Why do so many people in Japan have a tendency not to eat fish? (Q.24)
Have you ever heard of the fact that Japanese people tend to eat less fish in these days? This time I'll focus on this problem and find out some solutions for it.
According to a data published by MAFF(Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries), the amount of fish taken-in had been got lower every year, and in 2007, it was surpassed by the amount of meat taken-in. To take a closer look at the data, from 1 to 19 age people particularly have a tendency not to take in fish.
There are more interesting datas published on this site. One of them is; The menu of school lunch that elemetary students dislike. Surprisingly, fish ranked the top and green pepper followed this. In addition, according to a survey of the reasons why people dislike fish, "Because it has bones" ranked the top and "Because it is bothersome to eat" followed this.
Some people may think that this is not related to food waste. But I think that this is a serious problem because Japan is an island country, which is rich in seafood. We see a lot of fish at the supermarket, but they cannot be keep fresh for longer than meats. What would happen if many people select meats but few select fish? Most of the fish would be wasted because they cannot keep their freshness for a long time. If this fish-disliking tendency progressed, it could strongly contribute to the food waste.
But what can we do? I think it is difficult to make people who dislike fish eat them, but there is one way to get rid of the stereotype that "Eating fish is bothersome because it has bones." That is, fish-bone chips. This is literally the chips made of fried fish bones.
In this way, we can eat full of the fish without leaving a part of it. So this is one of the best solutions to deal with food waste.
水産庁. (n.d.). 第1節 魚離れの進行と子どもの魚離れがもたらす影響. Retrieved from http://www.jfa.maff.go.jp/j/kikaku/wpaper/h20_h/trend/1/t1_12_1.html
According to a data published by MAFF(Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries), the amount of fish taken-in had been got lower every year, and in 2007, it was surpassed by the amount of meat taken-in. To take a closer look at the data, from 1 to 19 age people particularly have a tendency not to take in fish.
There are more interesting datas published on this site. One of them is; The menu of school lunch that elemetary students dislike. Surprisingly, fish ranked the top and green pepper followed this. In addition, according to a survey of the reasons why people dislike fish, "Because it has bones" ranked the top and "Because it is bothersome to eat" followed this.
Some people may think that this is not related to food waste. But I think that this is a serious problem because Japan is an island country, which is rich in seafood. We see a lot of fish at the supermarket, but they cannot be keep fresh for longer than meats. What would happen if many people select meats but few select fish? Most of the fish would be wasted because they cannot keep their freshness for a long time. If this fish-disliking tendency progressed, it could strongly contribute to the food waste.
But what can we do? I think it is difficult to make people who dislike fish eat them, but there is one way to get rid of the stereotype that "Eating fish is bothersome because it has bones." That is, fish-bone chips. This is literally the chips made of fried fish bones.
In this way, we can eat full of the fish without leaving a part of it. So this is one of the best solutions to deal with food waste.
Posted by Wataru
References
水産庁. (n.d.). 第1節 魚離れの進行と子どもの魚離れがもたらす影響. Retrieved from http://www.jfa.maff.go.jp/j/kikaku/wpaper/h20_h/trend/1/t1_12_1.html
Itoh, M. (2013, April 26). Japanese Cooking 101, Lesson 5 extra: Fish bone crackers (hone-senbei) with shoestring potatoes. Retrieved from http://justhungry.com/handbook/cooking-courses/jc-101-lesson-5-3-fish-bone-crackers-hone-senbei-shoestring-potatoes
I'm not sure I understand your point about how eating more fish can diminish food waste. Fishing (and fish farming) are extremely wasteful practices. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that the fishing fleet worldwide is 2-3 times larger than what the oceans can support. [See http://wwf.panda.org/our_work/oceans/problems/unsustainable_fishing/ .]
返信削除About half of the fish that are consumed around the world are produced through "fish farming." According to the Animal Welfare Institute, fish farms "damage ecosystems by introducing diseases, pollutants and invasive species." Also, fish lower on the food chain (such as anchovies) are caught in the wild and then fed to fish in fish farms. This depletes wild fish stocks while raising fish that are less healthy and pollute the environment through the farming of them. Check out: https://awionline.org/content/fish-farming .
So, where does the reduction of food waste come from in choosing to eat fish rather than meat?
Cheers,
Joseph D.