Seafood Dilemma

Thanks to Laura for sharing this list of seafood recommendations under the Seafood Watch section of the California Monterey Bay Aquarium website.

With all I’ve been reading about the food industry lately, I decided to check out the links to the most popular fish we have down here and see how our fish options stand:

Hake
This might be a good option, depending on what kind of hake it is. Signs at the grocery store or fish markets just say “merluza,” so there’s no saying there. Some hake is a good alternative, and other (white) hake should be avoided.  It’s all from the Atlantic, so who knows.

Salmon
I’d assume we’re getting farmed salmon down here, so that’s a terrible option. There are several huge fish farms in Chile, and I think they mainly produce salmon. So that’s clearly not a sustainable choice.

Sole
Since we’ve got an Atlantic coast, I’d assume we’re getting Atlantic and not Pacific sole, which apparently is being overfished, unlike its Pacific counterpart. Atlantic sole is marked as “avoid.”

Rainbow Trout
From the options on the list, which are all US trout, it’s hard to tell whether our trout down here is a good or bad choice. I know they can be found “naturally” in rivers and lakes in the Patagonia (they’re not native but were introduced years ago), but where is the stuff we buy in the grocery store coming from? My first guess would be farms, which is not good.

So, from the looks of it, fish is a terrible choice for sustainable eating in Argentina, which leads me to re-think our diet.

I think I’ll go pick up some tofu tomorrow after the gym. It’s been a while since I made that for a meal. Though, I can probably guarantee you it’s made with GMO soy. Eating is so frustrating these days, if I actually stop and take the time to think about where my meal is coming from.