Locally Produced Aquaculture

[laniloa]

I sat through an interesting presentation about closed system, zero effluent, land-based aquaculture today. One of the selling points they made is that it would appeal to consumers who are increasingly looking for "local" foods. One of the things I miss most about DC (apart from y'all of course) are the farmers markets featuring local growers. Many things about them appeal to me, but the key factor being the freshness and flavor of the food I could get at the markets. I had never thought about farmed fish in this way. Part of the marketability of closed-system, land based aquaculture is the ability to produce consistent flavor, size, and texture year round.

I don't really want to get into a debate about the pros and cons of aquaculture or comparing it to wild fish. I'll look to Don to shut down or delete the thread if it heads down that path or an inquiry about local production is too far off base for the board.

So my questions...if you purchase farmed seafood, would it matter to you to have locally produced farmed seafood? Would it matter if the critter being raised wasn't a "local" species?

Thanks for the feedback.

[MC Horoscope]

When there is a local industry, yes, it is important to me to support local aquaculture. It's done in Louisiana with its strong crawfish industry that was in recent years threatened by the importation of crawfish from China flooding the market and upsetting the price structure. The state government stepped in with some regulations, if I remember correctly. Packagers went to work right away with stamps like "Louisiana crawfish."

Are there similar issues in our area? Crabs?

On an unrelated note, why didn't the Eastern Shore crawfish industry take off? Was it because there is no tradition of cooking crawfish in the home here? I swear that land looks like the SW LA prairies and could be a big producer, but I am not sure which species.

[laniloa]

You raise an interesting point. In a completely land-based system, you could raise the same species anywhere. Would expectations based on where that critter is found naturally enter into it? Take blue crabs -- same broodstock could be raised in a tank in Kansas as raised in a tank in Maryland. You would literally be getting the same crabs raised in the same manner. Would you expect the Maryland folks to just do blue crabs better? Would you expect that the Maryland watermen were somehow involved or that it was somehow easing pressure off the wild stocks?

[Barbara]

I buy the boned Rainbow trout from WF, which is farmed. I have always presumed that it is farmed someplace nearby in Virginia. If it isn't, I would rather buy it frozen and thaw it myself. WF won't hesitate to sell you a rotten fish. Ditto the Safeway. So, yes, I would prefer to buy from the closest possible farmers because that's the only way to be sure what you are getting is fresh. Perfectly fresh trout is a wonderful thing. Rotten trout is another matter thing entirely.

Considering the depleted supplies of all kinds of wild fish, aquaculture appears to be the future--if we are going to continue to eat seafood. I think it is important to care that such processes don't cause greater ecological damage and to look for and support technological advances in that direction. Even if it turns out that the Maryland blue crabs come from Kansas!