It was pointed out by a seafood buyer, with many years’ experience, that the fish industry should stop all the in-fighting and get better at working to increase seafood consumption. In the article published in Intrafish on 10th March, Bob Field, retiring from Walmart owned Sam’s Club, compared the seafood industry to other proteins and we didn’t do well. As a buyer, the beef industry would be working with him to promote beef in general whereas the seafood industry were more occupied with claiming wild was better than farmed, or this origin was better than some other.
Why is this? Is it because the fish industry has historically been incredibly diverse, both in the number of species handled but also the location and methods of catch or production? Is it because fishermen are independent sorts, often at sea because they don’t want to be organised and supervised so closely as land farmers? Whatever the reason, Bob has a point...