Dan Barber How I fell in love with a fish
Summary
TLDRThe speaker reflects on their evolving relationship with fish, initially captivated by a seemingly sustainable farmed fish, but disillusioned upon discovering it was fed chicken. They then fall in love with a unique fish farm in Spain that doesn't feed its fish, instead fostering a natural ecosystem that purifies water and supports bird life. The story contrasts conventional industrial agriculture with ecological farming, emphasizing the need for sustainable, relationship-focused agriculture that benefits both nature and flavor. The speaker calls for a future of food grounded in ecological balance and sustainability.
Takeaways
- 🐟 A chef shares his journey with two distinct fish he loved, beginning with his experience supporting sustainable fish farming.
- 🌊 The chef acknowledges the widespread depletion of wild fish populations due to overfishing, emphasizing the need for aquaculture.
- 🚫 While fish farms are a future necessity, the chef discovers unsustainable practices like feeding chicken pellets to fish, leading him to fall out of love with the first fish.
- 💡 The second fish, farmed in a unique ecological system in Spain, is raised without external feed, eating naturally occurring biomass like algae and zooplankton.
- 🌿 The Spanish fish farm restored wetlands, created a thriving ecological network, and even supports a large bird population, including 600,000 flamingos.
- 🦩 The farm's success is measured by the health of its predators, like birds, which feed on fish eggs and shrimp, creating a balanced ecosystem.
- 💧 The fish farm also acts as a water purification system, filtering out contaminants and improving the water quality before it flows into the Atlantic.
- 🍽️ The chef praises the flavor of the fish from this sustainable system, noting that it tastes cleaner and more natural than fish from traditional farms.
- 🌍 The chef advocates for a new ecological model of farming, which focuses on restoration and sustainability, rather than industrial-scale, resource-intensive agriculture.
- 🔄 The overarching message is that sustainable agriculture and aquaculture, built on ecological principles, can provide a solution for feeding the world while preserving natural ecosystems.
Q & A
What issue does the narrator raise about the sustainability of farmed fish?
-The narrator highlights the unsustainable practices of many fish farms, such as inefficient feed conversion ratios (e.g., 15 pounds of wild fish for 1 pound of farmed tuna) and the use of unsustainable protein sources like chicken pellets.
What prompted the narrator to fall out of love with the first farmed fish?
-The narrator fell out of love with the first fish after discovering that 30% of its feed consisted of chicken pellets. This revelation made the fish seem unsustainable, and the narrator felt that it tasted like chicken.
How is the second fish farm described as different from the first?
-The second fish farm, located in Spain, is ecologically sustainable. It doesn't feed its fish artificial feed; instead, the fish eat what they would in the wild, such as plant biomass and phytoplankton. The farm also supports a thriving ecosystem, including bird populations like flamingos.
What was the ecological impact of the land before the Spanish company took over?
-Before the Spanish company purchased the land, it was used for raising cattle, which resulted in draining wetlands and creating ecological damage. This led to the loss of about 90% of the bird population in the area.
How did the Spanish company restore the ecological balance of the farm?
-The Spanish company reversed the flow of water through a series of canals, flooding the land to recreate wetlands. This restored the natural ecosystem, turning the area into a thriving fish farm and bird sanctuary.
Why are flamingos important to the second fish farm’s ecosystem?
-Flamingos are a sign of the farm’s ecological health. They feast on shrimp that thrive on phytoplankton, and their pink bellies are an indicator of the health of the system. The farm loses 20% of its fish and fish eggs to predators like flamingos, but this is considered a success as part of the extensive ecological network.
What makes the second fish farm's water quality unique?
-The water in the second farm is purified as it passes through the system. It starts as contaminated water from the Guadalquivir River, but by the time it leaves the farm, it is cleaner than when it entered, making the farm a water purification system.
How does the second fish farm define success?
-The second fish farm defines success by the health of its predators, like birds, rather than just focusing on fish production. The thriving bird population and the ecological balance of the farm are key indicators of its success.
What does the narrator imply about the current food system's flaws?
-The narrator criticizes the current food system for prioritizing efficiency over sustainability, leading to environmental destruction. Practices like feeding chickens to fish, using chemicals, and focusing on mass production have created a system that is damaging the environment and failing to produce truly good food.
What solution does the narrator propose for the future of agriculture?
