Half of all fish caught in the North Sea are thrown back overboard DEAD it says on the front page of celebrity chef’s Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s campaign website to change European laws governing this industry. After a visit to one of his restaurants last year when I left my email address I was invited to sign up as a supporter last year. Now more that 755,000 people have.
I did so without having to think hard because I had seen his Chicken Out campaign in 2008 and agreed with its objectives. This campaign has changed the way that people shop, Mr Fearnley Whittingstall claims. I believe he is correct and all c-store operators who stock any chicken – or fish – need to be aware of the provenance of the food they sell.
You may disagree. I have visited some great shops where people aspire only to cheap extruded snacks and cheap beer. But as a c-store retailer you need to understand your market positioning: what your shop stands for and what it does not.
If you agree with this then The Fish on Your Plate, a book by Paul Greenberg just published in paperback by Penguin, will provide you with an entertaining and informative read. There are five things you will observe:
Mr Greenberg is a journalist who has fished since childhood. He writes well. His book is divided into four chapters on salmon, sea bass, cod and tuna. Mankind, he asserts, eat four types of meat: beef, pork, lamb and goat and four types of fowl: chicken, turkey, duck and goose. It is the same with fish.
However, fish are wild food and not domesticated. Farming salmon does not make sense. But salmon is too important to be let alone. “Most supermarkets would not even have a seafood section if it was not for salmon,” one salmon farmer told him.
A problem campaigners for fish welfare face is the power of big manufacturers and supermarkets to get what they want. “Never get between a fat hog and a trough,” one friend advises Mr Greenberg. “He’ll run you over every time.”
The book explains how the supermarkets need all year round reliable supplies. The Marine Stewardship Council’s certification process may improve fish welfare but it is full of loopholes.
Consumers think in a binary way. Something is either good or bad. Traffic light systems don’t work. For example, people don’t eat whalemeat as whales are considered wild animals. People do eat bluefin tuna as it is a seafood.
Before reading this book, if you had asked me if John West tinned bluefin tuna, I would have said I don’t know. Today, I know for sure it doesn’t. “We have never been in the bluefin tuna business”, it says on its website.
The book is full of great stories that will help you to think about how your shop works in a range of different industries. You will be able to think about how to better present what you sell. This is also a book that will add energy to your life. It gives more than it takes.
I did so without having to think hard because I had seen his Chicken Out campaign in 2008 and agreed with its objectives. This campaign has changed the way that people shop, Mr Fearnley Whittingstall claims. I believe he is correct and all c-store operators who stock any chicken – or fish – need to be aware of the provenance of the food they sell.
You may disagree. I have visited some great shops where people aspire only to cheap extruded snacks and cheap beer. But as a c-store retailer you need to understand your market positioning: what your shop stands for and what it does not.
If you agree with this then The Fish on Your Plate, a book by Paul Greenberg just published in paperback by Penguin, will provide you with an entertaining and informative read. There are five things you will observe:
- The power of supermarkets
- The power of industry lobbies
- The problems of labelling
- The way consumers think
- There are only four types of fish!
Mr Greenberg is a journalist who has fished since childhood. He writes well. His book is divided into four chapters on salmon, sea bass, cod and tuna. Mankind, he asserts, eat four types of meat: beef, pork, lamb and goat and four types of fowl: chicken, turkey, duck and goose. It is the same with fish.
However, fish are wild food and not domesticated. Farming salmon does not make sense. But salmon is too important to be let alone. “Most supermarkets would not even have a seafood section if it was not for salmon,” one salmon farmer told him.
A problem campaigners for fish welfare face is the power of big manufacturers and supermarkets to get what they want. “Never get between a fat hog and a trough,” one friend advises Mr Greenberg. “He’ll run you over every time.”
The book explains how the supermarkets need all year round reliable supplies. The Marine Stewardship Council’s certification process may improve fish welfare but it is full of loopholes.
Consumers think in a binary way. Something is either good or bad. Traffic light systems don’t work. For example, people don’t eat whalemeat as whales are considered wild animals. People do eat bluefin tuna as it is a seafood.
Before reading this book, if you had asked me if John West tinned bluefin tuna, I would have said I don’t know. Today, I know for sure it doesn’t. “We have never been in the bluefin tuna business”, it says on its website.
The book is full of great stories that will help you to think about how your shop works in a range of different industries. You will be able to think about how to better present what you sell. This is also a book that will add energy to your life. It gives more than it takes.
One of our customers is chairman of the Chagos Trust and one of our daughters works in sustainability. What they both say about fish and how long it will stay on the menu is scary. For instance, I am told eating Cod is equivalent of eating Panda and 90% of the world’s fish stock has disappeared since 1945. The question that these facts leaves hanging in ones mind is when will fish be priced out of our diet and off of the supermarkets shelves?
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