fábulas sustentáveis

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) announced last August the suspension of the Portuguese sardine purse seine fishery, after Intertek Fisheries Certification (IFC) withdrew the certification following the fourth surveillance audit report on the fishery.  Sardine harvested after 14 August may no longer be identified or sold as MSC certified and cannot carry the blue MSC sustainable fishery ecolabel.  According to the surveillance report, the fishery no longer complies with the minimum requirements of Principle 1 of the MSC standard - sustainable fish stocks. This principle demands that the fishing activity must be at a level which is sustainable for the fish population.  This is the second time the fishery has failed an annual surveillance audit since it was first certified. In both cases the suspension was due to low Iberian sardine stock levels. Despite efforts made by the fishery and the Portuguese institutions in favour of sustainable management, stocks are not recovering a

Maybe not... As  Michael Pollan says: Eat Food, not too much, mostly plants. There have been no rigorous, long-term studies comparing contenders for best diet laurels using methodology that precludes bias and confounding, and for many reasons such studies are unlikely.  ... A diet of minimally processed foods close to nature, predominantly plants, is decisively associated with health promotion and disease prevention and is consistent with the salient components of seemingly distinct dietary approaches.

I think it is very interesting to understand the biology of food. I'm always curious to know more about: where it comes from, how it was grown, and how it came to the supermarket shelf. It is not easy to have such a broad knowledge. Nowadays we have everything, during all the time, available to consume. We do not even care or understand the seasonality of food production. It is not easy to chose when we cannot understand how much it requires to bring that small living thing until the shelf in our food store. This project shows the biodiversity in the supermarket.  It is fun to show the many fish one can find in a Portuguese supermarket... Biodiversidade no Hipermercado - Um Mar de Peixes from Terra Líquida Filmes on Vimeo . ...but bacalhau is not a Portuguese fish! Maybe it would be better to say that it is a Portuguese way to prepare fish that comes from Norway, Iceland or Newfoundland (North-West Atlantic) .

People can eat sardines all the time in Portugal! They are better in the start of the summer, when there is the habit to grill them. But they can definitely be good in  other seasons and prepared in different ways .  There is another good fish similar to sardines: the Atlantic chub-mackerel . This fish is not so common among Portuguese habits. Why? In my opinion it is only about food habits and knowledge on how to cook it. It is the same reason why people in Portugal eat so much bacalhau:   because they had learned since long time ago how to cook it and then it is rooted in the Portuguese habits. This fish is a "brother" of the Atlantic mackerel , which is a very popular fish in Scandinavia, usually eaten smoked or canned in tomato.  But in Algarve almost half of the catch of this specie is wasted. The same happens in other parts of Portugal. The problem is that Atlantic chub-mackerel is catched together with sardine, in purse