Posted on 05/24/2006 8:45:08 AM PDT by ThirteenFoxtrot
A kinder, gentler stance on seafood By ELIZABETH LEE Cox News Service Sunday, May 21, 2006 ATLANTA — Animal welfare concerns usually evoke images of overfed ducks and farm animals crammed into cages.
Add to that a tray of live soft shell crabs, which evoke images of big gray spiders.
The buglike creatures are at the center of the latest controversy over how seafood and meat are being treated on their way to the table. From veal to foie gras, many delicacies with potential ethical issues are disappearing from some restaurants and supermarkets.
Live seafood is next. Last week, Whole Foods Market stopped selling live soft shell crabs at the height of the season for the fully edible spring favorite. The Texas-based natural foods chain is reviewing its position on lobster and expects a decision by June 15. Also up for scrutiny: live blue crabs, crawfish and mollusks such as oysters, as well as frozen lobster tails.
Depending on the species, live seafood — especially soft-shell crabs prized because no peeling or cracking is required — is available in only a few stores. Live lobster is easier to come by.
Concerns about how animals are treated before they become delicacies are on the rise. Animal rights activists have started demanding proof that livestock is raised humanely and have influenced regulations for organic meat.
Environmental concerns have led to turtle extruder devices in shrimp nets and dolphin-safe tuna labels. Google and AOL recently announced they were switching to cage-free eggs in their company cafeterias. The Chicago City Council voted in April to ban the sale of foie gras, the swollen livers of force-fed geese or ducks.
Still, compassion for crustaceans, with nervous systems that the lobster industry compares to those of insects, has been slower to pick up mainstream support.
"Do I have the same simpatico for a crab as I would if there were a puppy in my office? Well, no. There's a slight difference there," said Anne Quatrano, executive chef and owner of Bacchanalia, Floataway Cafe and Star Provisions, which sells live soft shells.
It's not the growing tension over tossing live lobsters into boiling water that has Whole Foods worried.
Instead, the company wants to make sure the little critters are handled humanely after they're caught, says Cheryl Galway, the spokeswoman for the natural foods chain, which has seven metro Atlanta stores including three Harry's Farmers Markets.
Christina Tober, 20, of Atlanta doesn't eat seafood, but says she doesn't see how a store can decide not to sell live crabs but continue selling frozen ones.
"They're going to die anyway, so I don't see how this can be an issue of ethics [for consumers or sellers]," she said while shopping at the Whole Foods on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Atlanta.
Soft shell crabs are shipped and stored on ice or metal trays, often covered with seaweed and damp newspaper to keep them moist.
They are forced to live up to a week out of water. Some die during shipping.
The time in transit and discomfort of the trays concern Whole Foods, Galway says.
After a customer selects live soft shells, seafood counter workers most often kill and clean them and advise customers to cook the perishable crab within a few hours. Whole Foods still sells frozen soft shells, which are killed soon after they molt, or shed their shells.
But soft shell lovers say freezing makes meat mushy. Soft shells, lobster and other crustaceans taste best if kept alive until the bitter end.
At Star Provisions, where live soft shells are a popular item even at $4.75 per crab, no one is even considering discontinuing them. Quatrano says her belief in treating animals humanely is reflected in what the restaurants sell and in the stray dogs and chicks she's adopted at her Cartersville farm. Her restaurants don't serve Chilean sea bass, swordfish or farm-raised salmon because of environmental and sustainability concerns.
The Humane Society of the United States, which two years ago started a farm animal welfare campaign, is focusing on furry and feathered creatures.
"Animals should not be boiled alive," said Paul Shapiro, director of the group's Factory Farming Campaign. "At the same time, it's important to recognize that animals who are raised on factory farms, like most egg-laying hens or veal calves or ducks used for foie gras, suffer from a lifetime of torment."
Elizabeth Lee writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Journal-Constitution writer Saeed Ahmed contributed to this article.
If only carrots and cucumbers could talk...
That cartoon reminded of the time my dad had caught some frogs and was cutting off their legs to cook; the old yellow family dog was sitting nearby begging and slobbering, so my dad threw one of the frogs legless bodies his way and swoosh, down it went in a single gulp.
I sat there, in my 9-year-old sudden dumbfoundedness while the dog started slinking back and jerking his head from side to side and his stomach started flopping up and down and squirt, out came the squirming frog, his jumping days ended in an ignominious splat as my dad smacked him flat with back side of a shovel.
I don't think I've ever had frog legs since.
Me, too. They even had some of those first $.50 "call in" polls with a phone number to vote "yes" and a different one to vote "no" as to whether to kill Larry.
The issue at that time was whether lobsters were screaming in pain when put into the water. I still know people who claim to hear the screams. So, wear earplugs!
<> I pinch <>
Soft shell crabs are among my very favorite things to eat in the world and I had never gotten them frozen until recently.
Amazingly enough, they showed up at my discount-type food store, the last place I would have ever expected to see them. They were already breaded, ready to saute or fry - and they were delectable and not a bit mushy at all. At 2 large ones for $6, I was delighted.
So I don't agree with their premise on this.
I just got back from my local crab connection with a dozen #1 Jimmies (6 1/2" plus). I may be awhile. Later
Fried gulf jumbo shrimp. Yum.
For some reason that sounds like a bad sequel to "The Silence of the Lambs"
I've had soft shell crabs three times in the last week and my only concern is when can I have them again.
Steam 'em in beer, they'll be too drunk to notice any "discomfort".
There's room in this world for all of God's creatures, right beside the mashed potatoes.
That's next on their list, OP, that's next.
They don't scream. Air trapped in the shell can make a hissing sound as it escapes. The lobster has a very simple nervous system and goes into thermal shock when it hits the water. Also, it's kinda hard to scream when you have no lungs or vocal cords; not to mention no skin to sense temperature.
Bon Appétit!
I'd scoff down an unethical lobster just as quick as I would an ethical one.
Yes, I've explained that until I'm blue in the face - but some people just like to argue.
Now I'm getting hungry.
LOL -
I few years ago I was working in a bookstore and we were hit by a PETA operative. When I opened the store in the morning I realized that the night before someone had planted PETA fliers in just about every bestseller we had on display. The paper featured pictures of pigs and chickens along side plates of eggs and bacon. Needless to say, after disposing of all of them, I headed out for some bacon and eggs! It was delicious!
Stupid PETA.
The ones who die on the trays are the lucky ones. The live ones, I take home and cut off their eyes (no, really, that's how you kill them).
If crabs should be protected, they should not have been born delicious.
"There's room in this world for all of God's creatures, right beside the mashed potatoes."
Words to live.... errrr, eat by.
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