You Are Where You Eat

I'm catching up from the weekend at work, so hopefully I'll have a recap soon of Boots' phenomenal performance at the Baja 70.3 in Ensenada, Mexico. 

Meanwhile, I'll just mention that, there we were, driving into this coastal town, and speculating why the water near shore was a splotchy red, pink and purple, rather than blue or even murky green.  We thought maybe it was a combination of seaweed and tinted sunglasses. 

It was Red Tide!

We knew Red Tide was suspect, but couldn't remember why.  We agreed it sounded "itchy," and fretted about the swim leg of the race.   

Anyway, a nice Mexican told us later that it wasn't skin contact that we needed to worry about, but about eating fish - especially shellfish - during red tide because it was toxic or some such. 

This didn't stop us from digging into amazing "shrimp cocktails" (kind of like gazpacho with huge quantities of shrimp) from a roadside stand, but that's neither here nor there.  It appears our food pickiness might more productively be exercised at home.

In this article, a "former FDA commissioner" stumps for increased FDA funding for more inspectors and whatnot to prevent us from importing tons of ill or decomposing fish to go into our fish sticks.   Check it:

WILLIAM HUBBARD: Betty Ann, FDA's had tremendous concerns about imported Asian seafood from countries like China and Vietnam. They will often raise the fish in heavily polluted water and the fish are subject to fungal infections and bacterial infections. So the farmers will add illegal antibodies called fluoroquinolones or an anti-fungal agent called malachite green. And then that fish will arrive here in the United States with these illegal chemicals in them. And FDA has found tremendous problems with those. These are illegal drugs that are a big problem for human health and should never be in our seafood. But FDA has many times found problems with those. The same is true with shrimp.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Wait a minute, let me stop you. Are these chemicals that have been given to these shrimp and fish, are they on this label anywhere?

WILLIAM HUBBARD: Oh absolutely not. These are illegal chemicals and drugs that are not allowed for use in the United States, but are used in these foreign countries to keep the fish from dying before they can send them to us. And then unfortunately they can be in the tissue of the fish when we eat them and FDA has found that problem repeatedly over many years. But it cannot go back to the foreign country and say you must stop sending us this tainted food.

Wait, wait, how about this one?

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Well, would you eat this shrimp or this fish that comes from Asia?

WILLIAM HUBBARD: Well I must say, shrimp has been a particular problem. Imagine the shrimp coming up from a hot Indian Ocean deck, put on a boat hours before it gets into port. And then it, it decomposes and it smells so bad you dump sodium saccharin all over to hide the odor and then ship it to the Americans. That's not something people want.

Delicious!

Makes you want to go all isolationist, you know?  Anyway, while inspection funding and more authority given to the FDA to not merely turn back particular products but occasionally stop the Sorcerer's Apprentice-style march of importations from bad-guy countries would be great, maybe we (individually and collectively) can also work, you know, within the market.

Maybe we can ask our representatives to pass a law requiring labeling, not only of ingredients, but of ingredient sources, so that the consumer can decide with what risks she feels comfortable.  Maybe we can fuss to our favorite manufacturers so that they will voluntarily label their ingredient sources.  (I don't doubt that even these moves would motivate ingredient "laundering," shipping through a variety of ports until the term "source" loses all meaning - but I'd hope the makers truly on the up and up would be proud of that fact and make it clear.)  After all, I reckon a lot of packaging manufacturers didn't go on about how much "recycled content" they used until consumers made it clear they actually cared.

I don't think I'm a "buy American at all costs" girl necessarily (my Civic and my Mizunos get me around very nicely), and frankly I don't have a ton of faith in the USDA's supervision of our meat and dairy.  I do think farmers and other workers abroad have every right to earn a living.  This isn't about where the jobs and the money are.  I'm simply interested in transparency.

Anyway, when I get home tonight I'm going to type up a couple of letters, unless someone convinces me that's a bad idea.  Will you join me?

Comments

[Andrea D]

Thanks so much for your thoughtful comments on my blog. And this is a great post, too.

The isolationist tendency keeps kicking up in my head - it becomes overwhelming, trying to think about all that we consume, where it comes from, etc. But in the end, I think it's worth it if people with the resources to make these changes actually start making them.

[africankelli]

I am seriously doomed. How do we know if this fish is from Asia? I only eat fish. And soy. And now? I eat fruits and veggies. Lordie.
Yes! I'll write letters. Tell me where?

[TasterSpoon]

See? Exactly. You don't know where it's coming from.

Although the Alaskan seafood guys are doing a lot of ads these days.

I would assume that the less processed it is, the less able they are to mask bad ingredients.

How about eggs? Do you eat eggs? That same nutritionist was crazy about eggs as "the best source of bioavailable protein." And nuts. She loved nuts.

I think the developing news about what foods are "good" and "bad" can be taken with a grain of salt - even those articles about evil soy say there's disagreement and that moderate amounts aren't harmful. As far as food selection, moderation and variety seems to be the name of the game. And we all knew that already.

But I take the news about *poisoned* food more seriously. I guess I'm writing to my congresspeople and Senators, and I'll mention it at a political fundraiser I'm going to tonight. But I've seen a few articles in the last week talking about how food sourcing issues are "lighting up the blogosphere." I happen to think "the blogosphere" is the new arena for popular protest - the modern equivalent of marches on Washington - and can be a powerful agent for change.

[TasterSpoon]

Also, if I ate a lot of Van de Kamp's or Mrs. Paul's or Long John Silver's I would write to them too. I think I get most of my seafood from Trader Joe's, so I'll write to them.

Anyway, I think the whole "Dolphin Safe Tuna" thing was a corporate response to letters to tuna companies rather than to government regulation. So write to the people who get you your fish!