New York: The New Press, 2006
Stolen Birthright
Charles Clover writes about environmental issues for the Daily Telegraph in London. He brings a detail-rich writing and thorough research to this book, and he also brings a passion. Think Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth: Gore may reiterate the most important points a number of times with different examples, but hey — he’s driving home important points. Clover works similarly. His alarm and outrage are not expressed with enraged rhetoric but rather through a relentless examination of critical situations and their potential outcomes. He is, like Gore, a tenacious, tireless investigator. More than just studying those environmental, economic and international policies and agencies that regulate fishing, Clover climbs aboard, offering firsthand accounts from seaborne research on various fishing vessels in far-flung waters, including those off Senegal, New England, Spain and Newfoundland. The book jacket summarizes his findings this way: “High-tech fishermen are trashing whole ecosystems, wrecking economies, and impoverishing the lives of people in poor countries — all to put fish on our plates.”
Yes, we, the consumer, are implicated as part of the problem, because we are the market for the fish. It may be easier to point the finger of blame for overfishing at those huge-netted trawlers who destroy everything in their wake. But Clover feels consumers need to become conscientious and ethical eaters, and he advises avoiding endangered species, favoring fish that are less wastefully caught. (He mentions two helpful guides by National Audubon Society and Blue Ocean Institute). Clover points out that restaurants serving endangered species of fish may as well be serving rhino or panda — except that those wouldn’t be found on a menu. He asks Roger Berkowitz, CEO of the Boston-based Legal Sea Foods restaurants, about his concerns. Berkowitz does not offer Chilean sea bass and orange roughy because they are overfished, and avoids swordfish pups because they haven’t reached sexual maturity. He supports sustainability as an integral part of the qualities he looks for in fish. So, Clover asks him, why is cod on the menu? Berkowitz answers that they are reassessing that choice. They plan to offer only one cod dish in the future, and it will be sourced from hook boats out of Gloucester or Chatham, Massachusetts. Clover comments, “He says it’s a balancing act, supporting the industry but trying to back day boats and sustainable fishing methods. Well, he’s ahead of the field in thinking about it. And so he should be.”
At the end of the book, a list is provided, putting commonly eaten fish in categories for consumers. “Fish to avoid” includes Atlantic cod (unless caught with rod and line, or Icelandic, or farmed organically), Atlantic haddock, Atlantic halibut, bluefin tuna, caviar, Chilean sea bass, grouper, orange roughy, sharks, red snapper and swordfish. Among “fish to eat with a clear conscience” are lobster, mussels, oysters, pollock, sardine, striped bass, Pacific salmon and halibut, and tilapia (which Clover calls the “future of ethical fish farming” because — as vegetarian fish — they don’t require the use of other fish to provide meal).
A recent New York Times article (12/27/06) was titled “You Are What You Eat: 2006 and the Politics of Food.” The author referred to a crop of books, including Eric Schlosser’s popular Fast Food Nation and Michael Pollan’s prize-winning Omnivore’s Dilemma, as examples of consumer concern about the foods we eat. “It’s the recognition that food ties into extremely important social, economic, environmental and institutional issues. Ordinary people don’t have access to these really important issues except through food,” Marion Nestle explains in her book, What to Eat. “This is the year everyone discovered that food is about politics and people can do something about it.” Clover would concur. He concludes his book by saying, “I believe citizens are beginning to realize that their birthright, a healthy ecosystem, has been stolen, and they want it back. And smart fishermen are realizing that their fish have greater value, both social and economic, if they come from a healthy ecosystem. So what can citizens do about getting back their birthright? Impose ethical pressure on the fishery and on politicians through their buying habits. This is very important.”