Bottomfeeder
2008
$19.95 (CAN)
Traveling the world to discover where the seafood on your dinner plate really comes from is not par for many people's course, but with Bottomfeeder in hand, you don't have to go far afield to learn why bottomfeeding is the way to eat.
Author Taras Grescoe takes readers from the oyster-wasteland of Chesapeake Bay to antibiotic-laden shrimp farms in India's "protected" mangrove forests that empty into the Bay of Bengal while expertly reporting on the condition of the fish and shellfish we love to eat and how humans are pushing these populations to their brink.
Pages of plenty: When it comes down to it, I really enjoyed Grescoe's book about the world of seafood. His fondness for fish (well, he was a pescavore and is now a self-proclaimed "bottomfeeder") and research into fisheries and seafood cuisine is impressive (who knew that when Julia Child introduced the monkfish to America, the goblin-faced fish went from fashionable to near collapse?). Chapters are made into regions around the world and are brought to life with scenes of fishing life and the species in their sometimes uninhabitable homes. Bottomfeeder reads like traveler's literature spiked with knowledge of a deep problem that must be solved. I was saved near the end of this book, wrestling with a sinking feeling about the enormity of the problems with most fishing practices, when Grescoe provides us with the necessary tools for selecting seafood that is best to eat and questions to ask the local fishmonger when picking out your next meal.
About the author: Taras Grescoe is no amateur writer, having works published in
www.seachoice.org (Sustainable Seafood Canada) and www.msc.org (Marine Stewardship Council) are good sites to begin your search for seafood to eat and those fish to avoid.
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