The State of Texas Gulf Shrimp

BY ANDREA HANCE

For generations, the bountiful waters of the Gulf of Mexico have provided a distinctive lifestyle for Texas commercial fishermen. This industry, fueled by hard work and the sea, feeds a nation hungry for tender, premium, wild-caught seafood, including delicious Gulf shrimp.

Within these hardworking men and women, pride runs deeper than our Lone Star waters. The history of Texas shrimp is a story of innovation and preservation that continues to this day.

But while this story is a good one, the industry is faced with a wealth of challenges that must be met head on. Now more than ever is the time for consumers to support our fellow Texans by choosing, buying and serving Texas Gulf shrimp. Simply put, the industry is depending on it. Below are some interesting facts that should make you think twice the next time you eat Texas Gulf shrimp.

The Texas shrimp industry has diminished by 70% over the last 25 years due to the costly regulations and the flood of cheap, unregulated imported shrimp being dumped into the United States. The cost to own and operate a commercial fishing vessel (F/V) is 3 X higher today than 25 year ago (the cost to purchase a boat plus the 13,000 regulations bestowed upon our industry).

Shrimping is the 13th most regulated industry in the United States – a few regulations shy of the airline industry – costing the boat owner thousands of dollars each year.

We estimate that approximately 20% of those who continue to fish are operating at a deficit or a net income below poverty levels and can only adequately provide for their families with supplemental income derived from a 2nd or 3rd job/business.

Although our industry is considered one of the most sustainable fisheries in the world, we have paid dearly for this accomplishment. For example, a TED (turtle excluder device) costs each boat owner approximately $20 - $30,000 per boat, per year. This includes the cost to purchase the TED’s plus the loss of production (we are essentially pulling a net with a hole in it). Millions of dollars have been spent each year for turtle conservation, curtsy of Texas shrimpers..

European countries reject dangerous, unregulated shrimp and when it comes in, it’s immediately destroyed. They would never allow their consumers to consume this potentially harmful seafood. Therefore, foreign countries simply send their shrimp to the U.S. as we welcome them with open arms.

Based on an informal survey conducted by TSA in 2017, 85% of (non chain) restaurants who inform their consumers the shrimp they serve is American wild caught Gulf shrimp is not.. The next time you are in a restaurant, ask where your shrimp came from, you may be surprised.

What to Look For: When buying from a service counter, check the price label. That’s where you’ll find the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL), which indicates the source of the product. Make sure the label says, “Wild shrimp, harvested in the United States,” to ensure you get premium quality.

Remember, the Texas Shrimp Association (TSA) is a non-profit organization that continues to develop strategies to educate consumers, lawmakers, press, environmental groups, and the public at large about the importance of protecting and growing the Texas Gulf shrimping Industry while maintaining a sustainable, environmentally safe product. Follow TSA’s lead as we work to provide consumers with the best shrimp possible.

You step out onto the shore of a

‘new world’ that you’ve never seen before with nothing but seemingly untouched wilderness before you. This is a new world, a land of new opportunity.

You came across the sea in pursuit of a new life: maybe you’re longing for religious freedom, maybe you’re a younger son with little to no inheritance in the ‘old world’, maybe you’re a spectator dreaming of fortune or maybe you’re a farmer looking for a vast estate that has not been exhausted over the generations. But all you know is how to make the land work for you, to make your dreams for security and a promising future come true.

In fact, in some cases that’s what your nation’s government expects of you- to produce produce for the mother country; in which there may have been little to no arable land left. In a day and age where much of the world was still agrarian; agriculture was a respectable and honored pursuit. As a matter of fact, much, if not all, of our United States history is based off agriculture.

From what we know of early American history and early settlers accounts; even many of the Native American nations were farming. Such as the large banded nations of the Iroquois, Powhatan or Algonquin, the Mississippian and the Pueblos. They were growing domesticated crops such as maize; otherwise known as Indian Corn. This was later adopted by the Pilgrims as we know from the story of Squanto. But the Pilgrims also brought some crops over from Europe such as Barley and Peas. In the southern colonies Indigo, Tobacco and Rice were grown. And then later cotton and sugarcane begun to be the staple crops in the southern United States. Between 1776 and 1860 the United States economy was primarily agricultural. Westward expansion continued to open up new areas to the pursuit of agriculture. Most were subsistence farmers; growing food for the family and a bit was sold at local markets. During this time a farmer could grow crops for much more than what he paid for the land, then sell the property and move on to the next plot. According to one account of early pioneers in the 1780’s “the farmer cleared the woods or found an opening and grew corn, wheat, flax, tobacco and other products including fruit. And in a few years the pioneer would add hogs, sheep cattle and perhaps a horse”.

