Roughing It!

I read with interest the weekly circular from my favorite grocer (Wegmans) this week. Spokeswoman Mary Ellen Burris advised shoppers in her weekly column that Wegmans would no longer be carrying the very popular Orange Roughy fish over sustainability concerns in both the industry and within Wegmans. A round of applause please!

Consumers rarely take notice of fishing and farming practices as they relate to the meals that they put on the table. It is important that we, as consumers, sit up and take notice of the impact that these practices have on the environment--there's only one Earth after all. In this example, Orange Roughy--a popular, mild tasting fish from the deep oceans around the world, is a slow growing species that is in danger of extinction from over fishing. Because this fish lives on the deepest bottoms of the oceans, the only way for commercial fishermen to "harvest" this fish is through a process called "trauling". Fishermen drag a long net along the bottom of the sea floor and scoop up everything that catches in the net. Not only does this destroy the sea floor and beautiful coral beds forever, other species of fish caught in the nets during this process are considered "by product" and are disposed of as unusable waste. While many species of fish can successfully be farmed, the Orange Roughy's slow maturity and deep water habitat make farming a non-workable solution.

A consumer's best defense to protect both the environment and the individual species that are threatened with extinction are to be aware of which species of fish and, where ever possible, which companies provide sustainable products and practices. I attach for your consideration a website to the Earth Easy website. If you scroll down, you will see a list of popular seafood choices that have been categorized as either "Better Choice", "Moderate Risk" or "Best to Avoid", along with an explanation as to how the Earth Easy came to that assessment. I hope you will take the time to look, maybe even copy down the seafood chart and tuck it in your wallet so that the next time you think about "what's for dinner?" you won't be "Roughing It" too badly!!!


http://www.eartheasy.com/eat_sustainable_seafoods.htm