-The narrator proposes adopting an ecological model of agriculture that prioritizes relationships within ecosystems. Farms like Miguel’s, which restore rather than deplete resources, are seen as the future of good food production.
Outlines
🐟 A Passionate Love for Fish and Sustainability
The narrator reflects on their past love for a particular farmed fish, praising its taste, texture, and the company's sustainable approach. However, upon further investigation, the narrator discovers that the fish feed contains 30% chicken, which contradicts the sustainability claims. This realization causes the narrator to fall out of love with the fish, highlighting the problematic nature of the current state of aquaculture and fish farming.
💖 A New Kind of Love for a Truly Sustainable Fish
The narrator describes a new type of love for a different fish they discovered in Spain. Despite being overcooked, the fish tasted amazing, thanks to a unique fish farm run by a biologist named Miguel. This farm, located in wetlands, reversed the environmental destruction caused by previous owners and created a thriving ecosystem where fish grow naturally by feeding on what they would in the wild, requiring no external feed. The farm symbolizes a harmonious relationship between agriculture and nature.
🌸 The Success of an Ecological Fish Farm
The narrator continues their exploration of the Spanish fish farm and its unique approach to farming. The farm prioritizes the health of the ecosystem over maximizing fish production, even allowing birds like flamingos to feast on 20% of the fish. The farm has become a vital bird sanctuary, attracting hundreds of thousands of birds annually. The farm's extensive, rather than intensive, farming model emphasizes ecological balance, demonstrating that success can be measured by the health of predators and the surrounding environment.
🌊 The Power of a Self-Sustaining Fish Farm
The farm's water, coming from the polluted Guadalquivir River, is purified as it flows through the system, thanks to the healthy ecosystem created by Miguel and his team. The farm not only produces fish without needing external feed but also cleans the water before it flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The narrator is impressed by how the farm functions as both a sustainable fish farm and a water purification plant, seeing it as a model for the future of food production and environmental restoration.
🌱 A Radically New Conception of Agriculture
The narrator argues for a new approach to agriculture, one inspired by ecological models like Miguel's farm. Instead of relying on industrialized agriculture that depletes resources and produces mediocre food, they advocate for farms that restore ecosystems and produce food that tastes good. The narrator critiques the current food system for focusing solely on feeding the world cheaply, resulting in environmental destruction, and proposes a shift toward self-sustaining, community-focused farming that benefits both people and the planet.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Sustainability
💡Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR)
💡Aquaculture
💡Chicken Pellets
💡Ecological Network
💡Bird Sanctuary
💡Phytoplankton
💡Water Purification
💡Extensive Farming
💡Flavor and Relationships
Highlights
The speaker initially describes their passionate relationship with a farm-raised fish that was supposedly sustainably produced but later learned it was fed unsustainable chicken byproducts, leading to a loss of trust.
Overfishing has led to the collapse of 90% of large fish populations like tuna, halibut, salmon, and swordfish, creating an urgent problem for chefs.
Aquaculture, or fish farming, is presented as a potential solution to overfishing, but it often faces sustainability issues, including pollution and inefficient feed conversion ratios.
The company behind the first fish claimed to have a sustainable feed conversion ratio of 2.5 to 1, but the speaker's investigation revealed that 30% of the feed was made from unsustainable chicken byproducts.
The speaker's second love affair with fish began in southern Spain, where they tasted a fish that remained delicious even when overcooked, revealing the quality of the product.
The farm in Spain, led by biologist Miguel, reversed ecological destruction by flooding wetlands, creating a 27,000-acre fish farm that restored the local bird population.
Unlike conventional fish farms, Miguel’s farm does not feed its fish. Instead, the fish live off the natural ecosystem, consuming plant biomass, phytoplankton, and zooplankton.
The farm’s success is measured not by fish yield but by the health of the predators, such as flamingos, which consume 20% of the fish population.
The Spanish farm has become the largest private bird sanctuary in Europe, housing over 600,000 birds from 250 species.
The water flowing through the farm, which is initially contaminated with chemicals and pesticides, is purified by the system before returning to the river cleaner than when it entered.
The fish farm is effectively a self-sustaining ecosystem, serving as a water purification plant that benefits the environment as well as producing high-quality fish.
The farm offers a model for the future of sustainable agriculture, one that restores ecosystems rather than depleting them.
