Fish consumption pattern are changing

In yesterdays SvD, there were 2 interesting articles dealing with fish and tiger prawn consumption.

The bigger article was about types of fishes that are being sold in Stockholm and which of them had a green, yellow respective red-listing status by WWF. What was interesting is that the majority of the fishmongers investigated by the journalists of SvD had plenty of cod, wild salmon, plaice and tropical prawns lying freshly ordered on the counter. "I try to convince customers to buy a sustainable alternative, however that is not always so easy" - sometimes I think about the phrase "It´s not easy to learn an old dog to sit", in this case is very applicable... The salesman goes on, "In the end, it is always the demand and access that governs - what the customers want, is what we have to sell, otherwise we would go under".

The other article reflected a decision that was taken from another approach. Tiger prawns, which cultivation demand cut-down of mangrove forests, has been a warm debate for quite a while now (listen to our radio show "the impact of eating: sustainable food consumption in Stockholm" here). Interestingly, 75 restaurants around Stockholm have now promised not to include tiger prawns in their menu´s after lobbying by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, pushing through a so called "prawn promise" to help save the mangrove forests in the world. The change has not been felt as problematic - "There have been no problems whatsoever to give up tiger prawns, we simply serve other alternatives"

So what we have here is fishmonger indecision and stall between red alerts from research and demand of customers versus 75 restaurants taking a proactive and deterministic approach to simply abandon what is unsustainable. On the other hand, simply switching the massive consumption from red-listed to green-listed species like perch, pike and alaskan pollock will simply, after a longer perspective, also make them red-listed unless we realize the most unsustainable motor; our own consumption patterns and the important insight that one planet Earth simply cannot manage the massive stress we expose it to.

So next time we want to buy fresh fish, let´s ask for a gree-listed alternative!

/Jimmy