Civil Eats

Paul Greenberg would have had one less chapter to write in Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food had fellow author Mark Kurlansky’s 2000 best-seller Cod caused a swift change in the way cod are harvested today. Although Kurlansky provided crucial information about the deleterious effects of industrial fishing, we left the responsibility of change to others. Greenberg is now attempting to revive the “bad human behavior of former times” to consciousness. His Pollan-esque investigation into our food chain—by way of salmon, sea bass, cod, and tuna—is as much an exposé on the fishing industry as it is a comment on “Modern” man’s desire to rule a larger food chain than was intended for him.

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Few seafood lovers can keep from salivating over a gorgeous piece of bluefin tuna. That’s the problem: There are too many seafood lovers and not enough bluefin. But Pacific albacore, a smaller tuna best known as “chunk white” in cans, happens to be plentiful and relatively cheap. Turn the other end of the food chain and you’ll find smelt, sardines and anchovies. Most people think of sardines or anchovies as bait – and they are. But both fish are phenomenal eaten fresh, and Monterey’s sardine fishery has returned with a vengeance after collapsing a generation ago. Read More