My Food, My Way 2 ing vessels, vast seas to patrol, and harsh weather conditions. Efforts to
rein in catch and protect remaining stocks were easy to skirt.
To stop this and other fisheries from collapsing, the nonprofit Ma-
rine Stewardship Council came up with a “certified sustainable” label.^
For a fee paid to MSC, retailers could display their trademarked label
alongside fish being offered for sale. By paying for an extensive audit,
fishing vessels could become certified suppliers. Stores went along, hop-
ing to sell more fish. Fisherman signed up, hoping to catch more fish.
And some consumers climbed on board, hoping to rely on MSC’s
pledge that “Choosing seafood with the blue MSC label helps ensure
fish for tomorrow.”
Not part of this system were a host of biological, environmental,
behavioral, regulatory, and legal consequences beyond MSC’s control.
Despite appearances, labeling seafood in supermarkets like Chilean sea
bass as “certified sustainable” came with no guarantee that the fishery
was indeed more sustainable. What the label did do was reinforce our
trust in systems without understanding how they work or how their
future viability is being gambled away. As one Patagonian toothfish
buyer said, “As long as people are willing to buy, I’m willing to sell.”
Returning stateside from Costa Rica after several years away required
readjustment. I had lost touch with how summer days in northern
latitudes were longer and winter days were shorter. I welcomed the
fresh renewal in the transition from winter to spring when brown faded
away, new colors appeared, blossoms filled out trees, and birds chirped
more earnestly. And I realized how deeply consumption was ingrained
in American life. The sheer number of products continually marketed
as needing homes, lest one’s life be ruined through incompleteness,
was overwhelming. Several months would have to pass before the ad-
vertisements faded into the background.
Buying food was no different. Walking into a supermarket with its
stocked shelves brimming with whatever one could imagine was be-
dazzling. To ensure that the message of abundance and variety remains
fresh, nearly twenty-one thousand new or updated food and beverage
products are rolled out each year.^ These almost exclusively processed