Comments Greengoddess has made

  • Bottom up and top down

    I was talking to a fishmonger here in Montreal today after I saw he was selling Chilean Sea Bass, Red Snapper, Skate, and Monkfish. He said he stocks what the customer wants. If he doesn't, then the restauranteur who buys $200 worth of sea bass per week, for ex., will just go elsewhere. I got him to admit that he will only stop selling a species (or a species from a certain place) if 1) the customers stop asking, and 2) the government declares it illegal. Otherwise, it's business!
    I told him that I wanted to buy squid in his place, but I would not because of his unsustainable choices. He "wished me well" and sent me on my way.
    Lesson (if extrapolatable to other fishmongers): we all must be educated and MOUTHY (always polite, of course; no one wants a cause associated with jerks) in the right places AND we must put pressure on powers that be to close certain fisheries or regulate them to the nth degree. I would prefer the latter because there are literally millions of people who do not read or listen to anxious environmentalists such as myself, so the government (sad to say) has to do the "boycotting" for them.
    Just a word on shrimps, for those who love them and don't want to contribute to mangrove destruction or turtle death: try Matane (Nordic) shrimp from the Quebec Gaspé region. They're coldwater animals, wild, and sustainably caught to the best of my knowledge. Not big enough to butterfly but very tasty, pink and delicious anyway! Only seafood this mostly vegetarian will eat (for health, not so much for taste). I think they may be in season now.On Fishing for hope at a seafood-industry trade show posted 1 year, 9 months ago 6 Responses

  • Easterbrooke's dark record

    I always read Easterbrooke's comments with a pinch of sea salt, having learned his true nature in the early 90s. He wrote a long piece in the NY Times mag about the African elephant. He claimed that conservation groups rang alarms about poaching, and called for CITES I regulation of ivory, only to raise money for themselves (by panicking animal lovers). He went on and on about this, how numbers of elephants were actually high, blah, blah, and oh yes, it's all about the money. I was thoroughly irked by this, but I truly put him on my s*** list when he came out with some Wise Use movement type of tome called One Moment on Earth (if memory serves me correctly). More blah blah. As a writer and environmentalist, I tend to rant against people who write badly (not to mention those who know squat about nature). However, there is a special ring in hell for those who write well about the wrong ideas (wrong as in not mine!), well enough  that they can misinform readers stealthily. Easterbrooke writes persuasively - but get out the NaCl!!!On Easterbrook's disincentives posted 3 years, 6 months ago 2 Responses