which exemplifies the current situation with overfishing and the Bluefin tuna:
Overfishing & Bluefin Tuna
This video states several quotes which I find very compelling. These quotes suggest the current state of our oceans and fisheries. They also in turn imply that the majority of the seafood we eat comes from unsustainable sources:
"According to reports by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, around 80% of the world's fisheries are over-exploited, depleted or in a state of collapse"
"half the world's fishing fleet could be scrapped, with no change in catch"
"overfishing happens because of a lack of management and enforcement"
In addition, not only does the video explain some of the science and industry practices that cause the problem but is also discusses the problem in a broader developmental context, in terms of the knock-on effects and threats towards global sustainability:
"the ocean is an important global common, and its lack of management, dangers the biodiversity of the ocean, as well as the ocean as a valuable food source"
"depletion of predator species, such as the Bluefin Tuna, may cause the ocean to become full of plankton, jelly fish and other small plankton eating fish" (that is, species not edible by man)
" the extinction of species and the environmental degradation caused by commercial fishing, threatens the fragile ecosystem within the ocean and even the humans who rely on the ocean resources"
"fishing is essential to the livelihood and food security of millions of people, especially those in the developing world"
What the above quotes imply, is that the depletion and mismanagement of one species may not only result in the end of sushi for those at the top of the pyramid, but it has much more serious and wider implications for the millions of people at the bottom of the pyramid who depend on the ocean for their survival.
The question then stands. How can we prevent this situation from happening? Can we have our cake/fish and eat it too? Moreover, in this era where land based agriculture represents so many environmental, economic and political challenges, how can we prevent ourselves from depleting the ocean? Depleting what could otherwise be a perfect self-renewing and reliable source of food that requires no input from man at all. As exhibited in the video, unfortunately regulation, monitoring and enforcement of our fisheries is controversial, inefficient and difficult. Therefore, in the absence of effective structural safeguards, do we, the consumers, just sit back, say there is nothing we can do and wait for the point of no return? Or can consumers play a more active role in changing industry practices from the outside? Can we, through our demand, demand better standards?
I believe that the majority of consumers currently do not demand better standards because they are simply not aware of the consequences of their consumerism. Furthermore, we are not aware of our role and power as consumers, who through our uninformed purchases, are ultimately showing support for the current industry practices and unsustainable levels of demand and supply.
So next time you are in a sushi restaurant, in the cafeteria at school or in the supermarket and considering to buy fish and seafood…you should ask for this information: which type of fish is this? Which ocean did it come from? How was it caught and is it coming from a credible certification of sustainability?
While I have given sushi as an example of the relationship between consumerism and overfishing, I would like to strongly emphasis that overfishing is not a consequence of just our demand for sushi directly. Instead, it is indicative of a systemic issue. A systemic issue arising from our current focus on economic growth as the developmental model. Demand and Supply. Supply and Demand. And it is this growth that has seemingly lead to unsustainable, unethical and unimaginable industry practices. Something I will address in my next blog…
Comments Off on Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish (sustainably) feed him for a lifetime / 12 Jan 2013 por Daniel Salter
IMSD /
Source: https://www.eoi.es/blogs/imsd/give-a-man-a-fish-feed-him-for-a-day-teach-a-man-to-fish-sustainably-feed-him-for-a-lifetime/
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