Oysters Mournful

This editorial was written for the Washington Post at their request. I was working on an article for the paper on oyster farming at the time, but the Deep Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico was on everyone’s mind. The paper ran the article in the food section, which caused an outcry among some readers who thought—rightfully so—that it should have gone on the Opinions page. Because I was known as a food writer, not an editorialist, I refused payment for the piece so that I, not my editor, could take the blame.