How I fell in love with a fish Dan Barber

so I’ve known a lot of fish in my life

I’ve loved only two that first one was

it was more like a passionate affair it

was a beautiful fish flavorful textured

meaty the best seller on the menu what a

fish even better

it was farm raised to the suppose that

highest standards of sustainability so

you could feel good about selling it I

was in a relationship with this beauty

for several months

one day the head of the company called

and asked if I’d speak at an event about

the farm sustainability absolutely I

said here was a company trying to solve

what’s become this unimaginable problem

for our chefs how do we keep fish on our

menus for the past 50 years we’ve been

fishing the Seas like we clear-cut

forests it’s hard to overstate the

destruction 90% of large fish the ones

we love the tunas the halibuts the

Salmons swordfish if collapse those

nothing left so for better for worse

aquaculture fish farming it’s giving a

part of our future a lot of arguments

against it fish farms pollute most of

them do anyway and they’re inefficient

take tuna a major drawback it’s got a

feed conversion ratio of 15 to 1 that

means it takes 15 pounds of wild fish to

get you one pound a farm tuna not very

sustainable it doesn’t taste very good

either so here finally was a company

trying to do it right I wanted to

support him the day before the event I

called the head of PR for the company

let’s call him Don Don I said just to

get the facts straight you guys are

famous for for farming so far out to see

you you don’t pollute that’s right he

said we’re so far out the waste from our

fish gets distributed not concentrated

and then he added or basically a world

unto ourselves that feed conversion

ratio 2.5 to 1 he said best in the

business

2.5 to one great like 2.5 what what do

you feed sustainable proteins he said

great I said got off the phone and that

night I was lying in bed and I thought

what the hell is a sustainable protein

so the next day just before the event I

called Don I said Don what are some

examples of sustainable proteins said he

didn’t know he would ask around well I

got on the phone with a few people in

the company no one could give me a

straight answer until finally I got on

the phone with the head biologist let’s

call him Don to

Don I said what are some examples of

sustainable proteins well he mentioned

some algie’s and some fish meals and

then he said chicken pellets it’s a

chicken pellets

he said yeah a feathered skin bone meal

scraps dried and processed in defeat I

said what percentage of your feed is

chicken thinking you know two percent

that’s about 30 percent he said I said

Don what’s sustainable about feeding

chicken to fish

there is a long pause on the line and he

said there’s just too much chicken in

the world okay I fell out of love with

this fish now not because I’m some

self-righteous goody two-shoes foodie I

actually am now I fell out of love with

this fish because I swear to God after

that conversation the fish tasted like

chicken

this second fish it’s different kind of

love story it’s the romantic kind the

kind where the more you get to know your

fish you love the fish I first ate it at

a restaurant in southern Spain a

journalist friend have been talking

about this fish for a long time she kind

of set us up okay it came to the table a

bright almost shimmering white color the

chef’s had overcooked it like twice over

okay amazingly it was still delicious

who can make a fish taste good after

it’s been overcooked I can’t but this

guy can’t let’s call him Miguel actually

his name is Miguel

and no he didn’t cooked the fish and

he’s not a chef at least in the way that

you and I understand it he’s a biologist

at vector La Palma it’s a fish farm in

the southwestern corner of Spain it’s at

the tip of the Guadalcanal rêveur

until the 1980s the farm was in the

hands of the Argentinians they raised

beef cattle on what was essentially

wetlands they did it by draining the

land they built this intricate series of

canals and they pushed water off the

land and out into the river well they

couldn’t make it work not economically

and ecologically it was a disaster

killed like 90% of the birds which for

this place is a lot of birds and so in

1982 a Spanish company with an

environmental conscience purchased the

land what did they do they reversed the

flow of water they literally flipped the

switch instead of pushing water out they

use the channels to pull water back in

they flooded the canals they created a

27,000 acre fish pond vast mullet shrimp

eel and in the process Miguel and this

company completely reversed the

ecological destruction the farms

incredible I mean you’ve never seen

anything like this you stare out at a

horizon that is a million miles away and

all you see are flooded canals and this

thick rich marshland I was there not

long ago with Miguel he’s an amazing guy

like three parts Charles Darwin and one

part Crocodile Dundee okay there we are

slogging through the wetland you know

I’m panting and sweating up mud up to my

knees and Miguel was calmly conducting a

biology lecture here he’s pointing out a

rare black shoulder-height now he’s

mentioning the mineral needs of

phytoplankton and here here he sees a

grouping pattern

that reminds him of the Tanzanian

giraffe it turns out Miguel spent the

better part of his career in the mikuni

National Park in Africa I asked him how

he became such an expert on fish

I said fish I didn’t know anything about

fish I’m an expert in relationships and

then he’s off launching it to more talk

about rare birds and algie’s and strange

aquatic plants and don’t get me wrong I

was really fascinating you know the

biotic community unplugged its kind of

thing you know it’s great but I was in

love and my head was swooning over that

overcooked piece of delicious fish I had

the night before so I interrupted my

said Miguel what makes your fish taste

so good

he pointed at the algae I know dude the

algae the phytoplankton the

relationships this is amazing right but

what are your fish eating and what’s the

feed conversion ratio we goes on to tell

me it’s such a rich system that the fish

are eating what the beating in the wild

the plant biomass the phytoplankton

zooplankton it’s what feeds the fish the

system is so healthy it’s totally self

renewing there is no feed ever heard of

a farm that doesn’t feed its animals

later that day I was driving around this

property with Miguel and I asked him I

said for a place it seems so natural

