Shrimp Boats in Port Lavaca, TX, by flickr user scmtngirl

Tom Urell, PRK Guest Contributor

I guess it’s natural for me to see part of the tragedy of the ongoing oil spill in terms of its immediate and lasting damage to the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico. As a body of water that plays a vital role in supplying our seafood and supports a vital fishing economy, some of the greatest damage being done by the spill will inevitably be felt at the table. The spill is affecting the shrimping season already: the Gulf shrimp season opened Monday in Louisana with 23 percent of the regular shrimping waters closed. Kiera Butler’s thoughtful essay, published earlier this week in Mother Jones, looks at the repercussions of the spill in the world of shrimp for fishermen and we who eat it. It also poses a valid question about the safety of oil-contaminated seafood and includes information on the pros and cons, in terms of safety and sustainability, of wild versus farm-raised versus domestic and imported shrimp, all within the context of the oil spill.

Closer to home, the New England shrimping boats have had an especially strong year. So strong, in fact, that last week the season was closed early because the boats had taken 11 million pounds of shrimp, which is over their quota. Eleven million pounds!? Sounds huge til you realize the cold-water shrimp industry takes almost a billion pounds a year, and Gulf fishermen take another 200 million pounds of warm-water shrimp annually. Who knows what will happen this season, though, with the spill continuing and this morning’s news report that the amount of oil gushing daily into the Gulf is being underestimated by a scary order of magnitude.

This all leaves me thinking about how vulnerable our food system is to the unintended but seemingly inevitable consequences of industrial development. It is becoming abundantly clear that the scale of production of our food can create frightening public health situations, where even food that is deemed safe can be dangerous. I don’t think there’s a clear answer to this problem, but there have to be economies of scale to produce enough food, safely, for everyone who needs to eat. I am glad I am not alone in recognizing that this issue demands action. Whether or not the oil from the Gulf takes a swing around Florida to come up the East Coast, we are all going to feel the effects of this and future man-made environmental disasters at the grocery store, in our wallets and on our plates.

Your thoughts?