Radley Balko has a brilliant essay on the Fox News page about a series of ill-considered government policies to protect American catfish farms from competition from Vietnamese competition. Then after reading that, you really should go read the hilariously idiotic emails he received from the hyper-patriots. I particularly enjoyed the one from the guy complaining about "unregulated fish parts" flooding the market.
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Wow! Some of those e-mails in response to the article sound a lot like creationists! I can't believe some of them think we should put bias towards the Vietnamese imports yet still claim to be practicing Capitalism. What would happen if other countries started doing that to products America ships out (I know, it has happened in the past but I can't recall what products they were off-hand)? They'd throw a fit. One e-mail response (that was favorably toward Radley) summed up the whole issue in its first sentence:
Thirty years after the Vietnam War, Vietnam inches toward capitalism, while the US inches toward socialism.
I wish more people would realize this.
Hmmm, I put quote tags around the second last sentence. I used [quote]Sentence[/quote] (with less/greater than sign instead of [). Did I do something wrong?
Ah, blockquote, I see now. Wish we could edit our comments :(
While I agree that the U.S. should be a free market for the Vietnamese fish, I don't really have a problem with requiring different marketing names for U.S. and Vietnamese "catfish." The Vietnamese fish seems to be a Pangasius species (P. hypophthalmus according to one website), while most US farmers grow channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus). They're not the same species, not even the same genus, and under some taxonomic treatments, they aren't even in the same family (Siluridae vs. Pangasiidae).
Balko's claim that "The difference between the two varieties is almost nonexistent" is a bit like claiming that the difference between a grouper and a bluegill is almost nonexistent. If we're going to market the Vietnamese and U.S. fish with the same name, we might as well just label chickens and turkeys as "bird."
I really have to go with Nick on this one. Truth in product quality/constructs/ingredients is an area that is lacking, across the whole of the food spectrum. Why is it so difficult to just tell us what it is that they would like us to ingest??? I want to know what it is, where it comes from, and how it was grown/produced. And, no, i wouldn't eat farmed fish of any kind whatsoever; especially having seen the process up close and personal.
Since when is protecting American consumers socialism? Our own food production is held to very high standards. Why can't we expect the same from foods that are imported? Balko's argument is riddled with inaccuracies, but here are the two main points he has wrong:
1. It isn't the same fish (I think Nick explained this well)
2. Vietnamese basa isn't necessarily safe. There are no standards and little or no regulation in Vietnam. In fact, when scientists determined that the feeding of chicken feces to the fish could potentially spread avian bird flu, there was no recourse for the government to take to stop the practice.
Alternatively, U.S. farmed catfish is listed as a best choice by the Seafood Watch Program. This isn't a matter of capitalism, it is a matter of protecting our food supply and the American consumer.