Poll: What’s the origin of your catfish?
The American catfish industry is demanding that the USDA ensure that imported catfish is safe.
This fresh out of Jackson, Miss.: Catfish farmers – a major industry in the Southeast, and growing in Missouri — are demanding that the U.S. Department of Agriculture impose the same rules of safety, freshness and cleanliness on imported catfish.
You mean they don’t already? Apparently not. I didn’t know there was a fight about this. Now, I find out that that earlier this year the Alabama Agriculture found antibiotics that are banned in America, in catfish imported from China. As a result the Alabama Ag Commissioner banned the sale of catfish from China.
Catfish Farmers of America want federal legislation that scrutinizes imported fish as closely as American fish.
Also news, the American Agriculture Department doesn’t inspect imported seafood. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does that, and according to Alabama, not very well. Last year 5.2 billion pounds of seafood were imported into the United States last year, says the catfish farmers organization. Two percent was inspected by the FDA, says the organization. (Of course it’s infinitely more complicated than that.)
Still,
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I've written exclusively about health since the inception of the Health & Fitness section. I'm an off-road biker, altitude hiker and was into adventure sports until a fall down a Colorado mountain turned my lower back into abstract art. But I'm coming back. 
Eventually, people will realize that the government is not here to save or protect them. When that happens countries that we KNOW are poisoning us will have an economic backlash that has never been seen before.
But, until then……
Been warning friends and family for years about knowing the source of catfish they consume. You don’t want catfish raised in Vietnam. Remember the U. S. Military sprayed Agent Orange over a large percentage of South Viet Nam during the war years to defoliate the jungle. That stuff does not go away and is in the ground and the water and, it follows, in the catfish they raise over there and export to the U.S. Vietnamese are still suffering birth defects from Agent Orange exposure 34+ years later.
Got some Chinese catfish at Wal-Mart by accident once. It was n-a-s-t-y. Now I look for Delta Pride.
Onejimm…I think you are right. When it comes to things that can harm our health, the government is asleep at the switch. The government tends to major in the minors. They obssess over things that dont really matter and then things that are being imported, especially from Asia, come into the country everyday without a word. Go figure.
The FDA has failed tremendously in watching the import of seafood to our markets. People we do not want any Asia fish or seafood product in our market place or stores. I had eaten shrimp all my life now in my fifties I am allergic to shrimp so I found out that I can’t eat shrimp from Vietnam. The catfish grown in Mississppi, Missouri and Alabama is some of the best in the world why do we need fish from China? When is this sell out of America going to stop. We the American people must demand that our markets are closed to those food items imported that destory our health. Wallstreet can not dictate our food supply we must start to act now. Call me bias but i do not want contaminated imported food in our markets it’s time to take the fight to the streets.
Catfish…blech. It tastes like dirt, and now I know why…
I raise my own catfish. They come from local hatcheries. Nothing like farm raised local catfish. I can’t imagine anyone buying fish from a foreign country…..especially China
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i like my arkansas catfish too. just think how long it takes fish to get from one place to another. oceans are really big! do you want to eat something that has been that dead that long? local is a good thing!
Doreen, you just scared the taste right out of my mouth. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but you’re right. How much of that fast-frozen imported fish has been thawed by accident and refrozen? Normally, I’m not so prejudiced, but considering budget cuts have slaughtered the number of federal inspectors, that we’re left with little more than keeping our fingers crossed and the integrity of the retailer.
Frankly, my own feeling is locally grown food is always going to be better for economic, health and even accountability reasons. Strengthen your local farmers, and you strengthen your local economy and make your food supply more reliable.
There are plenty of things to import and export.
We buy all of our fish at OJan’s in Grafton (family friend of ours). Other than that, we buy seafood from Gulf Shores (bring it home on vacation and when it’s gone, we don’t have any until the next vacation). As for vegetables, our families try to grow a little of this and a little of that and we trade. Seems to be working well.