Oh No! We Could be Losing Our American Catfish

[Mimosa]

The mandate for biofuels is forcing Mississippi Delta catfish farmers to have to drain their ponds, according to this informative New York Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/business/18catfish.html?hp

This depresses me something awful because good American farmed catfish is a clean, delicious fish. It's the only freshwater fish I like. The type of 'catfish' which is imported from Vietnam and China is a whole different species called 'basa.' It has a mushy, less flaky flesh and tastes sort of nasty and funky. It's always frozen and is an inferior product grown without controls for antibiotic use, etc.

Please email your representatives in the House and Senate and ask for something to be done about this, whether it's subsidies for catfish farmers or a change of policy. This topic post isn't political: it's about whether we in North America will be able to buy and eat clean healthy foods sourced from our own hemisphere. It's bad enough we're dependent on imported oil, but we needn't be made to be dependent on imported fish, especially when that fish isn't even good! :mad

[razorman]

1. I never did like the idea of corn ethanol.

Every bushel of corn that is used to make fuel is a bushel that is not feeding someone or something. Some countries, such as Mexico, rely even more heavily on corn as a basic staple than we do. The shortages and price hikes also translate down the line to affect such things as farm-raised catfish and beef.

[madrchsod]

2. bio fuels should be used in the production of food crops

not put into the gas tanks of automobiles.. even with the high price of commodities the farmers are not going to see a huge gain in profits due to the higher costs of everything they use to produce those commodities....

time to put an end to the speculators gaming the markets

[lonestarnot]

3. This certainly sucks ass, but what doesn't these days. :(