The United States boasts some of the most robust fishing regulations in the world, which are based on the premise that long-term sustainability is the only sensible way to manage a self-regenerating natural resource. Yet American consumers often fail to acknowledge these same priorities. We import nearly 90 percent of the fish we consume, but as much as one-third of these imports are actually caught in the United States, exported to be cut up and repackaged, and then reimported with labels identifying them as foreign products. This paradox is doubly perplexing when we consider Americans’ increasing obsession with local food, from the White House vegetable garden to backyard chickens to farm shares and community-supported agriculture.
Please join us for a reading and reception with Paul Greenberg—author of Four Fish—on the release of his new book American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood, in which he explores three fisheries—sockeye salmon from Alaska, eastern oysters from New York, and brown shrimp from Louisiana—to help elucidate this pescavore’s dilemma and return American catch to American consumers.
Copies of American Catch will be available for purchase at the event.
Reading and book signing with:
Paul Greenberg, Author, American Catch
Introduction:
Michael Conathan, Director of Ocean Policy, Center for American Progress