{"id":275713,"date":"2010-02-04T03:35:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-04T08:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1752027331714385066.post-5975635559567838377"},"modified":"2010-02-04T03:35:56","modified_gmt":"2010-02-04T08:35:56","slug":"sushi-chef-on-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/275713","title":{"rendered":"Sushi Chef on Sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Without question it is the consumer and his agents the sushi chefs who are able to demand changes in the harvesting of sea food.  <\/span>So much of this has gone on out of sight and certainly with operators who are inured to piratical behavior.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
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Sushi and conventional fisheries presently harvest a handful of species and do so in a mostly unregulated manner. It is clear from this article that this is an artificial classification and that the advent of regulation and sustainable practices will likely increase availability.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
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Today, what is not harvested for shippable product undoubtedly is reprocessed into feed or simply dumped.  <\/span>Since harvesting is using a wild feedstock, it is not surprising that only a fraction is presently used as human food.  <\/span>The same is true for land based husbandry. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
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My point is that we as customers are simply not equipped to even ask for changes for problems we know nothing about. Only the tuna today is attracting belated attention.  <\/span>It is the sushi chefs who can bring real pressure on the industry.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
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In fairness, the industry is in its infancy in terms of resource management and most attempts have been disappointing.  <\/span>I have posted from time to time on this problem but do believe we will master the issues, although I think that the first issue to repair is resource ownership.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
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Yet the sushi chefs do represent the premium market for the fishing industry and it is a fair bet it is most of their profit.  <\/span>Thus the industry will struggle to keep them happy.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
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Folks complain about factory farming, yet the practices of factory farming aim to optimize productivity which can only be achieved by minimizing the stress applied to the animals.  <\/span>It is visually not pretty but I am sure within the narrow circumscribed world the animal is at least comfortable.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
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Sea food harvesting is not farming but outright triage with little spent to protect or release the by catch.  <\/span>So exploiting much more of the by catch is something that sushi chefs can strongly promote.  <\/span>The consumer is certainly ready for it.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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We all need to support this type of initiative.<\/span><\/div>\n

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A Seattle<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> chef proves that traditional sushi and healthy oceans go hand-in-chopstick <\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
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http:\/\/www.grist.org\/article\/2010-01-29-a-seattle-chef-proves-that-traditional-sushi-and-healthy-oceans<\/a><\/span><\/i><\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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Growing up in small-town Montana<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, two things just made no sense: vegetarians and sushi. Why eat tofu, or raw fish, when you could just as easily have a big juicy steak? Coming from generations of cattle rancher stock, I read Jonathan Safran Foer\u2019s ringing defense of vegetarianism, Eating Animals<\/span><\/a><\/span>, with trepidation. But the only beef I ended up having with Foer was that he ruined my ability to enjoy the raw and the rolled\u2014right after I had moved to sushi paradise, Seattle<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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\u201cImagine being served a plate of sushi. But this plate also holds all of the animals that were killed for your serving of sushi. The plate might have to be five feet across,\u201d Foer writes. At current rates of fishery depletion, scientists predict the demise of most seafood by 2048<\/span><\/a>.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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Foer describes modern fishing as warfare. Hajime Sato has a similar take: \u201c[It\u2019s] like someone is beating somebody and I\u2019m just walking by and noticing it but not doing anything about it.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
But Sato isn\u2019t an environmentalist author or even a vegetarian. He\u2019s chef and owner of Mashiko<\/span><\/a>, a Seattle<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> sushi restaurant. Not wanting to throw punches himself anymore, he revised his menu to include only sustainable fish last August.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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Sato, who not only serves sushi but teaches others how to prepare it, knew the dreadful truth about certain fish. For a time, however, he served them anyway. But then he met Casson Trenor, author of Sustainable Sushi<\/span><\/a>.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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Trenor knows just about everything that\u2019s wrong or right about what can end up between your chopsticks. For instance, the most disgusting thing about shrimp isn\u2019t even their visible poop veins: \u201cSome shrimpers have been known to discard more than ten pounds of unwanted sea life for every pound of shrimp they keep,\u201d he writes.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
After talking to Trenor about sustainability, Sato said, \u201cOkay, within three months, I\u2019ll change it [the menu] entirely.\u201d Trenor didn\u2019t believe Sato. But, Sato recalls, \u201cI said \u2018No, when I say I\u2019ll do something, I\u2019ll do it. That\u2019s me.\u2019\u201d And he did.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
 <\/span>\u201cDon\u2019t do anything mediocre,\u201d he says. Not a surprising personal motto from someone who races motorcycles and whose diners are greeted by a sign that reads \u201cPlease wait to be seated. Unless you\u2019re illiterate.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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Sato took a big risk with his 15-year-old, award-winning restaurant.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
