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Showing posts from August, 2015

When crustacean turns into fish

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Introduced by Young’s Seafood, the UK’s leading frozen food manufacturer, after World War II as a way to use the langoustines caught by trawlermen in search of white fish, by the 1970s scampi and chips had become a favourite pub meal, served ‘in the basket’. Scampi nowdays, however, is far from simple. As part of a code of practice drawn up by the food industries in 1998, three pages of A4 are dedicated to how scampi sold in shops should be described. ... It is clear that many scampi bites sold are a long way from a fresh langoustine tail dipped in breadcrumbs and lightly fried — and nowhere is that better illustrated than in the distance travelled by some of the fish used to bulk them out.  Earlier this year, Professor Mariani Stefano, a biologist at the University of Salford, tested the DNA of samples of frozen scampi bites. Of the nine tested, two were found to contain pangasius. ... He explains: ‘It is actually incredibly bland, with almost no flavour at all.  But it

I have a blue life

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The sky,  the sea, the beach, the garden, the city, the walking path, the nature, the river.

Is there a meat conspiracy?

the movie Cowspiracy show how big are the environmental costs of producing animals for food: - greenhouse gas emissions (more than all transportation), - habitat destruction (the forest that is being destroyed to provide land to produce soya), - biodiversity loss (with non-selective fishing gears as for example bottom trawl) and, - water use (an hamburger requires much more water than all the water used for showering). if it is that meat production relies in so much resources, why there is not more aware among society about lowering down meat consumption? most of the people try to turn off lights at home or have a shower instead of a bath, thinking in doing the best for the environment. but if those things are not the most efficient way to reach a more sustainable way of living, why to keep them? it is not worth to put all the "eggs in the same basket". we should have a governmental strategy with policies teaching people how to reduce consumption habits that ha

Decluttering

deciding what is essential in our lives isn’t about paring back our belongings and forgoing our beloved but unnecessary frivolities: instead of determining how little we can live with, it’s about working out what we cannot live without. I learned a new word in English: declutter. it means  remove unnecessary items from (an untidy or overcrowded place) . every time that someone gives me something nowadays, first I stop to think if I really need that thing or not, and sometimes I say thank you but I do not want it. a friend of mine once could not understand why I could not accept a small gift, a cup, from her family. some people might think that it is also rude to say no. but I had moved home recently once again and after so many moves (in the last 4 years I lived in 6 different places and in 2 different countries), I think about everything I have at home since soon or later I will need to carry it. also as much things I have, as much space I will need for those things. off co