PHILADELPHIA, Pa. โ July 10, 2014 โ Today, 91 percent of the seafood Americans eat comes from abroad, even as a third of the domestic catch is shipped overseas.
Paul Greenberg's commitment to local seafood runs deep โ so deep that the Manhattan-based writer once slurped down an oyster he'd plucked from the muck of New York Harbor, eliciting a gasp from a city official standing nearby.
But the author of the newly released American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood (Penguin) is aware there's a tidal wave of forces working against him.
Today, 91 percent of the seafood Americans eat comes from abroad, even as a third of the domestic catch is shipped overseas. Even New Jersey, known for Barnegat Light scallops and Cape May Salts, has given over more of its shoreline to vacation homes and less to aquaculture โ with, Greenberg argues, real ecologic and economic consequences.
So, short of following Greenberg's lead and going clamming in the Delaware, what's a locavore to do?
Greenberg, 46, met us at Reading Terminal Market to help us navigate the contents of its fish cases.
First up, Wan's Seafood โ which Greenberg says gets points just for being a fish market, an endangered species.
The case is well-stocked with shrimp: raw and precooked, deveined and butterflied. Most of it likely comes from abroad.
It was shrimp that first inspired American Catch. After the publication of his previous book โ the James Beard Award-winning Four Fish โ coincided with the BP oil spill in 2010, Greenberg had proposed a book about the spill's impact on the Gulf of Mexico. But, after a dozen others beat him to publication, he reconsidered.
Still, he kept the research trips he'd booked with Gulf shrimpers. He learned they were still catching shrimp โ but getting rock-bottom returns.
The Asian shrimp flooding the market has driven down the price, they complained.
That's when Greenberg recognized the scope of this strange situation โ one that wouldn't be obvious to the typical Wan's shopper.
Though the FDA mandates labels stating country of origin and method of production (farm-raised or wild-caught), most placards in this case offer only the fish's name, such as "croaker" or "spot."
At least those two, Greenberg said, are local (though the spot, it turned out, had been frozen; shoppers should check for freshness, looking for moist skin, clear eyes and red gills). And, of all the offerings, the sacks of Rhode Island mussels are Greenberg's top pick: high in omega-3s, low in toxins, and a deal at $4.49.
But there are also long-distance travelers here, such as branzino and tilapia. As for the squid, it may be local, foreign, or the product of a round-trip journey (it's often processed in China and reimported).
Sea scallops are local: They're a big business in New Jersey.
Ernie Panacek, dock manager at Viking Village in Barnegat Light, said his biggest, freshest sea scallops are distributed to U.S. restaurants and markets.
But about a third of the catch landed at Viking Village is sent abroad. For example, much of his monkfish goes to South Korea. "The market drives it," he said. "There's a lot more demand internationally for U.S.-produced seafood than there is here." He said high demand has driven up international prices, encouraging still more exports.
Read the full story at The Philadelphia Inquirer