Questions, answers and inspiration

“What can we do to make sure we’re getting sustainable seafood here?”

The question came from an Honors Biology student at Woodberry Forest School in Orange, Va. during a Zoom class in mid-May. It was the last class we taught this spring, and the question was one of the more thoughtful questions asked in classrooms this year.

Woodberry is a boarding school, responsible for feeding more than 400 students three times a day. So the question and its implications were relevant to many of students in the class and at the school.

Framing our relationship to seafood

During the class, we talked about our collective relationship to seafood, whether we eat it or not, and the importance of taking ownership of that relationship. We talked about different factors that frame the discussion around seafood sustainability: geography, relationships, abundance, scale, harvest methods, ecological impact, community support and focus, quality, heritage, effective fisheries management, fair price to both fishermen and customers, and more. How do these factors shape our values prism when considering seafood purchases?

We discussed what local seafood systems look like via examples like the Tuna Harbor Dockside