Shrimp's Dirty Secrets: a Health and Environmental Nightmare

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Everywhere we look, there are growing reasons to go veg!

 

 

Shrimp's Dirty Secrets: Why America 's Favorite Seafood Is a Health and

Environmental Nightmare

The environmental impact of shrimp can be horrific. But most Americans don't

know where their shrimp comes from or what's in it.

by Jill Richardson

Americans love their shrimp. It's the most popular seafood in the country, but

unfortunately much of the shrimp we eat are a cocktail of chemicals, harvested

at the expense of one of the world's productive ecosystems. Worse, guidelines

for finding some kind of " sustainable shrimp " are so far nonexistent.

In his book, Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood,

Taras Grescoe paints a repulsive picture of how shrimp are farmed in one region

of India . The shrimp pond preparation begins with urea, superphosphate, and

diesel, then progresses to the use of piscicides (fish-killing chemicals like

chlorine and rotenone), pesticides and antibiotics (including some that are

banned in the U.S. ), and ends by treating the shrimp with sodium

tripolyphosphate (a suspected neurotoxicant), Borax, and occasionally caustic

soda…….

More at http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/04