Eat This Newsletter 279: No Excuses
Hello
Some weeks just happen to be less full than others, and this is one of those. Still, at least one makes up for it in wordage. There’s some spookiness too, in that a previous slim Eat This Newsletter, 244: Tuna, is mirrored and extended today.
“Feeding the World” is No Excuse
Is a fantasy the same as a delusion? That was my first question on reading a lengthy article challenging industrial agriculture. The piece suggests that “Feeding the World” is an “enduring fantasy”. It is the kind of article that ought to be the basis of an ongoing seminar.
The article is, as I say, long, backed by an impressive number of citations, and it makes a very good case that behind the rhetoric of feeding the world lie the same old colonialist and capitalist forces of extraction and dispossession. For as long as I can remember, though, the standard unacceptable reply to the urgent need to grow more food in order to reduce hunger is that there is plenty of food already but it is very poorly distributed. That’s why I think “feeding the world” as a reason for increased industrialised productivity is more of a delusion than a fantasy.
That, however, is a quibble. The authors tear into the latest manifestation of the delusion, as somehow enhancing sustainability: “According to this plan, those who got us into this mess will be the ones to save us.” Put like that, it does seem rather ludicrous that the productivity emperor still appears fully clothed.
They also demolish the notion of land-sparing, “that high yields in one place leads to habitat conservation in some (always anonymous) elsewhere”. Cellular agriculture is perhaps the most extreme manifestation and the least likely to have any impact on anything important.
As you can tell, and would have guessed if you have been following along so far, I am in broad agreement with the article’s arguments and conclusions. I wonder, though, whether anyone will be listening.
The problem is that the article is published in Spectre, which describes itself as “a new Marxist journal”. I applaud their decision to be upfront about their ideology, but honestly, they might as well be the Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion for all the good it will do them in policy-making circles. Seminars and discussion groups, however, should have a field day.
Teach a Person to Fish, Scientifically
About a year ago, I celebrated here the rebound of Pacific bluefin tuna after just a few years of scientific management, using sound numbers to guide quotas and abiding by those quotas for the most part. Now comes a report from the Pew Charitable Trusts, building on that and the recent FAO global fisheries assessment to conclude that Science-Based Fisheries Management Works.
The good news is that among the 2500 fish stocks the FAO looked at, 65 per cent are not currently being overfished. Among them, “87 per cent of tuna and tuna-like species (including mackerel and wahoo) are sustainable”. Of course, that still leaves the 35 per cent that are overfished, “a percentage that has increased annually in recent years”.
In a way, the fact that scientifically-based management works is not news; it always has worked, when adhered to. The hope now is that if fisheries — and governments — see that it works for species as valuable as tuna, they might be willing to give it a shot for other species too. The article makes the point that what is needed now is a move beyond annual or even multi-year quotas to something known as a harvest strategy.
These rules center long-term objectives, such as ensuring a species can fulfill its role in a healthy ecosystem as predator, prey and more. Unlike traditional fisheries management, which focuses mostly on commercial fishers’ annual revenue, harvest strategies have flexibility baked in so that, for example, catch limits can rise if a species is healthy or, if it’s not, be cut back until the population recovers.
Beware the Poppy Seeds
As a fan of poppy seeds in cakes and muffins, on bagels and bread, I’ve long collected stories about drug tests that mistake them for more nefarious substances. So a story about a woman whose newborn child was taken from her a day after she had eaten a Costco salad with poppyseeds earned my click. Must be slim season for the place I saw it, because the story surfaced originally in September 2024. It is kind of horrifying that, despite evidence that routine drug tests on urine are not reliable, plenty of hospitals and other entities still regard them as gospel truth. The article goes into details of several cases and the authorities’ excuses.
Take care
