Certified Wild American Shrimp
December 31st, 2005As designers we’re interested in all forms of products. These include items that we manipulate, interact with and even wear. However, I can’t think of a more intimate category of product than food. After all, we are what we eat.
We recently came across an interesting commercial running on the Food Network for Certified Wild American Shrimp. It featured seasoned fishermen talking about shrimp boats, catching shrimp and shrimp gumbo (we almost mistook as a sketch comedy parody of Forrest Gump). They went on to decry “foreign pond-raised” shrimp as being against “the ol’ fashioned way…the way it’s always been” and their website even challenges you to taste the difference for yourself. Lastly, they urged consumers to buy only “certified” wild American shrimp, “The shrimp you thought you were eating.â€
It’s an interesting approach to rejuvenating the Gulf Coast economy and supporting American industries by using a variation of branding to differentiate a commodity. In some ways, it’s exactly what Niman Ranch is doing with meats. They have some merit to their allusion that wild shrimp is better for the environment, but it’s a complicated issue that we’ll try to address in the comments… caveat emptor.
Such eco-labeling isn’t anything new and is often wrought with controversy, confusion and criticism. There’s FSC for lumber, LEED for buildings and USDA Organic for most foods. Let’s not forget the head spinning number of labels for electronics including Energy Star, Green Seal, EU Eco-Label, among others.
See their print ad in Food & Wine magazine.
Related Posts: Seafood Watch, NASA creates Fake Meat
Popularity: 5% [?]
January 3rd, 2006 at 1:25 am
As a marine biologist, the commercial caught our eye for a number of reasons. My area of research is focused on studying and finding solutions to the ecological impacts of aquaculture and the sustainable management of fisheries. It’s much more complicated than buy X, avoid Y.
There are a several seafood resources available including guides published by the Marine Stewardship Council, Audubon Society, the Environmental Defense and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
It’s a complicated issue…
January 3rd, 2006 at 1:49 am
Further reading if you’re interested…
Wild-caught shrimp: Wild-catch fisheries typically use “trawl nets” (Forrest Gump style). What isn’t shown in the movie is the industry’s ridiculous waste. University and gov’t studies have estimated that for every pound of shrimp caught, 5 pounds of non-target species (fish, turtles, dolphins, etc.) are unintentionally caught and killed as a result of this fishing method.
Vestal, got any ideas for a solution to these “bycatch” problems? Ask Mike about “SmartGear” or watch for a blogpost about this.
It should be noted however that there have already been some interesting innovations called TED (Turtle Excluding Devices) that enable turtles to escape these nets. The American fleet boasts 99% compliance to use such devices, which is imaginably better than lesser regulated fleets.
Farm-raised shrimp: Shrimp are often raised in inland ponds rather than caught in the ocean. This method is bycatch free. However, shrimp aquaculture carries with it a whole list of other environmental issues including water pollution (in the form of excess nutrients) from fecal waste, coastal development (clearing vital mangrove forests), escaped shrimp which may become invasive exotic species and animal disease outbreaks. If you’re interested in the details, feel free to email me (this is what I do).
Foreign vs. domestic fisheries: Ahh the issue of globalization… Could be good OR bad for the environment, people, world economy, etc. depending on the specifics. As I had mentioned before, American shrimp trawlers (wild-caught) are required to use bycatch-reduction devices on their nets such as Turtle Exclusion Devices. Such practice is rare in SE Asia and Central America. Also, American shrimp farms (there aren’t many) are held to higher environmental regulations than foreign farms. And of course, there’s the issue of transporting the shrimp long distances if it’s caught far away.
All this being said, next time you’re at the supermarket (or at your home freezer), check out the shrimp. I’ll bet you a beer that the shrimp is farm-raised from either SE Asia (probably Vietnam and Thailand) or Latin America. If you happen to find American shrimp, it’s usually around $11 or $12/lb instead of the usual $8/lb.
Certification What does it mean to have a “certified” product? Has this claim been overused and/or abused, so that its value is now diluted? My dad scoffs at “certified” anything, thinking it’s just another baseless marketing ploy. Is it? This one looks like it’s funded by the goverment via a NOAA grant, but takes on the feel of a lobby… Wild American Shrimp, Inc?
March 10th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
mike wrote the above stuff, not dave. mike also smells