By Paul Johnson Chinook salmon fishing has been scaled way back in California. Photo: Zureks/Wikimedia I've been selling fish for 30 years, and I'm pleased that my store, the Monterey Fish Market, has a reputation for exceptionally fresh and sustainably sourced seafood. We're lucky in that our customers support us in our mission to provide the best possible product that doesn't contribute to the destruction of our wild fisheries. I'm constantly impressed with their concern for the environment in general and their knowledge of fisheries issues in particular. We emphasize seasonally available fresh seafood from local, highly regulated fisheries: Dungeness crab, hook-and-line caught rock cod, albacore, squid, sand dabs, herring, and sardines. All of these species are caught in north state waters using methods that don't harm the base fisheries. We also sell oysters, clams, and mussels grown in environmentally
Season 7 of Bravo’s Top Chef will be based in Washington, D.C., reported the Metrocurean (no relation) a few days ago, with filming to begin in early April. That means that the popular reality show, with its supersized personalities and offbeat kitchen challenges, will be in Washington at the same time as Congress is considering the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, which provides funding and guidelines for the national school lunch program. (Need background on what's at stake? Read Debra
Cross-posted from Grist, where I am serving as deputy food editor (part time). Have locavores and feminists -- factions that a few years ago, some bloggers believed to be fundamentally at odds -- become allies? That's what Peggy Orenstein suggests in her essay, "The Femivore's Dilemma," for today's New York Times Magazine. The author of several
Back in my (much) younger days, I used to enjoy math class. I especially got a kick out of geometry and the formulas used to calculate area, perimeter or circumference, and volume. My mother and I used to have fun with one formula in particular: "What's the formula for the area of a circle?" she would ask. "Pi r squared," I'd say. "I always thought pie are round!" she'd reply with a smile. Now you know where my love of bad puns originated. Thanks, Mom! I still get a chuckle thinking about that little joke between us, and every March now, I start thinking about baking a pie for the 14th — a day otherwise known to my fellow nerds as Pi
The Ethicurean has been nominated for a TreeHugger.com Best of Green award, in the Food & Health category. The Best of Green Awards recognize "the people, companies and ideas doing the best in walking the sustainability walk within their respective fields," and the candidates are suggested by readers and winnowed by the editors. Then you get to vote. Starting today and running until Friday, April 2, 2010, you can vote once a day until voting
This is part 2 of a series on improving market-based seafood sustainability initiatives, inspired by a recent article published by an international team of researchers in "Oryx: The International Journal of Conservation." (See Oryx volume 44, pp. 45-56 doi:10.1017/S0030605309990470. Summaries available from Science Daily, AFP.) Part 1, "Why
For the past few weeks, I've been watching the snow drift down with deceptive lightness, only to accumulate in deep piles (18" and counting here in northeastern Ohio) that have well and truly buried any remotely green thing on the ground. While it's lovely to sit inside and watch winter's show, I also find myself reaching for the seed catalogs. Winter may not depress me as it does some people, but now and again I long for the scent of rich earthy loam, the soft but sturdy leaves of new seedlings, and the brilliant colors of garden vegetables. And lately I've been thinking that I really need to pull together my seed list, figure out a seed-starting
Seafood guides and other consumer-based campaigns are an important part of the quest for sustainable seafood and healthy oceans, but so far they have not shown enough positive results: bigger efforts are needed. That’s the main conclusion of a new article, "Conserving wild fish in a sea of market-based efforts," published by an international team of fishery experts in "Oryx: The International Journal of Conservation." A constructive and practical critique of the many earnest efforts to protect our oceans and their inhabitants from our insatiable
When it comes to comfort food — especially comfort food that is wrapped in "tradition" like the Jewish deli — change can cause a lot of discomfort. People want what they think will make them feel better. They want what they are used to eating, whether that means a chilled soup in the middle of winter, pickles made from imported cucumbers, or sandwiches piled high with delicious fatty meats. So it's not surprising that the proprietors of Saul's, a bustling restaurant and deli located a block north of Chez Panisse in Berkeley's
