A compelling investigation that will leave consumers reevaluating their food choices.
An investigation of the hidden costs of the salmon-farming industry.
Frantz is a former managing editor of the Los Angeles Times and chief investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Collins is a former private investigator. In this absorbing collaboration, the authors take us behind the scenes of the farm-raised salmon industry. According to their research, open-net salmon farms cause damage to the environment and threaten the wild salmon population. Farmed salmon frequently spend their lives in feces-ridden water, are more susceptible to parasites and viruses, and are often treated with dangerous pesticides. “When you eat salmon,” write the authors, “you are consuming all the pollutants and additives to which the fish has been exposed, which are stored in its fat.” In one study, researchers discovered that “farmed salmon contained up to ten times as much cancer-causing chemicals as their wild counterparts.” The authors also discuss the brutal treatment that salmon endure at hatcheries as well as the practice of killing predators that are attracted to the open nets of the salmon farms—sharks, seals, dolphins, and tuna. The authors convincingly demonstrate that the challenge for consumers is the lack of transparency and accountability in the industry. Akin to “Big Tobacco” or “Big Agribusiness,” they note, “Big Fish employs counter-science and public relations campaigns to undermine scientists and environmentalists who challenge its practices and products.” Although the outlook may sound bleak based on the extensive evidence that Frantz and Collins present, they also explore more sustainable commercial-scale salmon farming options, such as land farms and open-ocean farms. By exposing many of the unsavory elements of salmon farming, the authors hope to better educate consumers and encourage more responsible practices. In a closing call to action, the authors also warn that “the giants of the salmon-farming business will not abandon their profitable ways without pressure.”
A compelling investigation that will leave consumers reevaluating their food choices.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-80030-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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