{"id":10616,"date":"2019-12-05T23:44:12","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T23:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/first-pepperoni.flywheelsites.com\/?p=10616"},"modified":"2019-12-05T23:44:12","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T23:44:12","slug":"portland-timbers-chef-rich-meyer-eat-this-salmon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildsalmoncenter.org\/2019\/12\/05\/portland-timbers-chef-rich-meyer-eat-this-salmon\/","title":{"rendered":"Portland Timbers Chef Rich Meyer: Eat This Salmon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For fans of wild salmon, it\u2019s hard to know what\u2019s the right choice in a restaurant or at a store. Here\u2019s why Portland Timbers chef Rich Meyer loves Bristol Bay sockeye.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Two decades ago, Rich Meyer helped make farm-to-table cooking synonymous with Portland, Oregon<\/strong>. As chef de cuisine at Higgins, a fine-dining restaurant still renowned today for hyperlocal Northwest cuisine, Meyer built menus around the very best seasonal ingredients available from small farmers, foragers, and fishers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Portland Timbers and Thorns head chef Rich Meyer is a die-hard fan of wild Bristol Bay sockeye. “I’m proud to serve it, and everyone loves it.” (Photo credit: Craig Mitchelldyer, Portland Timbers)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Back then, Meyer says, his motives were simple. \u201cIt was for no other reason than flavor,\u201d he explained. \u201cI didn\u2019t serve farm-raised fish because it wasn\u2019t something I personally ate or fed my family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays, Meyer\u2019s thought process is more nuanced\u2014as is his job. As head chef for the Thorns<\/a> and Timbers<\/a>\u2014Portland\u2019s National Women\u2019s Soccer League and Major League Soccer teams, respectively<\/strong>\u2014Meyer now feeds pro athletes like Tobin Heath and Sebastian Blanco. That means his breakfast and lunch menus must balance flavor with additional factors, like nutrition, performance, and caloric needs. A professional dietitian helps Meyer with those abstractions. And yet, Meyer says his food sourcing has never felt more personal. Case in point: Bristol Bay sockeye, a centerpiece of his lunchtime smorgasbord<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I have a product like Bristol Bay sockeye, why would I ever buy Atlantic farmed salmon?\u201d<\/a> said Meyer. \u201cI\u2019ve explained to everyone here what I know about it: that it comes from a pristine part of Alaska, that it\u2019s a well-managed fishery. I\u2019m proud to serve it, and everyone loves it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lately, Meyer\u2019s enthusiasm for this wild salmon (grilled, say, with an aji dulce coulis) comes with a side of frustration. Alaska\u2019s Bristol Bay<\/a> is home to the largest wild sockeye runs left on earth<\/strong>, supporting both a thriving $1.5 billion fishing economy and the subsistence culture of some 25 federally recognized Tribes. Its healthy, productive foodwebs are extolled by celebrities like chef Alice Waters,<\/a> bestselling author Paul Greenberg<\/a>, and actor Leonardo DiCaprio<\/a>. So why, Meyer asks, would anyone put an open pit mine there<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Iliamna Fish Co.’s Reid and Eike Ten Kley fish the headwaters of Bristol Bay–right where a Canadian company wants to build a massive open pit mine. Even without a major mine catastrophe, Reid Ten Kley says ongoing permitted levels of pollution from Pebble would destroy Bristol Bay’s reputation for “healthy, clean, wild fish.”  (Photo credit: Matthew Arbo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Meyer learned about Pebble Mine<\/a> through his salmon purveyor at Iliamna Fish Co<\/a>. The proposal, first floated by a Canadian company in 2006, would build one of the world\u2019s largest pit mines right on Bristol Bay\u2019s headwaters. Pebble was nearly stopped by the Obama Administration, but it didn\u2019t die. Now, thanks to millions of lobbying dollars and a few private handshakes, Pebble\u2019s supporters have not only resurrected this plan\u2014they\u2019re getting it fast-tracked<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Krystal Foote, sister of Reid Ten Kley, holds up a wild sockeye salmon caught from her boat in Bristol Bay. (Photo credit: Corey Arnold)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s shameful,\u201d said Meyer. \u201cI thought we got out from behind that years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those fighting Pebble aren’t keeping quiet, especially with polls showing that the majority of Alaskans oppose the mine<\/strong>. A recent Draft Environmental Impact Statement on Pebble from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers drew sharp criticism from the Trump Administration\u2019s own EPA and Interior scientists. (US Fish & Wildlife called the document so incomplete \u201cit precludes meaningful analysis.\u201d) In an October hearing in Congress<\/a>, Representative Peter Defazio, chair of the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, called Pebble a \u201cshell company\u201d and decried \u201cthe sham review process currently underway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mine’s sudden fast-tracking also faces growing legal challenges. Following EPA leadership\u2019s abrupt decision in August to drop its own proposed Clean Water Act protections<\/a> for Bristol Bay<\/strong>\u2014a decision apparently made the day after<\/a> Alaska’s pro-Pebble governor privately met with President Trump\u2014multiple independent lawsuits<\/a> were filed by Bristol Bay Tribes, fishing organizations, and conservation organizations including Wild Salmon Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not against resource extraction, but this is the wrong place<\/strong>; it\u2019s very, very wet, and water is impossible to contain,\u201d said Reid Ten Kley of Iliamna Fish Co., a family operation that has fished Bristol Bay since the 1940s. \u201cThese projects permit a certain amount of pollution\u2014it\u2019s not that you can\u2019t pollute at all. People are interested in eating healthy, clean, wild fish, so it\u2019s a huge marketing problem for us even without a catastrophe<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not against resource extraction, but this is the wrong place,\u201d says Ten Kley. \u201cIt\u2019s very, very wet, and water is impossible to contain.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

While Ten Kley prays that \u201clevel heads\u201d will prevail, he\u2019s not waiting around\u2014he\u2019s writing Congress<\/a> and telling anyone who will listen that Bristol Bay is too valuable to risk<\/strong>. He and his sister represent their family’s third generation to fish here, a way of life Ten Kley wants to pass on to his three young children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meyer says that for him, the Pebble Mine threat is about more than replacing a favorite entr\u00e9e. Like people living across the Pacific Rim, Meyer connects wild salmon with regional identity and community. When we\u2019re good stewards of wild salmon, he says, we\u2019re really taking care of our friends and family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSustainable to me means that the salmon we eat today, we\u2019ll still be eating a hundred years from now,\u201d Meyer said. \u201cIt would be painful for me to see it disappear, as a chef, and as a parent<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For Chef Meyer, there’s really no choice when it comes to protecting Bristol Bay from Pebble Mine–not if we want wild salmon to feed future generations. (Photo credit: Craig Mitchelldyer, Portland Timbers)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

WHAT IT IS<\/strong>: The sockeye that annually return to the untouched rivers and lakes feeding into Bristol Bay, Alaska, represent one of the last, great wild salmon fisheries left on earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHY IT\u2019S KEY<\/strong>: At the headwaters of Bristol Bay, a Canadian company is fast-tracking a proposal to build one of the world\u2019s largest open pit mines, complete with pipelines, roads, barge systems, and a massive toxic waste storage facility that would need oversight\u2014forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHERE TO FIND<\/strong>: Many Bristol Bay fishing companies\u2014like Iliamna Fish Co<\/a>, which offers direct-to-consumer shares in a community supported fishery model\u2014sell wild sockeye<\/a> to grocers, retailers, and individual buyers across the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we\u2019re good stewards of wild salmon, Meyer says, we\u2019re really taking care of our friends and family. \u201cSustainable to me means that the salmon we eat today, we\u2019ll still be eating a hundred years from now.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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