Every time I've looked out the window this week, I've felt a childlike glee at the sight of all the snow piled up. A whopping 18" dropped in 24 hours last weekend, a few more inches covered that earlier this week, and more is in the forecast. I really sympathize with the folks further south (south!) who have had twice as much snow and nowhere near the amount of equipment to deal with it all; after five years of living in Atlanta, I know how bad it gets when a snowstorm rolls through and no one knows how to deal with it. Here in Ohio, though, this is standard fare. Schools might close for the day or just be on a two-hour delay, and an occasional
Three months have passed since my last update on Local Roots Market in Wooster, Ohio. Back then, were on the cusp of opening at last. What's happened in the meantime? A lot. Following the close of the Downtown Farmers Market at the end of October, Local Roots Market opened as an indoor farmers market on November 7 with a roomful of tables for local produce and baked goods as well as individual freezers for producers' meats. Customers kept the market humming with enthusiasm and good energy as they visited with farmers
Health researchers have been unable to explain why several studies have found an excess risk of melanoma and other skin cancer for farmers. Farmers spend time in the sun — which is a major risk factor — but could it be something else? New research
City of angelic eateries: Some prominent restaurants in metro Los Angeles are striving to become more "sustainable" — a term without a legal definition at this moment and all too often used as a meaningless marketing term — through all sorts of new
High on grass: "We live in the age of grass," writes Olivia Judson, a research fellow in biology at Imperial College London, on the New York Times' Opinionator blog. Indeed, some of the crops that helped make humans an agricultural creature and create
A perfect shitstorm: On some farms, animal manure can be a valuable asset, a way to improve the soil in the fields. But for today's massive factory farms — and, increasingly, the nation's air and waterways — manure is a huge liability, reports the
Cracking down on methane labs: When animal manure decomposes, it releases methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide (on a mass basis). To avoid these emissions, some are installing manure digesters, in which bacteria convert the waste
Many months ago, thanks to a vigorous, multi-level campaign, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) secured pledges from big buyers like Burger King, Subway, McDonald's and Whole Foods to pay an extra penny a pound to Florida's tomato harvesters, bringing
Another reason to dislike the N-word: Fertilizer overuse creates many problems, like aquatic dead zones, resource depletion and blue-baby
Sheave ho! Of the top three grains produced in the U.S., only No. 3 wheat (after corn and soybeans) is not overwhelmingly dominated by genetically modified varieties. In fact, you won’t find GM wheat in the United States at all. Henry
Moan on the range: Multiple speakers at the Kansas Livestock Association convention recently addressed public relations injuries to the livestock industry, thanks to animal welfare groups and others. The good news is
Ad news bears: Three years ago, a group of large food and beverage companies launched a voluntary initiative to change their advertising during TV programs favored by children. They were supposed to advertise more healthy foods and drinks, and fewer nutritionally
A sampler of dispatches from the street-food universe. What this got to do with Ethicureanism? Well, unlike most fast food, good street food is made from fresh, real ingredients by independent sole proprietors. And it fascinates us because it's like the
The flavor of fairness: When a recent UC Santa Cruz study asked grocery shoppers on California's Central Coast to rank their concerns about the food system, respondents prioritized animal welfare above the treatment of human workers on the farms. This
Iron stomachs: True/Slant Matthew Greenberg takes on the Food Network again, exploring
Toxins tell tuna's tale: The Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) population is split into two groups, with the 45 degree meridian acting as a rough dividing line. Some fish swim across the line to feed or spawn, and scientists and fishery managers
Plowing up zoning restrictions: As urban farming grows, so do conflicts between city zoning laws and farmers. The Kansas City, Mo., City Council is looking to ease some restrictions, while other cities in the area stand firm. The issues — involving
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