On Food and Cooking

(Barry) #1

as well. The world’s coastlines are dotted with
massive piles of oyster and mussel shells that
commemorate feasts going back 300,000
years. By 40,000 years ago the hunters of
prehistoric Europe were carving salmon
images and making the first hooks to catch
river fish; and not long afterward, they
ventured onto the ocean in boats. From the
late Middle Ages on, the seagoing nations of
Europe and Scandinavia exploited the
Atlantic’s abundant stocks of cod and herring,
drying and salting them into commodities that
were the foundation of their modern
prosperity.
Five hundred years later, at the beginning
of the 21st century, the oceans’ productivity is
giving out. It has been exhausted by feeding a
tenfold increase in the human population, and
by constant advances in fishing technology
and efficiency. With the help of faster and
larger ships, sonar to see into the depths,
miles-long nets and lines, and the

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