From the aquatic world's Michael Pollan a former fisherman's memoir, manifesto, and vision for the future of food: restorative ocean farming.
Easy to grow, sustainable, and a solution to climate change, ocean vegetables are plentiful (there are thousands of edible varieties), nutritious, and delicious (as recipes from James Beard Award-winning chef Brooks Headley included here will show). A miracle food if ever there was one, seaweed is a perfect ingredient – exotic yet local – particularly in the face of rapid environmental upheaval, rising populations, and finite food resources. In Eat Like a Fish, Bren Smith – former commercial fisherman turned restorative ocean farmer – advocates getting seaweed onto American plates, reimagining our ideas about ocean eating, and taking readers on a journey from his childhood at sea to fishing trawlers to the frontier of the food movement. Written with the humor and swagger of a fisherman telling a late-night tale, this is a monumental work of memoir-turned-food policy that will change the way we think about what we eat.
Bren Smith is a former commercial fisherman turned ocean farmer who pioneered the development of restorative 3D ocean farming. Born and raised in Newfoundland, he left high school at the age of 14 to work on fishing boats from the Grand Banks to the Bering Sea. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic, The Atlantic, and elsewhere; his ocean farm won the Buckminster Fuller Challenge for ecological design, and, in 2017, was named one of TIME magazine’s Best Inventions. He is the owner of Thimble Island Ocean Farm, and Executive Director of the non-profit Greenwave, which trains new ocean farmers.
"Seaweed is the food of the future; it's a powerhouse of nutrition and holds a world of untapped flavor and deliciousness. Bren's underwater kelp farms can feed us for years to come and the more we eat, the more we also give back to the ocean. This book leads the way."
– René Redzepi, Head Chef & Co-owner Restaurant noma
"Bren Smith's book on seaweed farming is something I've been looking forward to for years."
– Mark Bittman, author of How to Cook Everything
"What a remarkable book! Bren Smith has a (wild) life story to recount, a novel food-growing technique to describe, and a planet to help save. He's a deft enough writer to pull it all off, with a wry joy that left me (more than usually) hopeful about our future."
– Bill McKibben, New York Times bestselling author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet and Radio Free Vermont