Author Archives: alexandrapounds

Seaweed is touted as the miracle food: it’s sustainable, it’s healthy, and it’s plentiful. Here is my take on seaweed, and why it hasn’t saved the world yet. 1. We should eat seaweed because it’s healthy. But we don’t.  Seaweed is excellent for human health (unless you have a thyroid disorder). It’s chocked full of micronutrientsContinue reading “Can seaweed save the world?”

When the WHO or public health authorities make dietary recommendations, it’s for the health of the people. But when dietary interventions force the market to shift, what happens to producers? Author Mark Kurlansky, in Salt: A World History, describes iodized salt as the health intervention that hurt Chinese smallholder salt producers. “The WHO and UNICEFContinue reading “Knock-on Effects Affect the Entire Food System”

COVID19 might completely disrupt international fish trade. Cheap frozen Chinese tilapia – produced in massive quantities that lower its price point – may no longer flood African markets. What would happen if fish imports to Africa suddenly stopped? In the short-term, this might mean people have less food security. The poor would be less likelyContinue reading “Tilapia in Africa: A Crisis or an Opportunity?”

Assessing the sustainability of something is tricky if you’re a consumer. We usually rely on our supermarket or the labels and text on the packaging to decide if something’s sustainable. Or we don’t even think about it. It’s not our fault. Measuring sustainability takes a lot of data, a lot of statistics, and at leastContinue reading “Is this sustainable? The role of LCAs.”

Daniel Gilbert’s book How Pleasure Works was fantastic. Here are my food and fish related notes inspired by excerpts from his book. Taste is genetic… “Rational considerations might determine cultural choice; they don’t shape individual tastes… There is only a small relationship between the preferences of parents and those of their young children. There isContinue reading “Pleasure in Food”

Check out Prof Dave Little at the University of Stirling’s message: Eat Small Fish.

There are so many types of seafood, and as a consumer, it’s next to impossible to remember and keep up with which fish is sustainable and which isn’t. This complexity leads many people to just not pay attention at all. And when this happens, our consumer choices fail to direct companies towards more sustainable productionContinue reading “Is your fish supper sustainable? Use this app to find out.”

New companies are growing insects off of food waste, then feeding these insects to fish and other livestock. Insects are an excellent food source: both humans and wild fish eat insects. Even in the western world, bodybuilders are jumping on board the insect-eating bandwagon to get their muscle gains.  Why? Insects are packed with protein.Continue reading “An Environment-Friendly Protein: Insects for Fish feed”

Omega-3 fatty acids are a type of fat – a good type. This fat may help lower inflammation and prevent heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and a host of other diseases (1).

My gran loves to tell the story of when she got a fish bone stuck in her throat and had to go to hospital to get it take out. She loves it, because she was proud of herself for staying calm and being brave throughout the ordeal. Every time someone picks a bone out ofContinue reading “Eat yer Fish Bones?”

You can probably easily pick out the salmon just by looking for that peachy-pink color as you walk through the seafood section in your local supermarket.

Seafood is farmed in a variety of ways: Extensively (not a lot of fish, lots of space) or intensively (lots of fish, less space). In ponds, cages, or tanks. Polyculture (with other crops) or monoculture (by themselves).

Aquaculture has a lot of problems.