Provoked by a fishing trip -or- Looking your food in the eyes.

After returning from fishing the other day, I set to work right away on cleaning my fish. I caught some really nice size mullet in my cast net and wanted my family to experience how great these fish taste. I brought home quite a bit of fish and wasn't about to let any of these go to waste.
I set up my little fish cleaning area outside the garage and got to work. After cleaning about 20 of the fish I looked in my "Gut Bag" and was a bit shocked at how much I was wasting! I consider my fish monger skills to be very high, and it's not any more than what would normally be left on the carcass when I clean fish. It was just the amount of leftover stuff that bothered me, it was actually a bit shocking.
In other countries, France and Spain in particular, they use every part of their beasts. There are no "bad" or "unusable" parts. They use the brains. the kidneys, the livers, sweetbreads and all the things that we (generally) as Americans cringe or turn our noses up at.
Why do they use all that stuff anyway? Well, simply put, out of necessity. They had to. It wasn't choice to have to use all of the nasty bits and pieces. No refrigeration makes you look at other ways of preserving meats. Poverty made them appreciate every scrap of meat they had.
Now, put yourself in the position of the farmer. He looks his food in the eye. He looks at the pig or cow or chicken right before he slaughters him, he probably raised the animal. He has respect for the animal and a set of ethics that goes back many generations. Out of respect for that animal, he refuses to let any part of the animal go to waste.
He has learned to appreciate and just as importantly, enjoy, these other parts. He has incorporated them into his diet and actually looks forward them, they have became the delicacies of the world.
This looking your food in the eye doesn't have to be just about animals. I look at vegetables the same way. I don't like to just throw the scraps away. I use them for stocks and sauces. Using my scraps this way ensures that I get the most out of my food, and money, as I can.
We live in a world where thousands of people starve to death every year. There are people living on the street that would give anything to eat what you throw away on a daily basis. Lets stop wasting our food. Lets stop teaching our children by example that it's o.k. to throw away most of our most precious resource.
Look you food in the eye. Waste it less, appreciate it more. Please.

Eat Well,
J.G.