I know most of the things we hear about farmed fish or seafood, in general, these days is far from positive but this is something we all need to know about. Have you ever wondered what some of these sea creatures are being fed on those ‘farms?’
A lot of the seafood we eat here in the United States comes from China and other Asian countries. The thing with seafood coming from China and so forth is that most of the sea creatures are fed using unconventional feed such as pig feces. While you might have heard this before chances are you didn’t get any proper explanation and so that is why this article is being brought forth. For quite a few years now this subject/situation has been making its rounds online, but most people don’t realize how true it actually is.
The idea that the fish we are eating was raised on things like pig feces is not something that sits well with anyone. Even back in 2012 Bloomberg Markets Magazine wrote on the topic and did verify that it was in fact happening and is a very common practice in some parts of Asia. They even went so far as to describe the sanitary conditions at fish factories in Vietnam as if flies are literally crawling all over baskets of shrimp constantly.
This is a bit stomach churning as Vietnam ships hundreds of thousands of shrimp to the US each year. To top that off the FDA doesn’t inspect all of the seafood we import, how could they? They only inspect about 2 percent of what we take in leaving a lot of bumps along the way. While you might think 2 percent is a lot when you look at places like Canada or the EU who inspect anywhere from 15-50 percent you can tell we are clearly behind in the times.
“Imported seafood may carry risks in terms of food safety because the FDA does not have the resources to proactively and regularly inspect foreign facilities, and it relies on product testing as a last resort,” said Love. To minimize the risks of seafood imports and to raise U.S. testing standards to match those of other countries, the authors recommend that the FDA budget be expanded to allow for more exhaustive testing and hiring of more inspectors.
Asia’s shrimp also relies on antibiotics big time when it comes to controlling diseases among them. This producing a risk of antibiotic-resistant pathogens being present in the final product. Back in 2008, Don Kraemer from the FDA at the time actually warned before Congress that there was clear scientific evidence that drug residues DO make it into the fish that we eat. While this might not be enough to make everyone check the source of their seafood I hope it puts the thought in the minds of at least some people.
For more information please feel free to check out the video below, it covers far more than you might ever imagine. What do you think about all of this? I for one think sanitation and overall conditions of the farms our food comes from should be more regulated somehow, perhaps in the future that will be more possible.
LINK
No comments:
Post a Comment