Author Taras Grescoe has a new book out called Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood, which takes a long hard look at the industry that puts seafood on your table, and comes up with some pretty revolting revelations. Below, some "frightening facts" to think about on your next trip to Red Lobster, lifted directly from the publisher's marketing materials:
- "Farmed salmon is fed with a meal made from the hydrolyzed poultry feathers and the ground-up carcasses of chickens culled from avian flu outbreaks.
- In 2007, melamine, the toxic additive from China that killed pets throughout North America , was found in the pellets used to feed farmed salmon.
- Scallops are routinely soaked in STP, a neurotoxicant used in paint strippers and carpet cleaners, so they'll retain water and weigh more at supermarket check-outs.
- In almost two-thirds of stores in the United States , inspectors have found that salmon sold as high priced "wild-caught" is actually from a farm.
- Thanks to global warming, eating grouper, red snapper, and other reef fish is infecting increasing numbers of diners with ciguatera, a potentially fatal disease that causes vomiting, abdominal cramps, and bizarre neurological symptoms.
- Prawns are routinely rinsed in chlorine to kill pathogens, and processors in countries like India and Thailand use caustic soda and borax to artificially color the prawns they export to Europe and North America .
- Because juvenile salmon are now stocked in freshwater lakes in South America before being farmed, they're picking up parasites from lake fish. For the first time, eating salmon, in the form of gravlax, salmon sashimi, and ceviche, can give you tapeworms.
- Because of high levels of mercury, Health Canada recently advised that children under five should eat no more than one can of albacore tuna per week.
- Scottish farmed salmon is so laden with PCBs and dioxins that, according to Environmental Protection Agency standards, having a fillet more than once every four months significantly increases your risk of cancer.
- Tilapia and tuna are treated with carbon monoxide, also known as 'tasteless smoke,' to prevent them from turning brown. A piece of tuna sprayed with tasteless smoke will remain a marketable cherry red even if it's kept in a car's trunk for several months. "
Delicious!
If you haven't got the book, I'd highly recommend a look at Grescoe's website, which offers a handy summary of what seafood to eat while if you want to retain both your health and your environmental ethics.
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