Off topic fishing Ban 541

OK. Here goes. But just one thing first; my comments are not aimed at anyone who is trying to live, or even raise a family, on a very small income; they need all the help they can get.

Agreed about the contagioning. I've deleted the earlier posts so cannot be certain but what was the "contagioning" suggestion here? Fish farming or other? My response was to the suggestion that everything was due to "greed" (as expressed as "profit").

What exactly are you referring to here? Farmed fish can ingest contagions which can make it dangerous to eat too much of it. I don't buy it. So why does the public buy it? Because it's cheap and that is apparently the most important thing to them.

(1) Advertisers certainly seem to have the power to direct public opinion; no argument there. (2) The major business enbreasties, some of whom are involved in food sales, are big enough to be outside the control of governments. As I've said before, here (quite recently), their responsibility is to their shareholders and if they ruin the economy of an area, or even a country, in getting the best deal that's not their problem. Blame their shareholders - those who invest in them and our pension schemes. If you buy from them you are supporting their way of doing business and thus bear some of the responsibility. I'm sure you want your pension scheme to be reliable, in fact, I believe there are legal requirements that they should use their money in the most profitable (while safe) way.

As someone involved in agriculture that doesn't surprise me at all. Political agendas are more important to those on top than facts. Of course, without looking at the data I cannot be sure that our

Alcohol, sugar, most of our foodstuffs would do us harm if we ate too much. But I'm being facetious. It's not, IMV, a question one can answer seriously because there are too many possibilities.

As a matter of interest can you give any references easily available - don't ask me to go and look at professional journals - access is not easy and I don't know all the jargon so probably wouldn't understand all the implications.

In my opinion he-she can.

Doesn't have to buy farmed fish if that's what we are talking about here. Doesn't have to buy fresh food from smkts in cases where local equivalents are available - unless, of course, "Mrs. Public's" abandonment of local businesses has end off said businesses.

Aren't we all? We don't all believe them though.

Yes. That and the editor's view of what will sell the most newspapers. Are you saying that "Mrs Public" is too thick to realise that?

This is one of the tragedies of our modern world. When we bought our first house I got indignant because they would only take 25% of my salary for calculation of the mortgage we could get. Then they took the whole of the female's salary and what happened? Did it solve the problem? Did it *****! House prices just went up to take up the slack so two partners now need to and family.

to create.

Food producers: Primary producers largely controlled by govt regulations-world agreements-one-sided-contracts and no room for manouever. Major commercials - see above. Govt: Most govts try to protect their industries; ours seems to be unique in using their industries as a piggy bank and "selling them out" to pay for other agreements. They seem totally ignorant or unconcerned about the effects of their edicts.

Agreed. What bad practice are you referring to? Please say and we can discuss it sensibly.

There are bad pracbreastioners in every human field; they are always a frustration to their colleagues.

Yes. I think there have to be some controls. But they have to be internationally agreed (and that takes years of negotiation unfortunately) and dumping bycatch is not an acceptable one. The only alternative to agreement is the gunboat - whose? The main problem is the large factory ships operated by big businesses; they are outside govt control even if the govt showed any signs of trying. They operate internationally now; if UK controlled them, the catch it would be landed in another country where there was no control, hence the need for international agreements. Small boats do not threaten the survival of fish but, of course, their product is more expensive so "Mrs. Public" does not buy it......

Yes. And in fish fingers etc.

Definitely. There seems to be some confusion here. let's try to separate things:

Dangerous food and bad production practices by farmers and fishermen: Please give examples and we'll see what we can do. We've talked about farmed fish. It's up to the public not to buy it. What about farmers?

Commercial aspects: Please discuss my comments above and we can take it further - unless the consensus of the newsgroup is "shut up" in which case that is what I'll do.

Yes.

Just one thing to finish. You seem to object to the idea of "profit". Profit is the wage the business owner earns. My gut feeling is that you get your living from a salary (or pension) rather than by running a business. If I am right, how do you react to suddenly finding your salary halved or reduced even further? Would you be content or resent it? If the latter, would you consider that resentment as justified or as "greed"?

Please respond.

Apologies to all that this has got rather long.

Cheers Jane

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