The speaker challenges the agribusiness model, advocating for ecological agriculture that relies on natural processes honed over billions of years.
Agribusiness has driven food production based on quantity over quality, often harming the environment in the process, which is unsustainable in the long term.
The speaker concludes that sustainable food production needs to enable every community to feed itself and focus on quality and ecological harmony rather than mass production.
Transcripts
thank you
so I've known a lot of fish in my life
I've Loved only two
that first one was uh
it was more like a passionate affair
it was a beautiful fish a flavorful
textured meaty the best seller on the
menu
what a fish
even better
it was farm raised to the supposed
highest standards of sustainability
so you can feel good about selling it
I was in a relationship with this beauty
for several months
one day the head of the company called
and asked if I'd speak at an event
about the farm sustainability absolutely
I said
here's the company trying to solve
what's become this unimaginable problem
for us chefs
how do we keep fish on our menus
for the past 50 years
we've been fishing the Seas like we
clear-cut forests
it's hard to overstate
the destruction
ninety percent of large fish the ones we
love the Tunas the halibutes the Salmons
swordfish they've collapsed
there's almost nothing left
so for better for worse
aquaculture fish farming is going to be
part of our future a lot of arguments
against it
Fish Farms palute most of them do anyway
and they're inefficient take tuna a
major drawback
it's got a feed conversion ratio of 15
to 1. that means it takes 15 pounds of
wild fish to get you one pound of farm
tuna
not very sustainable
it doesn't taste very good either
so here finally
was a company trying to do it right I
wanted to support them
the day before the event
I called the head of PR for the company
let's call him Don
Don I said just to get the facts
straight you guys are famous for for
Farming so far out to sea you you don't
pollute that's right he said we're so
far out
the ways from our fish gets distributed
not concentrated
and then he added
we're basically a world unto ourselves
that feed conversion ratio 2.5 to 1 he
said best in the business
2.51 great it's like 2.5 what what do
you feeding sustainable proteins he said
great I said got off the phone
and that night I was lying in bed and I
thought
what the hell is a sustainable protein
so the next day just before the event I
called down I said Don what are some
examples of sustainable proteins
said he didn't know
he would ask around well I got on the
phone with a few people in the company
no one could give me a straight answer
until finally I got on the phone with
the head biologist
let's call him Don too
Don I said what are some examples of
sustainable proteins
well he mentioned some algaes and some
fish meals and then he said chicken
pellets
I said chicken pellets he said yeah
feather skin
bone meal scraps dried and processed
into feed
and said what percentage
of your feed is chicken
thinking you know two percent
oh it's about 30 percent he said
I said Don
what's sustainable about feeding chicken
to fish
there is a long pause on the line
and he said there's just too much
chicken in the world
okay I fell out of love with this fish
not because I'm some self-righteous
Goody Two-Shoes foodie
I actually am
now I fell out of love with this fish
because I swear to God after that
conversation the fish tasted like
chicken
this second fish
well it's a different kind of love story
it's the romantic kind
the kind where the more you get to know
your fish you love the fish
I first ate it at a restaurant in
southern Spain
a journalist friend had been talking
about this fish for a long time
she kind of set us up
okay it came to the table a bright
almost shimmering white color
chef
had overcooked it
like twice over
okay amazingly it was still delicious
who can make a fish taste good
after it's been overcooked
I can't
but this guy can
let's call him Miguel actually his name
is Miguel
no he didn't cook the fish and he's
say that you and I understand it
he's a biologist
it's a fish farm in the southwestern
corner of Spain
it's at the tip of the guadalupeer river
until the 1980s the farm was in the
hands of the argentinians
they raised beef cattle on what was
essentially wetlands
they did it by draining the land they
built this intricate series of canals
and they pushed water off the land and
out into the river
well they couldn't make it work not
economically
and ecologically it was a disaster
killed like 90 percent of the birds
which for this place is a lot of birds
and so in 1982
a Spanish company with an environmental
conscience purchased the land what did
they do
they reversed the flow of water they
literally flipped the switch
instead of pushing water out
they use the channels to pull water back
in they flooded the canals
they created a 27 Thousand Acre fish
farm
bass mullet
shrimp eel
any in the process Miguel and this
company completely reversed the
ecological destruction
the Farm's incredible I mean you've
never seen anything like this
stare at a horizon that is a million
miles away and all you see are flooded
canals and this thick Rich Marshland
I was there not long ago with Miguel