Historian Louis M. Hacker explained that on the whole it [the United States] was an agricultural society. In fact, so noble and respected was the pursuit of agriculture that many of our first presidents were involved in the pursuit.

George Washington, himself, enumerated his thoughts stating that “agriculture is the most healthful, most useful and most noble employment of man.” On February 17, 2014 Charles McFarlane of Modern Farmer put together a list of presidents who were involved in agriculture. He opens the list by saying “Farming has always been a quintessential part of the American experience, from Abraham Lincoln splitting rails for fence building to Bill Clinton picking beans.”

To start at the beginning; our first president George Washington was a farmer. He was a meticulous record keeper and was very innovative, already learning methods of using fertilizer and composting for soil health. He eventually phased out the single crop of tobacco on his farm in favor of a diversified seven-crop rotation system which most likely included, corn, wheat and legume crops. Next is Thomas Jefferson, who according Karen Perry Stillerman, senior analyst for Food and Environment, has become to be known as the ‘first foodie’ for his love of

food. He traveled to France and loved vegetables, thus introducing new vegetables to the U.S. At Monticello, his farm, he experimented with a vast variety of food crops, including 330 varieties of eighty-nine species of fruits and vegetables and herbs and 170 varieties of fruits. Although, many of these experiments failed leading his neighbors to dub him ‘the worst farmer in Virginia’, in truth, he learned and promoted techniques of soil health through adding organic matter and by sharing seeds and techniques widely he also promoted commercial markets, gardening and the spread of new cops. George Washington loved his farm at Mount Vernon. Image from mountvernon.org Abraham Lincoln, who could probably be more relatable than Washington and Jefferson, to the middle-class farmer of today, was raised in a log cabin in Kentucky and as he himself put it, was “raised on farm work”. His father farmed frontier land in Indiana before moving family to Illinois. By the time he reached his political career, he was an advocate for modernizing agricultural technology such as the horse-drawn machines and steam plows to take the place of hand labor. While president, he signed legislation creating the Department of Agriculture which he later called “The People’s Department” since half of Americans at the time lived on farms. Lincoln also recognized the importance of educating farmers, so he signed the Morrill Land Grant College Act which supported agricultural and mechanical colleges. Thus, he began the agricultural system that we are familiar with today. Theodore Roosevelt, who is known as one of the nation’s great conservationists, but also had some experience cattle ranching. Although he was born to an aristocratic family in the east; he went west in 1884 and bought a ranch and tried his hand at ranching and quickly learned the hardships of ranching in the Dakota badlands. But this

helped shape his view on the importance of conservation. Thus, not only did he create five national parks, but he created the United States Forest Service. He set aside fifty-one federal bird reservations, eighteen national monuments and four national game preserves.

As the nation progressed and manifest destiny had been achieved, more and more towns popped up and then during WW2 with the need for manufacturing, more industrial jobs started leading to an influx of people moving to town. Slowly with the invention of the interstate highway system, cars and suburbs, grocery stores were available in almost every neighborhood for the general public, so the individual was no longer responsible for gowning their own food and enjoyed the convenience of ready-prepared meats and procure, this we became less connected with our agricultural roots and began to have less respect for those involved in the pursuit of agriculture- seeing them only as uneducated back water folks with little to no

education.

Roosevelt dressed in his buckskin; this studio portrait was most likely taken in New York. Although most cowboys frowned at his buckskin shirt, Roosevelt felt it to be the epitome of western attire.

Dickinson State University

But as former President John F. Kennedy iterated, we, as a country, “all depend upon farmers as stewards of our soil, water and wildlife resources.” And an administration later, our own Texas Presidential rancher, Lyndon Baines Johnson added, that farmers are “the backbone of this country”.