As the wonderful comedienne, Joan Rivers, would ask, "Can we talk?"

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My last two topics were farmed salmon and dishwashers (dumpers or rinsers.) It was interesting to see  many more comments coming through (on the blog, Facebook or to my email) about dishwashers than farmed salmon.  What does that tell us about ourselves / our pre-occupations? 

I sensed a touch of reluctance (or sadness) in giving up salmon. It's so, so convenient and it's always there (sometimes wild fish just aren't biting). There were lots of hopeful suggestions about the possibility of better New Zealand salmon.  We'll continue to check  it out. All in all, a matter of yes, but...

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Above: A dish's progress around the kitchen
The  potatoes were sliced, seasoned, garlic, and cream added, arranged in a dish, then oven -180˚C for 45 minutes. Taken bubbling to the table, we shared it. The dish was left dirty on the table overnight.  (I told you I was a slattern.) I rose at 7.00 a.m., fed the cats, gave a half-hearted scrape  around the gratin dish with a spatula and loaded it into the dishwasher along with other dinner paraphernalia.  At the end of the cycle, it was returned, along with the rest, perfectly clean (and sanitised at 60˚C) to the cupboard. (There was no avocado or peanut butter to deal with. I believe they are stubborn.) 

It's a first world problem and note that pre-rinsers mightily out-numbered dumpers, despite all the literature being against rinsing. Interesting points...

Anti-rinse: An intelligent, committed, busy friend described herself as the sort of tragic nerd who reads the instructions when she gets a new appliance. (So novel!) If Ms Asko or Mr Bosch tell her not to rinse, that's good enough.

Hedging his bets: Alistair McAllister wrote that his dishwasher is 74 years old but at least it keeps his hands clean.

Pro-rinsers: Most suggested they didn't like the idea of all that jucky matter sitting in the pipes.  (Jucky, grubby and mucky were very much at the forefront of the discussion.) The plumbing of a dishwasher is like the plumbing of the bathroom / lavatory. Water flushes it all away.  (Modern plumbing is my pick as the greatest boon to modern civilisation, way beyond electricity or the Magimix.) May I assume then, that most bathrooms / lavatories are reserved for applying cosmetics and storing fluffy white towels and that serious ablutions are conducted on the back lawn?
Next, I'm looking into "Wellness".

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Salmon, unceremoniously plonked and piled in the supermarket chill display.  It's cheap, it's abundant, it's portioned, it's colourful, it's easy, it's available. But according to Tasmanian author and Booker Prize winner, Richard Flanagan, it's toxic.
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Salmon was once a special-occasion food, wild caught and seasonal.  Before salmon farming began (Norway c. 1975) smoked wild salmon served in hotels and restaurants was handled like gold. The salmon was weighed, the weight recorded in a book. The required  slices were removed and plated, possibly draped across some Iceberg lettuce with a twisted slice of lemon and an onion ring.  The salmon was then re-weighed and the weight recorded.  It was precious. Handled with awe and respect,  staff in "cold larder"  would never dare to sneak a snack. 
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Years later, I might be making up sandwiches for my nieces, their primary school packed lunches, with left-overs (farmed salmon) from a catering job  "Oh Cathy, not smoked salmon again!," they whinged.
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Like chicken, salmon has become an industrialised product, the process touted as feeding a hungry world, affordable and  easy to prepare.  In reality, the cost could be  just too great.

So what has brought on this soul searching? Our Gastronomy Book Club is going well.  We meet monthly and the glass of wine and a few cashews has grown to mini banquets.  We're helpless to resist. Our readings have ranged from romantic, foodie memoirs where tables groan with platters, platters brim with abundance and food bursts with flavour  to hard hitting, thought provoking, often angry diatribes.

This month we're reading the newly released Toxic and seeing the underbelly of the  salmon farming industry. Flanagan calls farmed salmon "a highly artificial, chromosomally manipulated, dyed, fatty protein  with decreasing omega-3 levels". He challenges the image promoted by the industry of idyllic pristine Tasmanian waters producing a clean, green, and healthy product.

• A Healthy Food? Because of its diet, farmed salmon is no longer the fabulous source of omega-3 oil, the good oil. It's been unbalanced by omega-6, the baddie. Then there are the chemicals with big, unknowable names - like ethoxyquin which is only there to ensure that fishmeal doesn’t self-combust in transport. Farmed fish has grey flesh which is dyed with astaxanthin to create its appetising colour, (in Australia, we prefer shade no. 33, a really deep orange). The antibiotics are there also, 75% of which are not metabolised by the fish and end up in the waters. 
• Piscatarian? You prefer not to eat meat? Fish-feed pellets also contain the crushed carcasses of chicken, sheep and cows.
• Clean? Heavily stocked fish live in a vertical soup of faeces, ammonia and uneaten food which in turn, promotes excessive algae. The water is thick with the sludge, as are the beaches.
• Pristine waters? Industrial noise on water and land is a constant, 24 hours a day. Flotsam of rigid, broken plastic pipes, large bags and rope dangerously litter the water, as well as the sea-shore.
• Sealife? Waterways that crawled with life (seals, dolphin, whales) are now losing their variety and abundance. The unique (and very cute) red handfish is down to a count of eighty.
• Globally Sustainable? 1.73K of wild fish are required to make 1K of salmon. We are creating protein by stealing from others. The holier-than-thou soybean used in the feed is linked  to massive deforestation and slave-like working conditions in South America.
• Employment? – 99% of Tasmanians are not employed by this so-called major industry.
• Corruption? Would you believe it of government? And the last straw, the RSPCA endorses the product and receives a  financial contribution.