he's an amazing guy
like three parts Charles Darwin and one
part Crocodile Dundee okay
there we are slogging through the
Wetland
you know I'm panting and sweating I got
mud up to my knees and Miguel is calmly
conducting a Biology lecture
here he's pointing out a rare black
shoulder kite
now he's mentioning the mineral needs of
phytoplankton
and here
here he sees a grouping pattern that
reminds him of the Tanzanian giraffe
it turns out Miguel spent the better
part of his career in the makumi
national park in Africa
I asked him how he became such an expert
on fish
said fish
I didn't know anything about fish
I'm an expert in relationships
and then he's off
launching into more talk about rare
birds and algaes and strange aquatic
plants and don't get me wrong I was
really fascinating you know the biotic
Community unplugged kind of thing you
know it's great but I was in love and my
head
was swooning over that overcooked piece
of delicious fish I had the night before
so I interrupted him I said Miguel what
makes your fish taste so good
he pointed out the algae
I know dude the algae the phytoplankton
the relationships this is amazing
right but what are your fish eating and
what's the feed conversion ratio
what goes on to tell me
it's such a rich system
that the fish are eating what they're
beating in the wild
the plant biomass the phytoplank the
zooplankton it's what feeds the fish the
system is so healthy it's totally
self-renewing
there is no feed
ever heard of a farm that doesn't feed
its animals
later that day I was driving around this
property with Miguel and I asked him I
said for a place that seems so natural
unlike
any fish I like a farm I'd ever been at
how do you measure success
what that moment it's as if
film director called for a set change
and we rounded the corner and saw the
most amazing site thousands and
thousands of pink flamingos
a literal Pink Carpet for as far as you
could see
that's success he said
look at their bellies pink they're
feasting
feasting I was totally confused I said
Miguel aren't they feasting on your fish
yes he said
we lose 20 of our fish and fish eggs to
birds
all right well last year this property
had 600 000 Birds on it
more than 250 different species it's
become today the largest
and one of the most important
private bird sanctuaries in all of
Europe
I said Miguel isn't a thriving bird
population like the last thing you want
on a fish farm
he shook his head no he said we Farm
extensively
not intensively
this is an ecological Network
the flamingos eat the shrimp the shrimp
eat the phytoplankton so the pink of the
belly the better the system
okay so let's review a farm that doesn't
feed its animals
and a farm that measures its success
on the health of its predators
a fish farm but also a bird sanctuary
oh and by the way those flamingos they
shouldn't even be there in the first
place
they brewed in a town 150 miles away
where the soil conditions are better for
building nests
every morning they fly 150 miles into
the farm
and every evening they fly 150 miles
back
they do that
because they're able to follow the
broken white line of Highway a-92
no kidding
you know I was imagining a March of the
Penguins thing you know so I looked at
Miguel I said Miguel do they fly 150
miles to the farm
and then do they fly 150 miles back at
night
do they do that for the children
he looked at me like I just quoted a
Whitney Houston song
laughs
he said no they do it because the food's
better
you know I didn't mention the skin of my
beloved
fish
which was delicious and I don't like
fish skin I don't like it seared I don't
like it crispy
is that acrid tar-like flavor
I almost never cook with it
yet when I tasted it at that restaurant
in southern Spain it tasted not at all
like fish skin
it tasted sweet and clean
like you were taking a bite of the ocean
I mentioned that to Miguel and he nodded
he said the skin acts like a sponge it's
the last defense before anything enters
the body it evolved to soak up
impurities and then he added
but our water has no impurities
okay a farm that doesn't feed its fish
a farm that measures the success by the
success of its predators
and then I realized when he says a farm
that has no impurities he made a big
understatement because the water that
flows through that farm comes in from
the guadalcovere river
it's a river that carries with it all
the things that Rivers tend to carry
these days
chemical contaminants pesticide runoff
and when it works its way through the
system
and leaves the water is cleaner than
when it entered
the system is so healthy it purifies the
water
so not just a farm that doesn't feed its
animals not just a farm that measures
the health
it's success by the health of its
predators
but a farm that's literally a water
purification plant
and not just for those fish
but for you and me as well because when
that water leaves it dumps out into the
Atlantic
A Drop in the Ocean I know but I'll take
it and so should you
because this love story
however romantic
is also instructive you might say it's a
recipe for the future of good food
whether we're talking about bass or beef
cattle
what we need now is a radically new
conception of Agriculture one in which
the food actually tastes good
right
but for a lot of people
that's a bit too radical
