FERN’s Friday Feed: Eat more ‘rough’ fish
Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
The idea of ‘trash’ fish is cultural, and we need to get over it
The Counter
“Every year in the U.S., some 30 million anglers cast lures, flies, and bait into freshwater streams and rivers and lakes. Their prey: so-called game- or sportfish like black bass, chinook salmon, and steelhead trout,” writes Lela Nargi. “In these same waters flicker and dart fish species so disfavored among this group of anglers that they’re referred to as “rough” or “trash” or “dirt” fish.” This is a problem, because “thinking of some native fish like gar, suckers, and bigmouth buffalo as undesirable is trashing the earth’s biodiversity and the ecosystem services that biodiversity delivers.”
The milk bars of Rwanda
The New York Times
“In Rwanda, milk is a beloved drink and the milk bars are a favorite place to indulge, combining the pleasures of the beverage with a communal atmosphere,” writes Abdi Latif Dahir. “Men and women, young and old, sit on benches and plastic chairs throughout the day, glass mugs before them, gulping liters upon liters of fresh milk or fermented, yogurt-like milk, locally known as ‘ikivuguto.’ Some patrons drink it hot, others like it cold. Some — respecting an old custom of finishing your cup at once — chug it down quickly, while others sip it slowly while eating snacks like cakes, chapatis and bananas.”
In Illinois, a conservation push clashes with a Black farming community
ProPublica
In Pembroke Township, Illinois, “[s]ixty miles south of Chicago, this wildlife reserve is among nearly 2,900 acres owned by private individuals and environmental groups — most prominently, The Nature Conservancy — trying to establish a network of nature sanctuaries in Kankakee County,” writes Tony Briscoe. But what “the well-intended efforts of mostly white nature conservationists overlook” is that the “township’s Black farming community has never fully supported them. Now, a generations-old way of life is threatened by the push for conservation.”
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Trader Joe wrote a memoir
The New Yorker
“For anyone who has visited a Trader Joe’s and experienced its dazzling array of foods, its bargain-basement prices, and its cheerful and hyper-competent staff, and wondered, What’s the catch?, ‘Becoming Trader Joe’ provides many of the answers, most of which are satisfying and delightful,” writes Carrie Battan. “The book is a sort of ‘Kitchen Confidential’ for the grocery business, but without the drugs or rage. In the age of Jeff Bezos and an endless stream of news about worker exploitation and corporate imperialism, it’s nice to go behind the scenes of a beloved national chain without uncovering insidious forces at work.”
The burger ‘chain’ that sustained a generation of Arab immigrants
Vice
Burger Baron launched in Calgary, Alberta, in 1957. It boomed, briefly, before going bust in 1961. Then a funny thing happened: Burger Barons, serving all sorts of things, from Chinese food to shawarma, started popping up all over western Canada. “The knockoffs all seemed to be linked to a single Lebanese family named Kemaldean,” writes Omar Mouallem. “A couple members of the family had bought up a few of the last original Burger Barons after the bankruptcy, often at a bargain price. What Terry [McConnell, son of the founder] hadn’t known, and wouldn’t know until I interviewed him this year for The Last Baron, a documentary about the storied restaurant, is that it wasn’t one Lebanese family behind the reboot, but many, including mine.”