Might as well stay home
What’s that got to do with the price of fish? One of those expressions that I remember from when I lived a bit closer to the shore, and Friday required a meal that had been caught with a hook (or a net). Nowadays, I don’t have any good reason to follow the auctions in Boston, and the local radio stations haven’t carried that sort of information in decades. Only when I come across some of the flash-frozen fillets that are available in the local foodstore does the question come up in conversation.
Another evening with diminished expectations for supper. Fewer people, because son #1 and son #2 were at work, and the visitors from last evening were already on to another province. Why not have a feed of fish?
The local market provides fish wrapped in plastic. That’s it, that’s all. Nicely cut, skinned and deboned fillets of haddock in 400g packages, for $4.40 which is within the budget. I won’t speak to fair market value, as the fisherman receives considerably less than that amount, but here’s the bony part: the fish came from China.
Canadian’s like to believe that we have an active fishery, but somehow the cost of processing and packaging and transporting a fish from the other side of the globe is competitive. In other words, what chance does Buddy down at the wharf have, when the consumer food industry can sell fish from afar at a profit? Why untie your boat in the morning, when the foreign catch will be bought and sold at a lower price than you can ever meet?
