Day 282 of our Green Year: FishPhone

One of the few meats that we still eat here is fish. Generally every couple of weeks we will have a fish dish to shake up our vegetarian routine. As we have mentioned many times, the fish we get from overseas can contain harmful ingredients, some of which can cause cancer. On top of that, you have to be careful what fish you buy in case it may not be sustainable. Cod used to be very sustainable, but with the collapse of the fisheries, this is not the case anymore.

So, what can you do? Well, when we are at the supermarket, we can choose to text the Blue Ocean Institute's FishPhone. By texting 30644 and entering FISH with the name of the fish you want to buy, we will receive a text back to let us know if that variety of fish is good for us and if it is good for the world. If it is endangered or on the verge of being so, FishPhone will let us know.

Thank you to Wandering Coyote who provided us with a great list of green things you can do located here.
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Day 55 of our Green Year: Fresh Fish

Well, here we are to Day 55 of our Green Year. So, 55 down and 310 to go...whew!
Last night, Layla and I were watching W-Five and they aired a report about food from China. In it, they showed how the standards for food in China are actually less than what they are here (which can be bad enough). As a result, many people have become sick from food that was made in, or from ingredients in, China.

What they stressed mostly was fish, and they even showed someone feeding fish at a fish farm, while someone just off the banks of the fish farm water was using pesticides on plants. Mmmmm....nothing like pesticides in your food.
As you may recall, Layla and I have decided to go local and organic with our food. We recently bought organic mustard and other items, and are even going to start making our own butter (see future blog :) ). We did this because we wanted to keep pesticides out of our food, and we want to support local producers. The site we use to find local producers is Eat Well Guide (www.eatwellguide.org)
After watching that alarming documentary, we have decided to only go with fresh fish from now on. We are lucky in British Columbia because only seven hours away lies the Pacific Ocean, where we can get our fresh fish brought in on a regular basis. The reason we want to do this is because in China, many of the fish have been found to contain Malachite Green, which is something that can cause cancer. Now, in the documentary the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said that it tests every shipment from China for the toxic ingredient. Then, W-Five went and bought a random fish at a random store, which came from China and had it tested. Guess what, it had Malachite Green. So, obviously someone is lying.
As well, you may think when you buy cereal and other items that say "Product of Canada" or "Product of USA", but there is a loophole in the law that concerns that. If the packaging is worth more than the ingredients, and it often is, it can say "Product of Canada" even if it was made in China from Chinese ingredients. "Product of Canada" only means that at least 51 percent of manufacturing costs were incurred in Canada.

Our local grocery store does have fresh fish that we buy now, but if you know of anywhere in British Columbia that we can order fresh fish from, please do let us know. We are not big meat eaters and prefer fish because it is light, so it is something we have every week or so.

UPDATE: Our vegetable garden is coming in nicely, with our peas, corn, potatoes, radishes, sunflowers, onions and spinach popping up. As well the herbs outside and inside are coming in, and our indoor tomato plants are beginning to pop up! If you have any suggestions for things we can do to go green, or know of places we can get organic vegetables, fruits and fish, please do let us know. Crwbaird@gmail.com If you have pictures of you going green, then send them to that address as well and we will put it up.