Off the radar

The fish market for many people is a tourist attraction, not a place to buy their weekly fish supply

Food in the Streets usually talks about the relation between the producer and the consumer, the city and the countryside and food in general. In short: people, food and cities. Many blogs have been posted on fruit and vegetables, fast food, meat, eating as a social thing, the problems with food politics and so on. But in the last two years the word fish has hardly been named. Until today.

When we’re talking about growing our own food or getting food in a responsible way, mostly we cover the fruit, vegetable, grains, dairy and meat part. But to have a good food balance it turns out to be important to include fish in your diet. And as many people have grown-up healthy with a diet full of fish, I think we need to consider this advise serious.

A harbor full of small, colorful fisher boats always appears romantic for those on the quay. But growing, collecting and eating fish has its difficulties. Fish likes to swim in the deep and unpredictable oceans which makes the profession of a fisherman a hard an insecure one. If there’s no fish, there’s no income. 

Because of our hunger for fish mankind has developed all kinds of technologies to make it easier to trace them. There are radar systems helping to find the shoal of any fish you like. An unfair way from the smart people to be able to catch up with the also not very stupid fish. It’s just that they don’t have the means to beat the humans.

But these systems haven’t only beaten the fish. Because of the large scale fishing of the last centuries many species have become extinct. Among those species the small fisherman living in a small village where for centuries most people where in one way or another made their money in the fish sector.

This world wasn’t there if it wouldn’t be able to find a solution for its problems. So it will go for the fish. 

Last weekend Slow Food organized for the sixth time a great event called Slow Fish. A small fair in the former port of Genova, where people with a heart for fish, show the consumers what they have to offer. In the line of Slow Food this would be small scale, sustainable (no overfishing, no harm to other creatures in and around the water) and a renewed version of the old traditions. Which usually makes delicious fish, an admirable environment and an economic healthy region.

The fair was visited by many. Hopefully by people who didn’t only come there for the free tastings and the artiginal beers on offer. This fair could help to grow the attention for the problems in the fish sector and enable the fisherman to find a solution for them. Let’s get the fish on the radar again.