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Sharp’s Tack
Maintaining the distinction between real and fake
by JS Sharp
Posted Jan. 1, 2007 --------- The federal government has given local fishermen something new to crab about. In a controversial move, the US Food and Drug administration decided last month to make a major change in labeling regulations: “imitation crab” is now called “crab-flavored seafood.”
Intense lobbying over the past decade from the National Fisheries Institute and Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers led to the change. Surveys have shown that the word imitation gives consumers a bad impression of their products and drives down sales. The product in question, whitefish processed to approximate crab, lobster and other types of seafood, is also known as surimi. An industry spokeswoman that the new labels would help consumes understand what they were buying. She denied that they were intentionally misleading.
The news of the change did not please crab fishermen. More sales of “crab flavored seafood,” as they see it, will translate directly into less sales of what we call simply “crab.” At the very least, increased competition will drive the price of the actual crustacean lower. Lower prices equate to lower earnings, a prospect that makes local fishermen very uneasy.
You can hardly blame them. Growing global competition has already driven prices down. Contentious per pound price negotiations between fishers and buyers have marred the past two seasons, leading to a two-week strike last year and a short delay this one. And that’s only the crab market.
The past few decades have been witness to severe changes in the entire fishing industry. Some fisheries are completely closed and severe restrictions have been imposed on others. Trawlers, some vast enough to include entire processing plants on board, ply the oceans in search of the fewer and fewer fish available to us all. These and other techniques of mass production have driven down the price of seafood and driven many fishermen into other lines of work. Crab was one of the last healthy fisheries keeping our local industry alive; now big business interests are knocking on that door as well.
We have seen this before, in other industries, especially agriculture. The family farm, once the mainstay of this great country, has been nearly destroyed by large-scale producers. The result is not pretty. Monolithic farms dominate California’s Central Valley, pumping hundreds of tons of fertilizers and pesticides into the ground and pulling millions of gallons of water out of it. The reaction from consumers to the environmental impact of this trend is telling: a growth in the market for locally produced organic vegetables that is sweeping both coasts and making great strides in the interior.
Interestingly enough, labeling issues have arisen to plague the organic industry as well. The source? Large producers like Kraft and WalMart. They have diluted the definition of organic through intense lobbying at the federal level, thus expanding their position in the market.
The two problems are the same: large, national or international corporations using political muscle to dominate a market and driving out smaller, local producers. The answer is also the same: increased access to local markets. Buy your seafood from local producers. Support your neighbors, your friends, your relatives; support your community.
It is not only morally preferably, but economically as well. Local producers pay local taxes, thus maintaining the roads you drive on and the public services you require. These are the same people that volunteer in your child’s classroom and attend your neighborhood church. In short, these people are part of our community. They are part of the supporting web that makes our lives possible, as we are for them.
So, to paraphrase G. W. Bush: get out there and buy real crab. It’s the American thing to do.
