Wal-Mart environmental practices changing shrimp farming in Thailand
Latest practice impacted by omnipresent Wal-Mart: Thai shrimp farming. Crustacean aquaculture, long demonized for destroying mangrove trees and polluting waterways, is the focus of new standards penned by the Global Aquaculture Alliance and backed by Wal-Mart, Red Lobster, and other big seafood purveyors. To make the grade for Wal-Mart -- the U.S.'s biggest single shrimp buyer -- farmers must improve water testing, treat discharge, discontinue antibiotic use, and plant three times as many mangroves as they chop down. As with all Wal-moves, there's controversy: around 80 percent of shrimp farms in Thailand -- the largest exporter of shrimp to the U.S., sending $1.28 billion worth of the delicacy to the states each year -- are so small they lack the resources to operate under the new standards. But when one huge Wal-Mart supplier bought and upgraded some 150 farms, it raised an outcry about consolidation. Don't worry, shrimpers -- we at Wal-Grist are here to tell you there's nothing to fear.
source: The Wall Street Journal, Kris Hudson and Wilawan Watcharasakwet, 24 Jul 2007 (access ain’t free)
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newbattleaxe Posted 5:16 am
25 Jul 2007
People can taste the difference between farm-raised shrimp and wild-caught shrimp. Local (meaning US) shrimpers are generally very careful in their trawling practices. Yes, I've talked with some, so my information is first-hand.
We (the US) could even farm raise shrimp here. Maybe we could use the abandoned rice fields in parts of the Southeastern US? We'd have to be careful, though, as these fields (NOT paddies) are valuable wetlands.
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