7 Comments

Thanks for posting this great info, Alan.

I took the ResistBot action about increasing CMS Medicaid pay for psychiatrists. We need to defeat the obstructionist Republican politicians who continue to block realistic funding for a safety net along with the convicted felon who has taken over their party.

Let’s talk offline about making fish palatable. I have some restaurant ideas in mind.

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Since oceans and rivers have become dumping grounds for waste of all sorts (including heavy metals such as mercury), there is wisdom in chosing the fish we eat carefully. Factory farming is a questionable source of fish. How fish are caught is another issue. Modern netting and trawling practices do a lot of damage to ocean flora and fauna. Species of fish (sole and orange roughy are two examples) have been overfished to (near) extinction because fishing has focused on profits only rather than concern for sustainability. Do the research before you jump into thinking that eating more fish is a panacea for anything. Modern living has its downside.

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There’s an app that helps with this called Seafood Watch. Do you have some links for doing this research?

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Gary,

Thanks so much for this. I have the app now and will explore the site later this afternoon.

I like seafood very much. My husband was a commercial fisherman when we lived in a tiny fishing village on the big island of Hawaii. The villagers used hand lines rather than fancy nets and technologies. We all made a decent living while honouring the fish and the ocean. And, of course, we ate all sorts of marine life. It was never boring.

While I was living there, I learned from the villagers (who were mostly native Hawaiians) that during the time of Kamehameha, fishing was regulated so that it remained sustainable. We should have that wisdom nowadays.

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Taera,

Hawaiian sea life is special and the variety of seafood available on the islands is exceptional and oh, so fresh. As you write, “it was never boring.”

Yes, we need a sustainable catch and high standards for fish farming. Will we ever get there while profiteers and entire nations mine the sea indiscriminately for short term gain? I’m not optimistic.

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Nor am I, Gary. Capitalism’s only focus is profits. Earth is just a resource to be exploited.

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Adding to my previous post, I just read this about plastic bags in “What We Leave Behind” by Derrick Jensen and Aric McBay: “….. plastic bags only break down into smaller, almost invisible, pieces of plastic. The polymer itself still takes at least 1000 years to break down. In the meantime, these small pieces of plastic are often confused for food by animals, especially marine animals.” We, in turn, eat those marine animals. Of course most, and possibly all, of our food is contaminated in some way….so maybe no matter what we eat, we are ingesting things we should avoid but cannot.

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