Erik Hoffner’s Posts

• Ah, the sweet smell of composting putrescents

  Black (fly) magic 5

  Posted 3 weeks, 3 days agoBlack soldier fly larvae are all the rage in composting, and the star performer in a new kind of "ultimate vermicomposting" system.

• Octopus(sy) Galore

  James Bond calls for more marine protected areas 5

  Posted 1 month agoThe feds and the fishing industry aren't interested in new marine protected areas, but ocean advocates sure are. They get the message out with a new PSA starring Pierce Brosnan and a few other familiar faces.

• Bioreactor reaction

  Gulf dead zone fix falls flat 6

  Posted 1 month, 2 weeks agoIt's good to see a big Midwest "land grant" agricultural program that's concerned about the Gulf Dead Zone, and upper Midwest farms' large contribution to it.

• Urban Ag Revolution

  Will Allen talks about growing the 'Good Food' movement 3

  Posted 3 months, 1 week ago

  This weekend I caught up with Will Allen who was keynoting the always excellent Northeast Organic Farming Association's Annual Conference in Amherst, MA. He's founder and CEO of Growing Power, and also a MacArthur Genius Award Winner and former pro-basketball player.

• Prison Farms and the Future

  Canada set to close important asset: its prison farms 0

  Posted 3 months, 1 week ago

  In February 2009, Canada's Public Safety Minister and the country's Correctional Service announced a planned closure of all six of the prison rehabiliation farms because "prison farms are training people in skills that are 50 years behind the times."

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Erik Hoffner’s Recent Comments

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  RE: India and shrimp farming: indeed they are big producers only recently overtaken by Vietnam, if memory serves, and their corresponding loss of mangrove forests cleared for the farms has been devastating. This news story says it all about the situation you mention: Mangroves disappearing fast in Bhitarkanika: http://www.kalingatimes.com/odisha_news/news2009/20090705_Mangroves_disappearing_fast_in_Bhitarkanika.htm ErikOn So long and thanks for all the fish posted 18 hours, 5 minutes ago 44 Responses

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  I'm with Alida, catch and release is cruel. I practice 'catch and quit.' Got dinner? Check. Enjoy sunset? Check. I watch fishing shows to improve my knowledge, but find their endless rounds of self-righteous catch and release a real turnoff. Putting holes in fish, ruining their all important slime membranes, tiring them out to near exhaustion, all for sport is crude. And kills more fish than any fishermen are willing to admit, whether they use fancy release techniques and gear or not. ErikOn So long and thanks for all the fish posted 21 hours, 43 minutes ago 44 Responses

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  Thanks for the caution, Cliff. I think. You noticed I praised farm raised shellfish I hope, but the reason I single out shrimp and salmon is that they're among the most consumed farm raised seafood, if not THE most consumed. And they're growing, and awful in their impacts. I understand the excitement in your industry over finally inducing bluefin tuna to breed in captivity, and peoples' hope that it will save the species (even Richard Ellis), but that remains to be seen. The experience so far with raising predators like salmon in open waters has set the bar pretty low for sustainability in other aquaculture efforts. And understand I'm not coming at this from an animal rights perspective - I grew up working the fishing fleets of Long Island, have caught bluefin larger than myself, and still fish to this day, but not commercially b/c it was clear in the 80s what was coming in terms of the loss of fish populations. Pillage of some of my favorite fishing grounds turned me green. But for your possible enjoyment, here's proof that I still catch tuna to this day, though a bonito is a bit different from a bluefin: http://erikhoffner.com/erik.html ErikOn So long and thanks for all the fish posted 23 hours, 50 minutes ago 44 Responses

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  I'm with biodiversivist: AmazingDrX: you can't say 'buy only aquacultured' fish. Farmed salmon and shrimp are both ecological disasters. The only truly sustainable farmed sea life are clams, oysters, mussels. Inland shrimp farms are an improvement. Farming shrimp leads to mind boggling devastation of mangrove forests worldwide. Mangroves are havens of biodiversity, and protect coastal communities from typhoons and tsunamis. Shrimp farms are also notorious for their human rights/labor violations. Their often forced laborers apply disgusting amounts of hormones and pesticides in the reeking lagoons with no protective gear. And we eat that whole gross package when we thoughtlessly eat shrimp. Farmed salmon is causing the decline of wild salmon stocks. I would argue that canned salmon is a much better route. It's from wild fish, more often than not from fisheries which at least are not in precipitous decline. ErikOn So long and thanks for all the fish posted 1 day, 20 hours ago 44 Responses

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  So if feed is not the problem with farming tuna, Cliff, then what IS the problem with it, in your opinion? Regarding tuna food, stable how long? is the question for forage fish. The track record for 'fisheries management' is not good. But I see that your background is in Fisheries Engineering Research (!?), so I don't blame you if you think it works. I know that bunker don't go to tuna right now, but out in the real world, tuna eat menhaden, and in a world where the only tuna left are in ranches, we'll feed them whatever we can catch. I don't think bluefin will thrive on soy. And if the oceans are harboring schools of baitfish that grow tuna better than beans, you can bet factory ships are going to hoover them up. That tragedy of the commons again. Hungry whales, happy sushi chefs. Erik, Orion Grassroots NetworkOn So long and thanks for all the fish posted 2 days, 16 hours ago 44 Responses