How Jonathan Gold came to call for ban on shark fins

His brother Mark, the head of Heal the Bay, says that he asked the LA Weekly food writer for this weekend's op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times. Getting it done was more of a struggle. From Spouting Off, Mark Gold's blog.

The one person I know that could really make a difference in the fight to enact the shark fin ban is my brother, Jonathan. After all, there is no food writer more highly respected nationally than Jonathan. He’s the only food writer to earn a Pulitzer and he’s received seven James Beard Awards, the food industry’s equivalent of the Oscars.

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So three months ago, I did the unthinkable. I asked him if he would be willing to write an op-ed on the shark fin ban bill for the Los Angeles Times. I hadn’t asked him to write an environmental piece since his days as a columnist for the long-defunct LA Times magazine.

As any editor that has ever worked with my brother can attest, getting Jonathan to agree to write a commissioned piece is a guarantee of stress for weeks on end. He has the habit of saying yes without too much persuasion, but getting him to meet a deadline takes ingenuity, patience and perseverance....

Every time our families got together — Passover Seder, a trip to the beach, a party at his house — the conversation invariably turned to the promised shark fin piece.

But finally it was written and ran in the Times.

Food/media related: Anne Hathaway is not signed up to play food editor/critic Ruth Reichl in the film adaptation of her book, "Garlic and Sapphires," despite what Reichl says, according to Eater.

Previously on LA Observed:
Talking seafood with the Gold brothers
Gold and Gold, mano a mano
Jonathan Gold gets a plea from his brother