Jeffrey Tucker: Blessed Fish! How the Market Brought It to Your Table

Here’s to fish, and here’s to the technology that has made it possible to enjoy, cheaply and easily, in every household.

Jeffrey Tucker writes: In the Renaissance, painters often featured fishmongers selling fish from tables right there for anyone to buy. Why? For the first time in history, people had money to buy things, from actual merchants. Fish for sale to anyone and everyone was a lovely sign of wealth, an indicator of progress.

Fish preparation now takes less time than it took the burger place yesterday to make me lunch.Still, you could only get it if you lived near the sea. Fast forwarding a few centuries, when I was a kid in West Texas, eating fish at home was unthinkable. Fish
sticks, maybe. Otherwise fish at home didn’t exist. By culture, tradition, and by sheer availability, we ate beef.

“Dramatic things have happened to the market for fish over the past 10 years. It is wholly changed. Now you can get incredibly great fish at nearly every supermarket”

Even today, many people are reluctant to prepare fish at home. This is my strong impression from talking to friends and colleagues.

This usually traces back to one bad experience. Maybe it came from childhood. The fish was fishy, boney, and just generally dreadful. That one experience can color a lifetime of food choices.

“Hardly any time passes between swimming around and landing in a separately sealed individual packet, ready for eating. Massive improvements in technology (thank you, capitalism) have improved the way fish is caught and brought to market. Now it is caught, cleaned, deboned, and flash frozen right on the boat.”

In my own case, I thought for years I would only eat fish at a restaurant. Only they know how to do it right, I thought. Surely I could never replicate that process at home. At most, I could make those awful breaded fish sticks Mom would drag out on dreaded occasions.

The Glorious Fishy World

Well, dramatic things have happened to the market for fish over the past 10 years. It is wholly changed. Now you can get incredibly great fish at nearly every supermarket. At Wal-Mart, I recently found a vast selection — tilapia, flounder, swordfish, salmon, whiting, halibut, lobster, and so much more. The prices were ridiculously low. I’ve been sampling them all for months.

[Read the full story here, at Foundation for Economic Education]

What’s the secret? Head to the freezer section. I know it sounds inferior. Wouldn’t you rather have fresh? Not any more.

Hardly any time passes between swimming around and landing in a separately sealed individual packet, ready for eating. Massive improvements in technology (thank you, capitalism) have improved the way fish is caught and brought to market. Now it is caught, cleaned, deboned, and flash frozen right on the boat. Hardly any time passes between swimming around and landing in a separately sealed individual packet, right there ready for the eating.

[Order Jeffrey Tucker ‘s book “Bit by Bit: How P2P Is Freeing the World” from Amazon.com]

And you don’t have to worry about timing. In the old days, when you bought fish, you had to eat it that night or risk having it become slimy and gross. Now it can stay in your freezer and be ready for you when you want it.

For the first time, the equivalent of fresh fish, stunningly yummy, is available to nearly everyone at low prices, ready for preparation right in your own kitchen. And despite the reputation that fish once had of being difficult to prepare, now it is easier than pork or beef, and even faster.

In other words, cut open the bag, and it is ready to go.

I find this just amazing. That’s a shorter period than it took the burger place yesterday to make me lunch.

And it is a fraction of the price. Read the rest of this entry »