Friday, June 3, 2011

Having Fish Tonight?

I received an email a while back from a lady named Beth Lowell, she works for Oceana and is a dedicated person. We should all be thankful for people like her. That is people that dedicate their lives in all fields that protect us from harm, especially in the food industry.

She says you don't have to be in the ocean to be able to appreciate it, Beth likes to walk the sandy beaches to unwind and collect seashells. This is her first time working for an organization whose goal specificically to protect the marine habitat. She says here at Oceana, I work on the Dirty Fishing Campaign to increase funding for marine mammal protection programs strengthen the Matine Mammal Protection Act.

Here is her message on the email= when you buy fish for dinner you probably think that the fish listed on the label is actually the type of fish you are buying. But what if the fish you cook for your family isn't what it says it is?

Recent studies have found that seafood may be mislabeled as often as 25 to 70 percent of the time, disguising species that are less desirable, cheaper or more readily available, which means you could be feeding your family mislabeled, unsustaimable fish.

The FDA has the power to enforce better labeling, increase inspections, and improve seafood safety, but they won't do them. We must tell the FDA that we want safe, legal and honestly labeled seafood.

You have the right to know where the fish you eat comes from, what kind was caught and if it was farmed.You should be able to trace your meal, if companies aren't telling you the truth about what fish you're buying, and follow health and safety laws.

I think we should find out where to go to post our opinions on this. I mean after all the government created the FDA, so they should be responsible for the FDAs action.

18 comments:

Kavita Saharia said...

Good to know people like Beth Lowell.Her efforts will sure help the cause.Thanks for the post.

My Unfinished Life said...

well, i dont' eat fish!!...and the ones my family buy(hubby. mum and brother) are fresh from the market not the frozen variety!!

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Enjoyed the post Margaret, thanks for sharing.

Yvonne.

Anonymous said...

The FDA is like any other big government bureaucracy, it starts out good and soon gets to big for it's own pants!

dr.antony said...

Hi Margaret,
You have raised a very valid point.The price of fish has skyrocketed here.One Kg of King fish costs about 50 Dh (14 dollars),and so ,when we buy frozen fillets,it is easy to get cheated with cheaper fish.As you said,they never mention the source.Often they import fish from places like Bangladesh and sell them as if they are caught locally.

Linda said...

This is very important indeed.

We quit shopping at Walmart a few months ago and I don't miss it, but on one of our earlier trips there, I was shocked that the Salmon was marked "product of China". NO THANKS.

Joseph Pulikotil said...

Hello Margaret,

Very useful post. Surely we should know what fish we and our family are eating. This applies to people who buy from supermarkets and cold storages where fishes are cut,sliced and labeled. But people like me buy fish from the fish market where you can see the full fish brought from the nearby sea. Yet one has to be careful to find out if the fish is fresh.

Best wishes,
Joseph

Urmi said...

I love all types of fish specially salmon and prawn. I enjoyed reading your post. Feel like preparing fish curry for dinner.
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Anonymous said...

Hello Margaret...

I think lots of things we eat is like that. Especially in so called "organic" farming/gardening. As for fish, unless they are farmed fish I won't eat them.

Anonymous said...

Only fish, fresh caught are for me...shrimp too. Hi Margaret, how are you? You always have interesting thought provoking post. :)

Patty said...

I love almost any kind of fish and shrimp. But I don't care for most fish sticks. Too much crust/breading and not enough fish. Abe doesn't care as much for fish and shrimp as I do. We've had a busy week-end, our Grandson graduated Sat. afternoon in a class of 667 students, it went pretty fast. But then we stopped at our one daughter's apartment so two of her sisters could look through some scrapbooking items she's getting rid of. Sunday we had a family reunion, left around 11 got home around 7. Just two tiring days. But then it doesn't take much to tire me out. Yesterday i didn't do much, did mow the front yard in the evening when things cooled down, and got out there early this morning and did the backyard. Just gave the birds some fresh water and watered two little shrubs that were planted about a month ago, the heat was making their leaves curl a little. Right now at 7:35 it's still 92 degrees. Tomorrow have to take the car and see about getting new tires, same tires are on it that came with the car, it's a 2003, but it's only got a little over 47,000 miles on it. Hope all is going well at your place. Stay cool.

A New Beginning said...

People like Beth Lowell are doing a great job, thanks to them all of us enjoy the world is a better place!

DeniseinVA said...

A great post Margaret. I'm going to bookmark your post to remind me that I need to be more aware when I buy fish. It is so important to our overall general health. That old saying, "We are what we eat" there's a lot to be said for it.

Thanks for stopping by. I feel the same way about statues, so we'd be good company for each other :)

Anonymous said...

WOW, I would never have suspected this. I always learn something here. I love fish, too. I hope your husband is doing better and you have a good weekend.

Becky NY USA said...

Interesting you should post on this Margaret. I was watching a TV program on this very same subject last week, and I really didn't realize some of these fish were mislabeled.You really have to be careful what you buy.
B.

Heidrun Khokhar, KleinsteMotte said...

There are many other things along the same line happening. Labels don't mean anything anymore. We have lost the ability to control a lot of things and the gov't really doesn't help.

caspersmom said...

I found this post very interesting. Guess you can't count on the government for hardly anything. Guess it's on the same line has trying to make other food better by genetically messing with it. Pretty soon if you just want plain food you will have to grow it yourself. At least then you will know what you are getting.

Kay said...

There was something about this in the news here in Hawaii. It's really frustrating when we can't trust our food. We do eat a lot of fish and want to think that what we're eating really is what it's labeled as.

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