Bottomfeeder

On the forty-second page of “Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood” author Taras Grescoe wrote (some emphasis added):

Two

In the Kingdom of the Oysters

Chesapeake Bay and Brittany—Oysters

This is a tale of two oysters.

It begins with Crassostrea virginica, the deep-shelled American oyster of the east coast of the United States, sold under the aliases Chincoteague, Wellfleet, bluepoint—too many names, in fact to list here—and concludes with Ostrea edulis, the flat-shelled, gray-flshed oyster eaten at least since Roman times in Europe and variously known as Colchester, Belon, and Ostende. At the same time, it is the story of biological invaders, pillaging by moonlight, man-made disease, low-tech solutions, ever-spreading dead zones, and terminal shortsightedness.

More important, it is the tale of two attitudes toward the world and of two very different philosophies of nature. The first of these, as ancient as humanity itself, sees the world as vast wilds of endless abundance, a kind of supermarket whose aisles are constantly being replenished by a higher power. It is the philosophy of the hunter, and it evolved in the time of expanding frontiers, when resources were seemingly endless and competition limited. The second, the philosophy of the farmer, sees nature as something to be cultivated and enriched in the present so it can be harvested in the future. Surprisingly, the clash of these prehistoric worldviews is still being played out in the twenty-first century, on the shores of our planet's great bodies of water. The way this conflict is resolved will determine not only the fate of the oceans but also all the life that depends on them.

Starting with, but certainly not limited to, the oyster.

More information about “Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood” (and the book itself) is available from:

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• Powell's Books