July 11, 2014 — Almost 90 percent of the seafood Americans eat comes from abroad. It’s time to bring back local U.S. seafood, writes guest columnist Paul Greenberg.
The United States should be a very fishy country.
In all, we control 2.8 billion acres of ocean, more than any other nation. But despite all that ocean, nearly 90 percent of the seafood Americans eat comes from abroad.
It gets fishier still: While the majority of the seafood Americans eat is foreign, a third of what Americans catch gets sold to foreigners.
What all of this points to is a need to rethink the U.S. seafood system. The locavore movement has spurred on the production and consumption of food from local land beyond all expectations, but local seafood remains mostly a quaint curiosity.
To be sure, the average eater in the Pacific Northwest is more aware than the average American about local seafood, given the importance of salmon to the region. But, the Seattle diner of today also has much less actual local salmon available to eat than a Seattleite of a century ago.
Re-localizing the U.S. seafood supply would have some very real benefits. On the health side, food safety standards on imported seafood are lacking.
Less than 2 percent of imported seafood is inspected. This is particularly relevant when it comes to shrimp, America’s most consumed seafood. In Southeast Asia, where the majority of the shrimp we eat is farmed, antibiotics are often used.
Read the full opinion at The Seattle Times