This blog, in large part, has been a fairly tongue-and-cheek chronicle of our gardening adventures. Following this trial-and-error venture with a sense of humor is fun, though touching on why we are doing this in the first place is something that we haven’t gone into great detail about. Leah and I, though we are partners in Currant Table, may not necessarily have arrived at the conviction that we need to change the way we appreciate food in the same way. We do, however, 
agree on the underlying need for change.
Right now, in the United States (though frighteningly enough it is spreading to other countries as well) we have a sense of entitlement towards foods. We are entitled to have whatever we want, whenever we want it. Pineapples in Maine in February? Of course that is a reasonable expectation . . . . leaving aside the fact that Hawaii is about 5,000 miles away from Maine. ‘Plump’ juicy chicken breasts for 99c a pound? Totally expected, ignoring the fact that the reason they are plump is from water absorption. Sleek flamingo-pink salmon fillets? They should be cheap and available in unfailing abundance, and, through the ‘magic’ of aquaculture, they are.
I know that I am dancing on the line of sounding preachy, and I do firmly believe that deciding what to eat is personal, and should be respected. I don’t believe, however, that everyone has all the information. We had a professor at UCLA who made the most amazing analogy about how Americans treat their food supply. He said to think of it like a credit card. The immediate consumption of the foods I mentioned above is the swipe of the plastic. Should you really buy that skirt? No, but you can deal with the fact that you can’t really afford it later. The problem with putting off the reality of payment is that you lose touch with the value of things. We don’t have to pay the full price for readily available chicken, salmon, or pineapples right now, but eventually that debt will have to be settled. In the case of food the debt to be paid is in destruction of the planet, natural resources, community support, and even morality.
Sustainable food is, quite simply, a nearly debt free food. To keep this from getting long-winded, lets just talk about salmon. Sustainable seafood is incredibly complex (I happen to be obsessed with it), but the bottom line is that the seafood you purchase is deemed sustainable if it is harvested from a population without putting it in jeopardy, and using a responsible harvest method (think dolphin safe tuna). It is also sustainable if it is farmed in an ecologically responsible way. Flamingo-pink salmon is none of these things, and while it tastes great (yes, I admit it) there are better choices to be made.
One of our primary goals at 
Currant Table to is to help educate people so that whatever decision they make is coming from an informed place. A good rule of thumb going forward is to ask! Ask the fish guy where the salmon comes from, and if he can’t tell you, be concerned. Ask the meat guy if you don’t like what types of meat they have available. Ask the produce guy how old that anemic February pineapple is! Michael Polan urges people to vote with their forks, and we agree. Make sure the things you want to eat are available by asking for them, otherwise how would anyone ever know they were needed?
I have included links to books that changed our way of thinking . . . and cannot recommend them highly enough! Please ask us questions, leave comments, or suggest sources of your own. Going forward, we will touch upon all of the facets of sustainability but for now, lets just say that we are passionate about making a difference, and that no change (however small) is insignificant!
Books:
In Defense of Food, Michael Polan
Eating Animals, Johnathan Safran Foer
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver
Four Fish, Paul Greenburg
Links:
Seafood Watch: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.
Seafood for the Future: http://seafoodforthefuture.org/
Currant Table 
I’ve been reluctant to buy farm-raised fish, primarily because I don’t think it provides the same nutritional benefits as wild-caught (e.g., omega-3’s). However I’m beginning to realize – thanks to some of the books you’ve mentioned – that there are other considerations that need to be factored in buying fish. What’s your opinion on the difference between the nutritional benefits of farm-raised versus wild-caught?
Hi Sean,
Thanks for your question! Nutritionally, wild caught has slightly more health benefits because they are eating what they are supposed to, instead of the pellets that are fed to farmed fish. There are, however other considerations with wild fish, and nutrition. Much of the fish that we eat are large, predatory fish . . .Tuna, Salmon, Swordfish etc. All of these are high in mercury. Mercury content is cumulative, with level of the food chain contributing to the one above it. When you are eating swordfish, you are consuming all of the mercury present in anything it ate, and anything that it ate, ate. You are what you eat eats. The choice between farmed or wild fish is complicated, and has so many variables. Nutrition, Mercury, ethical treatment (i won’t even get into that yet) and ecological impact. My advice would be to read as much as you can about it, ask questions and keep your eye on the Monterey Bay Aquarium seafood watch site to choose sustainable seafood products.
Currant Table