Food writer Paul Greenberg offers some startling statistics in his new book American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood. Although the U.S. controls wide expanses of ocean, lake and river, 91% of the seafood we eat comes from abroad, yet one-third of America’s seafood catch is exported. It’s a fishy situation, which Greenberg explains by corporate consolidation (driving out indie fishmarkets) and outsourcing (most of the shrimp we eat is farmed in Asia) along with environmental degradation. New Yorkers used to eat oysters caught offshore, but pollution made the shellfish dangerous to consume. Greenberg calls on us to try to link what we eat to our local ecosystem whenever possible.
