Posted on 03/07/2008 7:48:16 PM PST by JACKRUSSELL
When ordering seafood, many of Russell Hohnerlein's customers have the same question: Where did it come from?
Hohnerlein, manager of The 4th of May at 444 Ocean Blvd, St. Simons Island, never has to check a daily serve list to answer.
"All our seafood is local. Always," he said.
Should Sen. Ronnie Chance, R- Fayette, have his way, Hohnerlein won't have to field this question much longer. The answer will be visible to the eye – right there on the menu.
Senate Bill 533, introduced by Chance Wednesday, would require restaurant menus to carry a label on all seafood items identifying the country of origin.
The bill is co-sponsored by five other Republicans in the Senate, including Sen. Jeff Chapman, R-Brunswick. He is no stranger to the seafood industry. His district includes Georgia's southern coastline, which encompasses a large part of the state's commercial fishing fleet.
"This is just good government," Chapman said, adding that he is confident the bill will make its way into a law. "It benefits and protects the consumer as well as area fishermen. There really is no down side here."
Under Food and Drug Administration regulations, country-of-origin labeling requirements are already required on some seafood, including what's sold at the grocery store and other food outlets. The regulation is beneficial to business, said Frank Owens, manager at City Market at 1508 Gloucester St. in Brunswick.
"A lot of people ask me where my fish is from and I have no problem telling them it's all local and from the states," Owens said. "I think it does make a difference and is important knowing where your food is from."
Ann Friedrich of St. Simons is one such customer. A regular at City Market, she opts to buy her fish there because it is a regional variety.
"I drove over from the island because I know where this fish is coming from," she said. "At the grocery store, it's from Thailand and China. Who knows what all is in that."
Labeling seafood items on menus is already mandated in Arkansas, and similar bills are moving forward in Mississippi and Alabama, said Jeff McCord, a representative with the Catfish Institute.
In recent years, the vast majority of seafood served in America has hailed from farms in Asia. Such imports have lowered the price of seafood, said McCord.
"The price of labor is a lot cheaper in Asia, and the health standards are much lower," he said. "In many cases, fish are, essentially, raised in cesspools."
He said only about 1 percent of food imported in the U.S. is inspected.
Chance's bill would not stop the purchase of seafood from outside the country. It is a mere effort to create a heightened awareness of consumer health issues and encourage the serving of locally-farmed foods, said Eddie Gordon, executive director of the Wild American Shrimp Association.
"It's a win-win situation," Gordon said. "It doesn't keep imported seafood from being sold here, but it does give consumers the tools they need to make their own informed decisions."
Gordon, whose organization supports the promotional campaign that encourages consumers to ask for and to eat seafood caught in local waters, has felt a positive push among consumers recently for more locally grown and farmed foods, including seafood. This bill is reflective of that effort and would hopefully bring the seafood industry up to speed regarding consumer needs, he said.
The price difference between eating locally raised and caught seafood and imported varieties is not drastic and wallets would not be greatly effected should the bill pass, both Gordon and McCord agree.
For shrimp, the price difference between local and imported shrimp is practically nonexistent, Gordon said.
For catfish, the difference usually rings up as about a dollar more per pound for local varieties, McCord said.
Since most restaurants already know the origin of the seafood they serve, adding labels to the menu would not be a difficult task. If anything, Gordon said, it would be an advantage.
"Eating local has become a big movement nationwide," he said. "More and more people are becoming savvy about knowing where their food is from. This requirement could only help restaurants," Gordon said.
In Arkansas, where the requirement has already been enacted, that has proven to be the case, McCord said.
"It's really become a selling point," he said.
At Dressner's Village Cafe, 223 Mallory St., St. Simons Island, the main seafood dish on the menu – grouper – is not farmed locally but instead comes through vendors.
Should the bill pass, Dressner's manager Bob Lowry said he would comply with the new regulations but is unsure how the measure might affect business.
"Our grouper is never local," he said. "But if we are required to list where it's from, then that's what we'll do."
Do you trust a restaurant to tell you or for the waitress to even have a clue the type of and where the fish in your fish and chips came from?
Or at the fish market?
We have a state law here in Oregon so the fish market/dining place can't lie.
We live in a fishing port and tourist/people assume the fish is non farmed fresh and local or even USA/Canadian.
My local grocer rarely gets USA prawns and he keeps them stowed in the back for those of us that buy them....they cost twice the price of Asian farmed.
To get local f/v or near local non farmed fish you have to know where to go....most tourist don't know the places and the price is hefty.
Had some fresh Sturgeon the other day yum....
80% of fish sold in the USA is farmed or fresh from Asian countries.
Lately one of our fish markets has been carrying frog legs...from China...hmmmmm we wondered what kind of habitat those where raised in.
