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Waddell
promotes
U.S. farmed shrimp
DAVID
LAUDERDALE, Packet columnist
Even though we live on the coast, most of
the shrimp we eat comes from a pond several
continents away.
But this is more than a matter of taste.
The economic, culinary and cultural impacts
of the shrimp industry came together Monday
as smoothly as Josh Sigler's roasted pepper
grits with shrimp wrapped in pepper crusted
bacon.
About
30 people huddled in the back room at the
popular Sigler's Rotisserie & Seafood
restaurant in Bluffton to watch the three
Sigler chefs -- father Michael and sons Christian
and Josh -- work magic on prawns in three
different dishes. Meanwhile, Al Stokes of
the Waddell Mariculture Center in Bluffton
balanced a projector on top of a giant mixer
to flash his PowerPoint presentation about
farm-raised shrimp on the wall by the stove.
The
Bluffton Historical Preservation Society
sponsored the event to showcase culinary
arts and the local seafood industry. Heyward
House Historic Center director Maureen Richards
said that is part of the society's mission
to protect, preserve and promote not only
the local architecture, but the culture as
well.
Does this mean the Lowcountry's wild shrimp,
colorful shrimping families, picturesque
trawlers and charming docks are history?
Maybe.
But it doesn't have to be that way.
We're a shrimp-crazy nation. Shrimp has
replaced canned tuna at the top of America's
seafood consumption chart, with more than
4 pounds consumed per person each year.
Almost 90 percent of that shrimp is imported,
and 80 percent of it is farm-raised all over
the globe: Asia, Spain, Portugal, South America,
West Africa.
The Waddell Mariculture Center has for 23
years worked to perfect shrimp farming for
South Carolinians. It wants to enable us
to buy local shrimp whether it is farm-raised
or caught in the wild.
Shrimp trawlers can't meet all the demand,
Stokes said. And restaurants like the consistency
in size and the year-round availability of
farm-raised shrimp, he said.
The Siglers can do a number on shrimp, there's
no question about that. Christian even beat
the elite chefs of Charleston in a recent
competition with his shrimp royale.
But Michael says his customers demand consistency
and that means he -- and most other chefs
-- are pleased with the shrimp available
from their suppliers.
Barbara Hudson of Benny Hudson Seafood on
Hilton Head -- where members of the Hudson
family have been shrimping for generations
-- says Lowcountry shrimpers can do more
than people think. They can grade the local
wild shrimp for consistency in size, and
they can freeze them to be available year-round.
As
for supply and demand, Barbara asks, "What
came first, the chicken or the egg?" Before
cheap imports started flooding the market,
local docks had to turn some heavy-laden
trawlers away, the supply was so heavy. That
type of supply would quickly return to the
docks -- if they're not all sold for condominiums
and if shrimpers could make a fair wage.
With that, life could be breathed back into
a Lowcountry industry and way of life that
is dying.
Shrimpers
are trying to get smarter. They're working
on branding their
local product.
A new advertising and certification campaign
called Wild American Shrimp uses an appropriate
slogan -- "The shrimp you thought you
were eating."
A
similar logo can be found on the menu at
Paula Deen's cele-brated
The Lady & Sons
restaurant in Savannah. It proudly boasts
that the restaurant serves only Georgia Wild
Shrimp. Paula's shrimp comes from the Georgia
Shrimp Co. LLC in Darien, Ga., which catches,
processes, freezes and delivers "sweet
Georgia shrimp" to restaurants all over
Savannah, Atlanta and even California.
Restaurant owners say paying an extra dollar
per pound for local wild shrimp can add up
to a whale-like sum -- like $30,000 in a
year. But why not put both on the menu and
in the stores and let the customers decide?
Shrimp
consumption is soaring, and there's room
at the table for a lot
of people to
meet the demand. It would be a shame for
our local shrimpers to miss out -- like Capt.
Gene Orage, who's bringing giant white roe
shrimp to Benny Hudson's dock now aboard
his venerable trawler "The Rip Tide."
Shrimpers -- and consumers -- got a boost
recently when the point of origin was demanded
on labeling for seafood sold by large purveyors.
Shrimp at my grocery store this week came
from farms in Thailand. At Sam's Club, I
found wild shrimp from Mexico.
More suppliers, retailers, restaurants and
consumers should demand the best shrimp --
the ones that come from our local waters.
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