we're not realists us Foodies we're
lovers
we love farmers markets we love small
Family Farms
we talk about local food we eat organic
and when you suggest these are the
things that will ensure the future of
good food someone somewhere stands up
and says hey guy
I love pink flamingos
how are you going to feed the world
how are you going to feed the world
can I be honest I don't love that
question
no not because we already produce enough
calories to more than feed the world
one billion people
will go hungry today one billion that's
more than ever before
because of gross inequalities and
distribution not tonnage
now I don't love this question because
it's determined the logic of our food
system for the last 50 years
feed grained herbivores
pesticides to monocultures chemicals to
soil chicken to fish
and all along agribusiness has simply
asked
if we're feeding more people more
cheaply how terrible could that be
that's been the motivation
it's been the justification it's been
the business plan
of American agriculture we should call
it what it is
a business and liquidation
a business that's quickly eroding
ecological Capital that makes that very
production possible that's not a
business
and it is agriculture
our Bread Basket is threatened today not
because of diminishing Supply but
because of diminishing resources
not by the latest combine and tractor
invention but by fertile land
not by pumps but by fresh water
not by chainsaws but by forests and not
by fishing boats and Nets but by fish in
the sea want to feed the world
let's start by asking how are we going
to feed ourselves
or better
how can we create conditions that enable
every community
to feed itself
to do that
don't look at the agribusiness model for
the future it's really old and it's
tired it's high on Capital chemistry and
machines
and it's never produced anything really
good to eat
instead let's look to the ecological
model
that's the one that relies on two
billion years
of on-the-job experience
look to Miguel Farmers like Miguel
Farms that aren't worlds unto themselves
Farms that
restore instead of deplete Farms that
farm extensively instead of just
intensively
Farmers that are not just producers but
experts in relationships
because they're the ones
that are experts in flavor too
and if I'm going to be really honest
they're a better Chef than I'll ever be
you know I'm okay with that
because if that's the future of good
food it's going to be delicious thank
you
we only succeed because we have really
good really smart people
the technology the ideas how you bring
them to Bear how you scale them up how
you make them real is from the people
I'm an engineer I work in early stage
cell culture I'm a senior scientist in
the department of molecular oncology and
research senior supervisor for the
manufacturing plant in Vacaville I work
in cell culture process development I'm
a functional manager within the PD
Development Group what I do Sports
access Solutions which is the part of
the company that works directly with
patients a group head of project
management I manage a group of system
Architects at Genentech
no one person is any more important than
any other person even the most senior
people are always willing to engage in
scientific discussions with you
Genentech has a teaching culture we tap
on the shoulder the people who are the
smartest functional experts in their
area
when I first visited Genentech it was so
clear that patients were something that
people thought about every day there's a
real sense that you're doing something
that that has a purpose everyone here
has their own story and has their own
reason for being here it means a
tremendous amount to me to be able to
work on developing products that help
save lives my brother was diagnosed with
leukemia and I lost him to that battle
my youngest sister who had a breast
cancer and unfortunately she was
overseas and unable to access
medications like genentec provides and
she passed away from cancer to know that
something I do really could make a
difference and be meaningful in someone
else's life I think we all seek meaning
in our life in different ways and for me
this place offers that and why I show up
every day is The Big C is to try to
solve that mystery I would love to
what I've witnessed at Genentech is this
unrelenting desire to make sure we
deliver and we act and behave and make
decisions with the patient in mind
whether you're discovering the drug or
whether you're packaging the drug you're
all part of this concept genetic does a
fantastic job of communicating the big
picture how the science just just pure
academic science ultimately becomes a
drug that's administered to a patient in
the clinic oh it's a fantastic question
that has so much to offer it's a great
place to start your career continue it
and finish it here you know it's there's
so much to do here I'm excited when I'm
putting on the still-toed shoes walking
through the man of action plan because I
know what I'm doing is making a
difference I get to actually do
something that goes into the to the drug
that has ultimately administered to a
patient I love coming to work it's feels
good to be here it knowing every day
that you come to work you're doing
something that touched somebody's life
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