Do You Care Where Your Seafood Comes From?

[marmar]

from Food & Water Watch:




November 19th, 2010
Do You Care Where Your Seafood Comes From?

------------------------------------------

The customer is always right. But is the customer always informed? Every day, money is made in this country based on the premise that most consumers don’t care about information pertaining to the products they buy. The imported seafood industry banks on it.

Every year, Americans eat on average 15.8 pounds of seafood, most of which is imported from countries like Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Taiwan and Malaysia. According to an NBC Today Show investigative report, “80 percent of fish and 90 percent of shrimp come from overseas.” The reason this is such a big deal is due to the high percentage of imported seafood that is contaminated with toxins, combined with the fact that the FDA inspects less than 2 percent of all imported seafood. That’s a formula for food safety disaster.



If importing seafood is so risky, then why is it such a big business? Why don’t we buy more domestic seafood, free of the toxins commonly found in many imports? Obviously, seafood companies keep importing these products because it’s cheaper and they can make higher profits. Oh, and they also count on most American consumers not knowing where their food comes from.

John Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute — a trade organization representing seafood importers — flat out told NBC reporter Jeff Rossen that consumers don’t care about the source of our food. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2010/11/do-you-care-where-your-seafood-comes-from/

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Yes! And how can you truly be sure anymore of its origin?

[xchrom]

2. here in north carolina -- i subscribe to a once weekly CFS.

we get locally caught seafood -- a variety -- mullet, clams, shrimp, etc.

i haven't bought seafood from a store in weeks and weeks.

[Gormy Cuss]

6. CSFs are a great way for coastal state residents to get fresh, local fish.

I have friends in the Boston area who belong to one too.

[Little Star]

15. What does CSF stand for?

[Gormy Cuss]

16. Community supported fishery

It's like a CSA (community supported agriculture) but for fish.

The model is that people sign up to receive regular allotments of what's being harvested locally. It provides the farmers or fisherman with a guaranteed market for their hauls at better than wholesale prices.

[Little Star]

17. Thank You.

[ixion]

3. Yep. Any anyone who east seafood should be. It matters.

Especially with shellfish.

[TBF]

7. Yes - especially shellfish. So much shrimp came from the gulf

region that I refuse to eat it anymore. With fish I'll just order salmon.

[rucky]

4. I care, but don't really have much control over it.

Other than eating way less seafood than I'd like to.

[elocs]

5. In the supermarket where I shop it's hard to find seafood that is a product of the U.S.

or even Canada. It's from other countries all over the world, but China is the main one.

[roody]

8. I stopped eating it to give the oceans a break.

[Ezlivin]

11. Same here.

I was appalled at the extreme overfishing. My cessation will not cause fish stocks to rise, but at least I'm no longer contributing to the problem.

[Winterblues]

9. A lot of that seafood was caught by Americans in American waters

Almost all of the Pacific Cod harvested in the North Pacific and Bering Sea is sent to China for processing and then Exported back to us for consumption...Don't know why that is the case just that it is..:shrug:

[sarcasmo]

10. Yes and when I go down to the panhandle this spring I will be curious to see

what has happened to the taste of my beloved gulf oysters.

[TheKentuckian]

12. Yeah, I don't want pre-oiled seafood from the tar pit of BP

[WinkyDink]

13. Wegman's displays country of origin.

[Bigmack]

14. I eat salmon...a lot. Wild salmon...

OK.. I live in the NW and catch some of the salmon I eat, but the rest of it I buy from Native Americans on a Rez near us.

I would encourage others with access to a Native American source to inquire about buying fish from them. Either coast.

I realize this may only apply to a few DUers, but....

You may have to buy it in a big lot - all at once - because that's how they get their quota of fish. I have to process and freeze up to 60 lbs at once. That's a big part of the savings.

You may have to travel a long distance, too.

The advantage I have, of course, is that I know what kind of fish I'm getting, I know it's fresh, and I pay hot-dog prices for the best protein around. I also help support the tribe.

I will not eat farmed salmon with all the antibiotics and damage to local ecosystems ... and I won't eat anything farmed in SE Asia. Anybody remember all the crap we dumped on that area during the SE Asia War Games in the 1960s and 70s?