unlike any fish for Alligator Farm I’d

ever been at how do you measure success

well at that moment it’s as if a film

director called for a set change and we

rounded the corner and saw the most

amazing sight thousands and thousands of

pink flamingos a literal pink carpet for

as far as you could see that success he

said look at their bellies pink they’re

feasting cheese thing let’s totally

confuse I said Miguel aren’t they

feasting on your fish

yes he said

we lose 20% of our fish and fish eggs to

birds right well last year this property

had 600,000 Birds on it more than 250

different species it’s become today the

largest and one of the most important

private bird sanctuaries in all of

Europe I said Miguel isn’t a thriving

bird population like the last thing you

want on a fish farm he shook his head no

he said we farm extensively not

intensively this is an ecological

network the flamingoes eat the shrimp

the shrimp eat the phytoplankton so the

pink of the belly the better the system

okay so let’s review a farm that doesn’t

feed its animals and a farm that

measures its success on the health of

its predators a fish farm but also a

bird sanctuary oh and by the way those

flamingos they shouldn’t even be there

in the first place

they brood in a town 150 miles away

where the soil conditions are better for

building nests every morning they fly

150 miles into the farm and every

evening they file 150 miles back

they do that because they’re able to

follow the broken white line of highway

a 92 no kidding you know I was imagining

a march of the Penguins thing you know

so I looked at Miguel I said Miguel do

they fly 150 miles to the farm and then

do they fly 150 miles back at night did

they do that for the children he looked

at me like I just quoted a Whitney

Houston song he said no they do it cuz

the food’s better you know I didn’t

mention the skin of my beloved fish

which was delicious and I don’t like

fish skin I don’t like it seared I don’t

like it crispy it’s that acrid tar-like

flavor I almost never cook with it yet

when I tasted it at that restaurant in

southern Spain it tasted not at all like

fish skin it tasted sweet and clean like

you were taking a bite of the ocean I

mentioned that to Miguel he nodded he

said the skin acts like a sponge it’s

the last defense before anything enters

the body it evolved to soak up

impurities and then he added but our

water has no impurities okay a farm that

doesn’t feed its fish a farm the

measures of success by the success of

its predators and then I realized when

he says a farm that has no impurities he

made a big understatement because the

water that flows through that farm comes

in from the Guadalquivir River it’s a

river that carries with it all the

things that rivers tend to carry these

days chemical contaminants pesticide

runoff and when it works its way through

the system and leaves the water it’s

cleaner than when it entered the system

is so healthy it purifies the water

so not just a farm that doesn’t feed its

animals not just a farm that measures

the health its success by the health of

its predators but a farm that’s

literally a water purification plant and

not just for those fish but for you and

me as well because when that water

leaves it dumps out into the Atlantic

dropped in the ocean I know but I’ll

take it and so should you because this

love story

however romantic is also instructive you

might say it’s a recipe for the future

of good food whether we’re talking about

bass or beef cattle what we need now is

a radically new conception of

Agriculture one in which the food

actually tastes good right

look for a lot of people that’s a bit

too radical

we’re not realists us foodies we’re

lovers we love farmers markets we love

small family farms we talk about local

food we eat organic and when you suggest

these are the things that will ensure

the future of good food someone

somewhere stands up and says hey guy

I love pink flamingos but how you gonna

feed the world how are you gonna feed

the world can I be honest I don’t love

that question no not because we already

produce enough calories to more than

feed the world 1 billion people will go

hungry today 1 billion that’s more than

ever before because of gross

inequalities and distribution not

tonnage now I don’t love this question

because it’s determine the logic of our

food system for last 50 years feed grain

to herbivores pesticides to monocultures

chemicals to soil chicken to fish and

all along agribusiness has simply asked

if we’re feeding more people more

cheaply how terrible could that be

that’s been the motivation it’s been the

justification it’s been the business

plan of American agriculture we should

call it what it is a business in

liquidation a business that’s quickly

eroding ecological capital that makes

that very production possible that’s not

a business and is agriculture our

breadbasket is threatened today not

because of diminishing supply but

because of diminishing resources not by

the latest combine and tractor invention

but by fertile land not fight pumps but

by fresh water not by chainsaws but by

forests and not by fishing boats and

nets but by fish in the sea want to feed

the world let’s start by asking how am I

gonna feed ourselves

or better how can we create conditions

that enable every community to feed

itself

to do that don’t look at the

agribusiness model for the future it’s

really old and it’s tired it’s high on

capital chemistry and machines and it’s

never produced anything really good to

eat

instead let’s look to the ecological

model that’s the one that relies on 2

billion years of on-the-job experience

look to Miguel farmers like Miguel farms

that aren’t worlds unto themselves farms

that restore instead of deplete farms

that farm extensively instead of just

intensively farmers that are not just

producers but experts in relationships

because they’re the ones that are

experts in flavor - and if I’m going to

be really honest there are better chef

than I’ll ever be you know I’m ok with

that because if that’s the future of

good food it’s going to be delicious

thank you

what does a machine know about itself

can it know when it needs to be repaired

and when it doesn’t in industries like

manufacturing and energy they’re using

predictive analytics to detect signs of

trouble helping some companies save

millions on maintenance because machines

seek help before they’re broken and

don’t when they’re not that’s what I’m

working on I’m an IBMer let’s build a

smarter planet