August 06, 2004
8/6 - The Seafood King says, "We want people to think about their seafood, where it comes from"
Executive Chef John Besh of Louisiana was crowned Seafood King today at the Great American Seafood Cook-off. The culinary event extraordinaire in New Orleans was all about domestic seafood. Gold crown in hand, Besh talked with excited Food Channel producers, trade journal editors, and local media.
Food for thought: seafood
It's awkward, if not self-defeating, I think, to feel the need to include blatant promotion of the commercial fishing industry, such as this story, on the "shifting baselines" website. Fishing has caused immense damage to the ocean ecosystem - that much is a clear part of your message. And I'm not sure at all that we can reliably tease apart which fisheries "do" and which fisheries "do not" contribute to the worsening of the ocean problems today. Encouraging people to eat less ocean fish - overall - would be a safe and "precautionary" marine conservation message. However, stories like this one are just full of cheerful reassurance and encouragement to eat more fish (and largely for economic reasons). Including such items here with a bit of thoughtful editorial commentary might be a better approach.
Posted by: Debbie MacKenzie at August 9, 2004 05:31 AM