I miss kippers. My wife won’t let me eat them at home, and they have become a rarity in restaurants. I stayed in a luxury hotel last month, and the manager was telling me that if I wanted anything – valet parking, room service, breakfast after 10.30 a.m. – I had only to ask. When I enquired if kippers were on the menu, he went as white as unsmoked cod and mumbled that the head of housekeeping had forbidden them because of the luxury soft furnishings.
But I have medical science on my side: a report in the British Medical Journal last week said that fish such as herring could save lives, and the planet. Nearly three-quarters of forage fish – those half-way up the food chain, between plankton and larger fish, like tuna or cod – that are caught are not eaten, but made into fish meal for farmed fish like salmon. Cutting out the middle-fish and eating forage fish themselves would be more efficient, sustainable and – because they contain omega-3 fatty acids – could save 750,000 lives if they replaced red meat in our diet. Also – and it’s a shame the scientists didn’t make more of this – herring tastes better than farmed salmon, the most boring fish on the market.
One of the problems is that these fish do not last: those who bought fresh herring from cadgers before refrigerators found that it was inedible as often as not, which is why ‘cadger’ now means ‘someone who gets something for nothing’ rather than its original meaning of ‘a hawker of fish’.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in