The fickel wording in todays food

In recent year there has been a boom in the use of the word sustainable in the food industry.  The facts themselves however, can be quite the opposite even if the company is supposedly holding the highest standards.  Which is a problem especially in the fishing industry where in the past 50 years we have had more trouble getting it to the plate with so much demand depleting our chances at sustainability.

This is Dan Barber 

You might know him from Times magazine in 2009 as one of the 100 worlds most influential people.  He also was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition.  What I know him for and other in the culinary world is his restaurant Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns.  What he is know for is his knowledge and application of farm to table.  If you watched Chef"s Table specifically the first season episode two its all about him.  Why I am talking about him today though is about his Ted Talk in 2009 about sustainable fishing the episode titled How I fell in Love with a fish but first a few facts on over-fishing:

Now these numbers have slightly shifted since 2009 in his episode but the fact remains that this is a catastrophic problem not only in the kitchen but in the ability for us to eat in the future.  So whats being done?  Well people started fish farming and in a lot of ways it has gotten a bad rap due to the fact it pollutes close to shore and the ration feed to produce is usually pretty bad.  In some cases its as he states in the video a 15 to 1 ration on tuna (really bad).  For reference cattle is 6 to 1 and that's still not great.  Maybe the worst part though is how a farm prides itself on a low ratio in the episode a 2 to 1 (great).  Until you realize that a sustainable protein (chicken) makes up 30 percent of the food and logically how is that in any way the term sustainable?

Not to ruin his talk or for that matter butcher it I will end on this train of thought.  The world isn't going to be saved by the owners of big business or Monsanto.  It's going to be done by biologists and farmers that through trial and error mimicking nature that will.  A large part of educating the public is going to rest on the shoulders of men like Dan Barber in restaurants.  Cooks have long known that fresh wild fish tastes the best we also have been keeping it to ourselves when we get fish and when not to order it on the menu specific days of the week.  In the end like Dan says it all has to do with relationship.