Wasting your money, depleting the ocean

An MP in Britain has launched a campaign to bring attention to an under-scrutinized issue: the use of government money to purchase fish from depleted stocks to serve in public institutions like schools and hospitals. It's an interesting issue - there have been efforts in the U.S. to direct public money towards more healthy foods for school lunches instead of essentially subsidizing producers of less healthful foods by purchasing their surpluses. But few members of the public understand just how complicit many governments are in encouraging overfishing. Whether it's subsidies to fishers who aren't following sustainable practices, or allowing operators to have a say in management decisions (and even fisheries science isn't all that sound at times), governments aren't always the good guys.

It's about time the public realized that their governments are hastening the abuse of public resources.