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