Taras Grescoe

As promised on Monday, a post devoted to Taras Grescoe’s Bottomfeeder, which I just finished reading.

I’ve heard Grescoe called the “Michael Pollan for the oceans,” and I think that designation is pretty accurate. They are both compelling writers -- Pollan deals with the land and how it feeds us (and how we treat it in return), and Grescoe does the same for the oceans.

My friends and family have noticed that in the past few months, especially since I started reading Taras Grescoe’s new book Bottomfeeder, I’ve become a sustainable seafood evangelist. (More on that book at a later date, it deserves its own post.) “Is that farmed salmon?” I’ll ask, or, eyeing some frozen shrimp, “Do you know where those come from?” In fact, I ought to tone it down a notch – otherwise I have a feeling people are going to stop inviting me out for meals.

Yesterday's New York Times featured an eloquently urgent op-ed about the demise of wild Pacific salmon. The author, Taras Grescoe, is swearing off salmon for two simple reasons: "it's too scarce and too expensive." While wild Atlantic salmon are already commercially extinct, the commercial Chinook season in California and most of Oregon has been canceled for the first time in 160 years.