Fish Fight Update

The Fish Fight is rolling on. In May a debate was held in the House of Commons on CFP reform and the fish fight. I emailed my MP asking for him to attend the debate and vote in favour of the proposed motion. This week - 6 weeks after the fact - he wrote back to me. I can't say his letter was particularly enlightening. He made no positive statement about whether he had attended the debate or would be in favour of any such conditions attached to CFP reform, but he did spout a lot of stuff about how hard DEFRA are working to come up with a more sustainable way. Which they do seem to be. No thanks to him.

So I am continuing to do what I can by varying the types of fish that we eat and trying to make thoughtful decisions about where it comes from and how it is caught. Not exactly hardcore activism, but one does what one can.

Nigel Slater's mackerel and potato salad was a hearty meal in a bowl, using lovely day-boat caught Cornish mackerel fillets.

A recent curry night featured Cornish monkfish in a saag curry, a very successful prawn patia (from Camellia Panjabi's 50 Great Curries of India) and some light, flaky Kerala parathas (Hairy Bikers, made with coconut milk instead of milk and condensed milk).

And we are not suffering at all by regular meals of linguine with British clams!

There is new research suggesting that a ban on discards will be good for fisheries - so I do hope that the combination of grassroots work and a bit of good science will win the day on the reform of the CFP.