Seafood Question???

Any of you folks that want seafood, travel up the east coast as far as you can go and still be in the u.s. Our Maine seafood is some of the best in the world. And, you can get it fresh in almost any local restaurant. Sadly, there are very few military famcamps here.

Because U.S. business executives would rather pay pennies to Chineese fisherman, packers and shippers rather than pay a living wage to a U.S. fisherman, packer and shipper. That way they get to pocket more of the money to send to their off-shore banks.

The other reason is that we let them do it.

Glenn

Glenn,

You are right. The Farmers Union, the voice of the family farmer in this country, has been trying to get Congress to pass a requirement that all food, meats, veggies, etc., be labeled with it's country of origin. Each year the bill gets introduced but never gets out of committee. I get made fun of because of my "buy USA" attitude. But, that is getting harder to do every year.

I wrote this topic in March, with my concerns. This week you may have seen the reports on the news about the government cracking down, on fish coming from China. I have found my concern was well founded. They have been loading the fish with drugs, to keep them "healthy". Now the government said, they will be checking the fish, but not taking them off the market. We are now being told to ask, where the fish are coming from. Sounds like a good idea, I already was doing this, but do you think a merchant could ever lie, about this? They said, the fish would only cause harm after eating them long term. When will they wake up, first our pet food, then our toothpaste, and lead in the toys, of a popular cartoon character. We seem to be giving our country away, first to jobs, and now putting the health of the people, to a country, that is far from being an Allie. I had my own private boycott, concerning fish, but I never believed all this would occur since March. How many times do we order fish/shrimp, from a restaurant, where we don't have a clue where it is coming from.

We recently were in a store, that had a large display, with a sign that said, local crab meat. My husband picked it up, to find it was from Taiwan. If a large chain food store, is misrepresenting there product, how are we to know, what we are eating.

I may be a bit late coming to this thread, but these last 2 posts are on target. My brother-in-law is a veal farmer in upstate New York (staying there now!), and he has been educating me in the Country of Origin labeling proposals. Turning to hamburgers and fries is not the answer, as beef is being imported and who knows what supplements or hormones are fed in other countries! Lots of our food supply is now coming in from other countries, and only a tiny percentage (less than 2%) is inspected. Reed those food labels and look at the stickers on fruit. Read up on Country of Origin legislation, and check out New York Farm Bureau at: nyfb.org.

Jeff

We grew a lot of our own livestock and produce when I was growing up in California -- but we still didn't know where all the livestock feed was from ... although mostly, it was home-graze, we still had lots of supplements -- grain, vitamins, etc.

Wasn't too worried about it 50 or so years ago, but would look a little closer now if still "growing my own" ... hard to tell where anything's from anymore unless you pull it out of the ground yourself, or get it right behind the left shoulder as it climbs the hill in front of you !!

There is more to this problem than just the companies wanting to put money in their own pockets, there are the consumers that want to save a buck that are driving the demand for low priced sea food. Another problem that we have in this country is our I want it now attitude.

Pigs, Cows, and Chickens hang out here in the states all year just waiting for us to eat them so there isn't too much of a call for importing them. Fishing is highly regulated here in the US and that drove a lot of the independent fishermen out of business. Combine that with fish harvest seasons that are designed for sustainable fishing and the natural habits of fish to want to run only at certain times of the year and you can see why companies are going off shore, so that they can offer fresh sea food all year. Add to that fruits and veggies that people are bringing in from all over and you can see how the problem just explodes.

Offshoreing of food was started by the desire for fresh fruits and veggies in winter, that expanded into desire for fall fish in spring and shell fish in months without R in them. Once suppliers found out that there was a demand for all this stuff, and that the people that could supply it in the "off" season could provide it cheaper it was the beginning of the end for American food suppliers.

Remember if you want to only eat American you are going to have to make some sacrifices like only eating food that is in season, or preserved by freezing or canning. In the long run it will probably be worth it.