In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat and livestock industries.
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I write this on the second day of December -- one among a string of months that end in "r." That means, for those of us who live near the sea, it's time to consider the oyster, that glorious bivalve mollusc.
In her great essay "Consider the Oyster: Love and Death Among the Molluscs," MFK Fisher notes the "strange cold succulence" of the raw oysters she sampled in her youth in France.
But oysters provide more than just sensual pleasure; they're also packed with nutrients and rank among the most responsible seafood choices a consumer can make. According to Monterey Bay Aquarium, oyster farms can "actually benefit the surrounding coastal waters" because they filter out toxins and don't feed on wild-caught fish.
But even as oysters filter toxins, they can also be overwhelmed by them. Tragically, that is precisely what's happening in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay, home to some of the globe's most celebrated oysters. A major culprit, the New York Times reports, is Maryland's massive poultry industry, which churns out some 650 million pounds of manure each year, too much of which leaks into the bay and feeds vast algae blooms that suck oxygen out of the water.
In essence, a delicious, sustainable, and nutrient-dense protein source is being snuffed out so that a flavorless, filthy, and nutritionally suspect one can thrive.
Full Story: http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/12/1/222341/435?source=daily
