Food... How are we eating?

Does the mention of sambal stingray, fish and chips or chili crab make you start salivating? Ever hear before of eating sustainably? Before you rush off to satisfy your hunger, carry on reading before you make your decision on what to eat!

Seafood

Looking at the way we have been all along producing and consuming our food, there are many ways we can make our food production and consumption more sustainable. In the past, we are not aware that the species that we are eating maybe overfished or captured by methods that are harmful to the marine environment. Many of Singapore seafood imports come from places which have been overfished for many years. So what can we do about it, you may ask. It requires effort from the various stakeholders like consumers, the government, corporations and the farmers.

Focusing on consumers which are us, it is important for us to reduce our wastage. Buy what you can eat and do not waste! Especially in Singapore where over 600 000 tonnes of food waste is generated in 2014 (National Environment Agency [NEA], n.d.), much can be done to reduce it! One simple way would be to place food that will spoil or rot quickly nearer to the door or shelf te remind us to eat them first before they spoil or the expiry date has pass that leaves us no options but to throw them away. Other than that, another way would be to think twice before buying too much food that we can't finish eating. Many of a time, the leftover food would get thrown away at the end of a meal. In 2014, only 13 percent of the food waste was recycled (National Environment Agency [NEA], n.d.).

We can also make the choice to buy sustainable food. This is a powerful tool and incentive for fisheries to improve the way fisheries are managed by demanding for sustainable sources. We can choose to buy our seafood like fishes from places that are certified that their fishes come from sustainable fisheries by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). They can be identified by the blue tick which their MSC logo. Isn't this a simple way for you to 

identify and purchase fish from well-managed sources? Some places in Singapore that you can find fishes from sustainable sources would be Fish 4 Ever at some Cold Storage outlets and Fish Wives a Bukit Timah Road. If you are craving for seafood, you may consider restaurants like Absinthe and Mezza9 where their seafood comes from sustainable sources. You can try out Loving Hut for tasty vegan food where it promotes a sustainable lifestyle. If you are cooking, you may try out these recipes provided by World Wildlife (WWF) Singapore like Oyster Omelette (Or Luak) or a simpler dish would be a grilled fish sandwich. One very interesting recipe that looks really interesting is the salmon fish cake! I would love to try it out.

Here are the links for the recipes:
Oyster Omelette (Or Luak):
http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/or_luak__oyster_omelette__recipe.pdf
Grilled Fish Sanwich: http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/grilled_fish_sandwich_recipe.pdf
Salmon Fish Cake: http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/salmon_fish_cakes_recipe.pdf
For more recipes:  http://www.wwf.sg/what_we_do/save_our_seas/celebrate_our_world_s_oceans/sustainable_seafood_recipes/

That's all for now! Think twice before selecting your ingredients/food place to eat!

References:

National Environment Agency. (n.d.). Waste Statistics and Overall Recycling. Retrieved from http://www.nea.gov.sg/energy-waste/waste-management/waste-statistics-and-overall-recycling