Monday night (Season 2 Episode 4) on Channel 7’s reality cooking show, My Kitchen Rules, something happened that quite literally shocked me. Did you see it?
Now I know that I and my foodie friends sometimes sit in the stratosphere pontificating about local, sustainable and ethical food. We don’t just blindly buy “organic” or “free range” and be done with it. Nope we want to know WHY that <insert item> is labelled sustainable/ethical/organic. We want to know the people who grow our food, and visit the farms where they grow it. So sometimes, I guess we can be removed from the thoughts of the general populace.
But *surely* everyone knows that Blue Fin Tuna is endangered?
The Federal Goverment of Australia has listed stocks as “conservation dependent“, Greenpeace goes further and has called for a complete ban on fishing until 2030.
But happy contestants Donna and Reade from SA trotted off to their local Coles store and specifically ask for Blue Fin Tuna. No mention was made about how and where the tuna was sourced, no mention was made that it was a “very-very-sometimes-if-ever-food”. One of the judges, chef Manu Feildel went so fas as to descried it as “…the most beautiful piece of fish you can get in South Australia”. Hmmmm …did the tuna industry of South Australia sponsor this episode? (Is Blue Fin Tuna available at your Coles?)
And if you’re about to tell me that “farmed tuna is an acceptable alternative” I suggest you check out Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls “Fish Fight” episode on farming fish and the environmental damage it causes. Oh, and if you think that because your tuna is labelled “dolphin” friendly that’s all you need to worry about – think again. See the episode above for details about purse seining as a fishing method. This is the method used by many Australian tuna fisheries.
The Australian Marine Conservation Society “strongly opposes the continued fishing and industrial sea cage aquaculture of Southern Blue Fin Tuna”.
“Some 98 per cent of Australia’s SBT catch today is taken by purse seiners and transferred into sea cages anchored off Port Lincoln, South Australia, where they are fattened for sale, primarily to Japan.”
We know that shows like this, specifically Channel Ten’s Masterchef, can significantly increase sales at Coles stores. And there has been controversy before when one of Chef Curtis Stone’s $10 recipes for Coles featured a specifically named “caged hen egg” directly conflicting with his own philosophy.
Surely, SURELY, in a program about food aimed at the general populace, we can do better than to ignore this?
So, Channel 7, Coles or Manu – who’s going to make a statement about this little stuff up?
[If you recorded this episode of My Kitchen Rules, I’d love to know the wording of the targetted Coles ad that was on directly after they bought the fish.]
LINKS:
Southern Bluefin Tuna protected
ABC news “Australia urges action to save bluefin tuna”
Commission for the conservation of southern blue fin tuna
My Kitchen Rules: Seven Network
For mor information on Sustainable Fish in Victoria -see Hilary McNevin’s excellent book “Guide to eating Fish” or jump on her blog at Food With Thought.
For more information on the problems with farmed tuna in South Australia check out the Australian Marine Conservation Society’s fish guide.