The first few months were rocky; Sato couldn\u2019t sleep for worrying. \u201cShould I go back? Am I doing the right thing?\u201d he asked himself, \u201cPeople don\u2019t get it.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
But business rebounded and he continues to be resolute about sustainability. <\/u>He finds careless pescatarians\u2019 logic odd and is incredulous that there are international laws against eating cheetahs, but Bluefin tuna have only very limited protection. \u201cYou can basically wipe the entire species out in a week and say okay, next …\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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Although the plight of the Bluefin tuna has made headlines recently<\/span><\/a>, Sato points out that eel (unagi) is the worst fish to serve. \u201cEel is actually [at] the category of extinction. It\u2019s not even endangered anymore. But people are still eating it,\u201d he says.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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The spooky thing about eels, besides their mean mugs, is their mysterious breeding habits. It\u2019s not just that eel lovin\u2019 is an unpleasant subject: \u201cThey [eels] go back and forth between fresh water and salt water about four or five times in their life. And we have no idea how they mate, how they reproduce at all. So let\u2019s not really touch the eel.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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Wild or farmed, eating unagi is never a good idea. In eel farms, they take the young from the wild and fatten them up. Those eels never even get the chance to do whatever only God knows they do in the dark.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Eel is classified as a red fish in Trenor\u2019s book. Helpfully, he divides fish into three color categories.  Green means chow down: \u201cThese fish and shellfish are caught or farmed in ways that don\u2019t have any major adverse effect on the environment.\u201d Nimbly nibble yellow fish: \u201cAnimals in this category are from fisheries that are either poorly understood or have some troubling characteristics. Limit your consumption of these animals.\u201d And red, of course, means by all means stop: \u201cFish and shellfish are caught or farmed in a manner that is inordinately deleterious to the health of the oceans.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Sato mostly serves green fish, but he serves some yellow, too. Occasionally a customer will ask him, \u201cAre you 100 percent okay with this?\u201d \u201cNo,\u201d he replies, \u201cI eat the same as any other practice I do. I drive a car.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
But what if every fish out there was classified red tomorrow?<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Then I\u2019m not going to serve. I\u2019m going to have a vegetarian restaurant. Which is totally fine. But I\u2019m trying to prevent it. I\u2019m trying to prevent it so we can do this. People tend to wait wait wait until the last moment and then freak out. Let\u2019s freak out just a touch more right now.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Keeping up to date on the status of each fish he serves takes a lot of time. \u201cYou cannot just stop learning about it,\u201d he insists.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Trenor and Sato\u2019s relationship continues. Sato reads Japanese publications on sustainability and Trenor reads English sources. They talk three times a week to share what they\u2019ve learned.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Sato, the first traditionally trained sushi chef to go sustainable, can\u2019t understand Japanese aversion to sustainable sushi: \u201cThe reality is, if you really read the history of sushi, tuna actually was not in there, [nor] toro, unagi … I\u2019m basically going back to what traditional is. They didn\u2019t have a huge fleet of boats.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Though he doesn\u2019t intend to challenge veteran sushi chefs (\u201cThey\u2019d kill me with a knife\u201d), Sato hopes to promote sustainable sushi and bring more chefs into the fold. He understands the difficulties of switching to and finding sustainable fish, but he\u2019s willing to share his experience and support those who face the same hardships.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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I had to say goodbye to distributors that I\u2019d been using for 15 years, which is really tough. They sometimes helped me out when I was in financial trouble,\u201d he says. He went from having four or five distributors to nearly 20 in order to fill out his menu.  He sees this as a plus for his diners, giving them choices far beyond the standard fare. \u201cThere\u2019s so many other fish. But some people don\u2019t get that,\u201d he says. Sato recommends diners relax and expand their tastes. \u201cToday eat this, tomorrow eat that. It\u2019s good for the ecosystem, economy, everything.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
In the past, his business philosophy was to make sushi affordable for everyone. He\u2019s kept his prices low and his sushi delicious, but his philosophy has changed to something he calls egocentric: \u201cI\u2019d like to keep my business longer than the next five years.\u201d<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Ultimately, Sato believes the fate of the fish and our ability to eat them in the future is up to the consumer. He hopes we choose wisely.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
If you\u2019re not in the Seattle<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> area, bring Trenor\u2019s book with you to your favorite restaurant, the grocery store, the fish market. Ask questions.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
The Monterey<\/st1:placename> Bay<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> Aquarium has a good, simple pocket guide<\/span><\/a> as well. And you can see how your local seafood restaurants measure up at Fish2Fork<\/span><\/a>. Finally, check out Mashiko\u2019s website sushiwhore.com<\/span><\/a>, where you can read Sato\u2019s blog about sustainability, peruse his mouth-watering menu, and watch silly sushi videos. (And it\u2019s pointed out that sake is sustainable.)<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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Without question it is the consumer and his agents the sushi chefs who are able to demand changes in the harvesting of sea food.  So much of this has gone on out of sight and certainly with operators who are inured to piratical behavior. Sushi and conventional fisheries presently harvest a handful of species and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275713\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}