Tuna is known as "the best in the deep sea" and "the king of fish". It is not only the top food material, but also has more legendary color - the Japanese regard tuna as the god of diet, eating more than 1 million tons a year, and regard it as the "secret" of health and longevity; Canned tuna became an important ration for American soldiers. During the war, American tuna consumption once accounted for 44% of the world's consumption; China's hard work to break the US Japan "tuna blockade" is a vivid case of dealing with protectionism.

Just cut tuna fillets, pick up a big belly and put it directly into your mouth. You can feel the original delicate taste and delicacy. The enjoyment on the tip of your tongue will always remind the gourmet. This is a delicacy known as "the best in the deep sea" and "the king of fish".

However, most people may not know that tuna is not only the top food, but also more legendary, even "disputes".

Exaggerated Worship

As we all know, the Japanese are particularly fond of fish, and the per capita consumption of seafood ranks first in the world. In particular, tuna is highly respected in Japanese diet. Some Japanese poets even wrote poems to praise: "I am the king of fish, the peak of delicious food, the supreme ingredients, unstoppable and invincible, and I am the world of your taste buds."

Statistics show that Japan, which accounts for less than 2% of the world's population, has consumed 20% to 30% of the world's tuna and 80% of the world's bluefin tuna, making it the country with the highest total and per capita consumption of tuna in the world. According to the World Tropical Agriculture Information in 1996, the global tuna catch was only 3.5 million tons, while Japan's consumption was more than 1 million tons. With the increase of catch, the annual consumption of Japanese tuna has been maintained between 1 million tons and 2 million tons in recent years.

A gourmet friend of the author is a typical "Japanese hand", especially fond of tuna. He loves tuna mainly because of its taste. "The oil is fragrant, the oil is like snowflakes, and the entrance is melt and wonderful". Whenever he talks about tuna, he always looks like he is fascinated, and the people who smell it will inevitably feel excited.

However, for more Japanese, the unique "longevity code" of tuna seems more attractive. According to the data of the World Health Organization (WHO), Japan has been the world's oldest country for many years. In 2019, the average life expectancy of Japanese women was 87.45 years and that of men was 81.41 years, reaching 84.43 years, ranking first in the world for more than 20 consecutive years. At the same time, Japan is also the country with the longest "healthy life". Many elderly people can live independently without special care. The medical profession generally believes that there are many reasons for Japanese longevity, which is the comprehensive result of various factors. However, many Japanese people firmly believe that good eating habits are the most important reason, among which eating tuna is the most important.

The Japanese "tuna worship" may be related to the "fetishism" complex in their culture. In the discourse system of Japan, the term "God of what" often appears. Kazuo Inamori is the god of business, Erro Ono is the god of sushi, Naoya Shiga is the god of fiction, Yohei Hara is the god of sales, and Jesuya Zaiyi is the god of tempura. People can deify, so can utensils and food. The gods of pottery, stone tools and tea sets come first, and then the gods of diet.

It should be said that, in terms of nutritional composition, tuna can be considered as a good health product, and it is indeed beneficial to eat it for a long time, but it is really fantastic to expect it to cure all diseases.

Alternative consumption

The United States is also an important consumer of tuna, and the consumption of canned tuna ranks first in the world. Historically, the combined consumption of tuna between the United States and Japan once accounted for more than 70% of the total global sales.

Why do Americans love tuna so much? What's the secret?

Today, we can see all kinds of canned tuna in most supermarkets in the United States. This was not the case before. It was very difficult for ordinary people to eat tuna.

It is said that tuna was not respected in the United States in the early years, let alone regarded as high-end food. At that time, the fresh-keeping technology was not mature and the processing method was very extensive, which led to the tuna going bad and smelly soon after being caught. Most ordinary people simply disdained to eat it and could only be used as prison food for prisoners. So that inAmerican prison novels, "the world's most stinky tuna" has become a stem, specifically used to refer to prison abuse of prisoners.

Later, it was discovered that many prisoners were stronger than before after they were released from prison, and many became fitness coaches; It seems that IQ has also improved, and some people have even become technological elites. This research result has attracted the attention of relevant departments in the United States, and the research and promotion of tuna products have become popular.

The wonderful things are still to come.

Those who are familiar with European history know that in the "art of war" of the early years of Europe, there is almost no expression similar to "soldiers and horses are not moving, food and grass are first". Historians believe that this should be related to Europeans' preference for meat. In medieval Europe, there was no reliable meat curing technology. When soldiers went out to fight, they could only take some dried bacon. As for grain, it is a "luxury", which takes up a large area and requires special personnel to carry it. Ordinary people cannot afford it. This is also the reason why many European troops often fought and robbed all the way.

It was not until 1804 that the French invented the can that the situation changed. Cannes can be kept for decades without deterioration, and it is more common for cans to be older than soldiers. Its invention makes the army's long-term combat, long-distance combat and high-intensity combat become reality. On this basis, someone commented that cans "determined" the pattern of world war and affected the process of world history.

After the magic story of tuna and American prisoners became known to everyone, the American government quickly included canned tuna as war readiness materials, and even deprived ordinary people of their right to consume. On the battlefield filled with gunpowder, a box of canned tuna and a few pieces of compressed biscuits are the soldiers' daily rations.

Data will not lie. According to foreign media reports, whenever the war broke out, whether in Kosovo, Afghanistan or Iraq, the profits of American tuna manufacturers soared. During the war, the consumption of tuna in the United States once accounted for 44% of the world.

I never thought that tuna, which always appears on the table, would participate in the alternative consumption of human beings in such a way.
The familiar "taste"

Whether the views of Japan and the United States on tuna are scientific or not does not prevent them from excluding other countries from becoming major tuna consumers. After all, the population base is here. Without the support of breeding technology, it is inevitable that demand exceeds supply.

As a matter of fact, China has gone through ups and downs to win the qualification to catch tuna. In fishery terms, it is "fishing".

In the early days, both the United States and Japan took tuna consumption as their preference, hoping to exclude seafood lovers from other countries.

With the improvement of China's national strength and the increasing international voice, China finally obtained the tuna fishing right after repeated and difficult negotiations in 1988.

Then came the technical blockade. It is said that at that time, the western developed countries refused to sell even the obsolete second-hand tuna boats to China. However, China does not have relevant technologies and cannot make them by itself, so it has to purchase them from a third party at a high price. The same problem has also been encountered with the cryogenic equipment used to refrigerate tuna.

It was not until many years later that this discord was completely settled. On the one hand, China's own tuna boat has been built, and the problem of ultra-low temperature equipment has been overcome. It is meaningless to engage in technical blockade again; On the other hand, the tuna market in China has not developed rapidly as expected, and the consumption has been hovering at a low level. The tuna caught in China is either directly exported in the form of raw fish, or shipped back to China for processing into fillets, fillets, and cans before being exported. Only a small amount of tuna is supplied to domestic daily food stores or hotels.

Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs show that in 2019, China's deep-sea fishery tuna catch will be 423800 tons. In the same year, the data of China Tuna Trading Center showed that China's tuna consumption increased to 10000 tons.

In fact, whether to eat tuna or not is not a big deal in itself, but we can see the usual way of dealing with problems in the United States and the West from the difficulty of fishing tuna. It is difficult to say whether the acts of these countries were for tuna or under the pretext of tuna. It can only be said that innocent tuna was used as a gun envoy in his name.

Look at the Chinese enterprises that are blocked by various barriers and suppressed by various means, and look back at the tuna in those years, do you smell a familiar "taste"?

Of course, trade protectionism and other anti globalization waves and countercurrent cannot block the trend of economic globalization after all.