I've been trying to eat more seafood lately, cutting back on my red meat and pork intake in favor of leaner, healthier fish. Plus, it's summer, which always makes me crave lobster and steamers, chilled oysters and sushi. But I've also been trying to be more conscious of where my food comes from and how it's produced (I just joined New York City's Slow Food chapter and I can't wait for my CSA subscription to start next week).

In the past, I didn't pay much attention to which seafood was "good" to eat -- meaning, which was good for me (chemical-free) and also good for the environment (wasn't overfished, wasn't raised or caught in a way that damaged its environment). But now that I'm becoming more aware of all the issues surrounding our seafood, I'm also becoming aware of how difficult it is to figure out which seafood I should be eating at all.

Mark Bittman has an enlightening article in this week's New York Times about the confusion surrounding which fish we should and shouldn't be eating; the rules are so specific and change so often that it's impossible to keep up with. Whether you're ordering seafood in a restaurant or buying some in the store, it seems that you never quite know exactly what you're getting.

Mark has a few simple guidelines he follows when it comes to eating seafood, like shunning the most troubled species (cod, skate) along with anything farm-raised. He also says that he eats less fish and doesn't promote eating it anymore, which is the most surprising and saddening thing of all. Have we really reached a point where we're so uncertain of where our seafood is coming from and how much of it is left in the ocean that we can't eat it anymore?

I'm not sure yet what my seafood-eating strategy will be, but I'll definitely acquaint myself with the seafood watch guide so I'll have an idea of which fish to look out for if possible. And in the meantime, I guess I'll be eating a lot more of those sustainably-grown veggies from my CSA.

photo: s. kashkin/getty images