Being a fishing port us locals are big supporters of buying fresh local even at the high prices.
JMO
We live in a fishing port.
State requires the seafood be labeled and not much is local.
Have to go to the one place that sells only local/USA Pacific Coast from the F/V. Not cheap.
Twice the price of the Asian/import seafood.
Even our local shrimp/seafood is fresh frozen or flash frozen so it will keep to get to the dock-vender-you.
Only certain months of the year will you get fresh shrimp/crab/fish.
Since we have the law here it is labled fresh or fresh frozen.
God Bless You.
**what kind of habitat those where raised in**
a nocturnal soil kind of habitat I’m thinking...
“Farm raised catfish can be good, but not near as good as channel cat from a river.”
Depends on the river and what the river connects to. If you catch it yourself and know the river and know that it doesn’t connect to polluted waterways, then I would consider eating it. But if you have no idea where it was caught, you might be eating fish caught downstream from a chemical plant or a sewage processing facility. Unfortunately, many waterways in the US now have chemical run-off from farms and I would avoid eating fish caught there.
Sorry, but I live in fresh seafood coutry and frozen seafood if roundly rejected by most people here. When you can get the seafood within hours and it is still alive or on ice, there is no need to freeze it and ruin the taste and consistency.
Also fresh-frozen is NOT fresh and is not recognized as being fresh by the industry. Is there a rotten-fresh category as well? Of course not. Fresh-frozen means nothing and is meant to dupe people like yourself.
>”none of you including me have ever had a problem”<
Were you around when the FReepers pets were dying becuase of the poisoned pet food?
A commom trick with farm raised fish is to put them under chicken cages. Yes, the fish eat the chicked manure. They are able to digest the undigested grains that were fed to the chickens.
This is how you get all your money out of the grain feed.
I never eat fish ever see what fish eat? or what they swim in.
You are believing liberal/Marxist activists who pose as reporters, who drive people wild with fear of buying products made in China. This is just like they did to American companies and crippled them by smearing them and saying they were poluting and causing global warming.
People like you believe all these lies in the media and then the politicians are free to write more legislation that supposedly will make life perfect .What that legislation actually does is take away our freedom, cripple capitalism, take away the freedom of businesses, allow government to crack down on previously innocent business men and individuals and businesses, and raise taxes and increase government size an power which is the intent of all the chicken little whining from the liberal media.
You really think that some government agency can be better at quality control than the private sector and make like perfect? The government can't do anything right . can they control what they are supposed to be making perfect like crime, drugs, the border, the schools etc? NO.socialism has never worked.
Why don’t you just come out and announce that you have been appointed as WalMarts International Director of Defense.Do you also speak Chinese?
Start here;
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1976383/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1975272/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1973436/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1973846/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1975276/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1975423/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1975431/posts
I’m surprised that country of origin doesn’t have to be disclosed already - if you have to label blue jeans you definitely should label food.
What Senate? State? What State?
No I don’t speak Chineese. I’m just calling it as I see it.
I see since you didn’t address any one of my points that you cannot overcome their logic.
Why don’t you answer at least one of my points? do you know anyone who has died from Wal-mart China products? I know quite a few people who have died in car crashes. So you want to ban cars? 20,000 Americans die in car crashes per year. I doubt 20,000 die from Walmart. I have news for you : Life is not perfect but the free market has provided the safest and highest quality products at the best value ever , today, now ,at Walmart. no government can ever hope to match the quality of capitalism. they don’t even know a hole from you know what.
You just put up a whole bunch of things Some marxist wrote. So what. you expect me to believe everything the media puts out as news? you believe in the global warming hoax the media keeps pushing too. Now we have the china scare the media is pushing. All these scares are done so that people will be begging their government to save them then the government can write more laws and get more power.
No I don’t speak Chineese. I’m just calling it as I see it.
I see since you didn’t address any one of my points that you cannot overcome their logic.
Why don’t you answer at least one of my points? do you know anyone who has died from Wal-mart China products? I know quite a few people who have died in car crashes. So you want to ban cars? 20,000 Americans die in car crashes per year. I doubt 20,000 die from Walmart. I have news for you : Life is not perfect but the free market has provided the safest and highest quality products at the best value ever , today, now ,at Walmart. no government can ever hope to match the quality of capitalism. they don’t even know a hole from you know what. You know what everyone dies sooner or later. But today we have the highest standard of living and people live longer than ever before . how could that be if every product from China has poison as the media says?
You just put up a whole bunch of things Some marxists wrote. So what? you expect me to believe everything the media puts out as news? You believe in the global warming hoax the media keeps pushing too. Now we have the china scare the media is pushing. All these scares are done by Marxists so that people will go begging to their government to save them. then the government can write more laws that allow the government to gain more power and allow the government to crack down on previously innocent businesses, crippling them.
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