McDonald’s will be launching, late this year, their $1 Fish McBites. I’m guessing the fish is U.S. caught Alaskan pollock. This is the opposite of buy local, keep your dollars in town. This is the other business model: fish/ process industry partners with mega-food giant McDonald’s and comes up with product at a very affordable price. The pollock industry then makes money (has made) to pay for “green” certification that makes their fishery more desirable–on the world stage–because it is labeled “sustainable.” And also fish industry gets to work with environmental groups, thereby keeping them happy, informed and, possibly quiet. This is not a cut-down of the Alaskan pollock industry; they really have done a hell of a job with marketing and managing their resource. Though it came at a price when the pollock industry went through a rationalization process–which went on for years– where boatloads of fishermen lost their jobs, their boats, their quotas. Not everyone was happy.
But now, in 2011 the Alaskan fleet landed 2.8 billion pounds of pollock. TwoPointEight Billion! That’s a lot of fish. But there’s an irony in here somewhere. I can’t fully spell it out. Maybe it isn’t irony, maybe it’s normal. It has to do with money, size, quota ownership and labeling.
I am, however, looking forward to trying the McBites, and I bet my stepson will devour them, and want for more–but then when I cook him a nice piece of local cod or blackfish he’ll squirm and moan and act as if I had just thrown a javelin through his leg.
JP Lee.
But will they taste like fish, or like “McDonalds”? Very interesting, wonder what effect a potential increase in demand on that scale might have on even a well-managed fishery.
I bet they’ll taste like McDonald’s through and through.
JP, I agree that we should encourage more local consumption. What do you think about the community-supported fishery model? For example: http://offthehookcsf.ca/. I myself would love to have regular fish caught locally from a fisherman I know and trust.
CSF’s are awesome! McDonald’s is not.
nicely written piece again john..i hope your boy likes local fish abit better than a javelin through the leg..smart money is probably on mcdicks though.i spent 6 monthes in 1991 pollack fishing for profish,at the time the biggest surimi operation offshore.we caught 7.1 million lbs,just us,one catcher boat in 1 four week trip. there were 8 of us catcher boats all passing full 60ton bags to mama . the resource has always been well looked after. i would be curious to see how many smaller boats are still fishing for pollack,or if all the quota was bought up by the golden alaska,unisea,and other big conglomerates..
i think the right thing to fear is waistlines of americans,not the biomass of pacific pollack. we were getting 6 cents a lb for our pollack in 1991. i would also love to know some numbers of who is catching what up there for how much.. just an ex fishermans curiosity…
I am sorry to inform the general public that the MacDonalds pollak is from a very wastefull fishery known for throwing overboard millions of King Salmon and Halibut which is called BYCATCH !!! this BYCATCH is destined for onshore communities with local subsistence fishing and commercial fishing that has been severely restricted due to the loss off this bycatch so tell me how sustainable is the fishery MacDonalds is supporting?
Thanks Brian. I was aware of a conflict between the small-scale inshore fisheries and the large-scale pollock fisheries. I’m sure the story isn’t as rosy as McDonalds would like the country to believe. And yet because the pollock industry has pull–because of money–politics and management get skewed in favor of the pollock industry. It’s like when WalMart comes into a community–it changes that community, often I feel for the worse. Thanks for informing us that all is not well in the Alaska.