Shrimp and Regional Bias

A record-setting billion pounds of shrimp was imported for seafood lovers in the United States in 2003, but most consumers don't realize where the popular food comes from, said Public Citizen today as it released another section of its Pharmed Shrimp Series. As part of its continuing public education campaign on imported farm-raised shrimp, the group again urged consumers to be cautious when buying and eating shrimp. The report, Shrimp Stockpile: Importing America's Favorite Seafood, is the third in a series that documents the dangers of shrimp aquaculture. Shrimp aquaculture uses a factory-farming model that douses shrimp with pesticides, antibiotics and other chemicals; most shrimp farms are in Southeast Asia, where labor and environmental standards are considerably weaker than in the United States. Recent news reports have tied some of the devastating effects of last month's tsunami to the destruction of mangroves which historically lined the coasts in many countries in Southeast Asia. Mangroves are often destroyed to make room for shrimp farms. When they're cut down, a natural barrier to the ocean is eliminated, making it easier for tidal waves to reach the shore. Today, in the United States, shrimp is the No. 1 seafood choice, and nearly 90 percent of it is imported. More than 80 percent of the shrimp imported from foreign markets is farm-raised. The whole article can be found here.

But that is a fairly misinformed, super one sided argument; most likely funded by US shrimpers. I have been to shrimp farms, talked with farmers here, none of them use antiobiotics or pesticides. They don't need to, few of the farms had disease problems. I would be willing to bet that western (maybe not european since they are so paranoid about it) producers use as much or more medicines and such than thier poorer asian counterparts (I know this is true in swine production). As with anything, don't read one article and think you know it all.

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