One Louisiana Congressman is Pushing to Protect Louisiana Seafood

Do you know what other countries, that import food to the United States, do to their seafood? It's GROSS! That's why this Louisiana Congressman is pushing to protect/support the Louisiana seafood industry.

Which Louisiana Congressman is working to protect and support the Louisiana seafood/shrimp industry?

That would be Baton Rouge Congressman Garret Graves who is currently working on legislation to help ban the import of dangerous illegally produced shrimp from reaching the United States and flooding the market.

Why shouldn't Louisiana residents buy shrimp or any other kind of seafood that isn't sourced domestically?

Never, ever, ever, under any circumstances buy shrimp or any other seafood for that matter from Asia. You won't believe what they do to their food!

I've written about this before. I believe it should be illegal to sell seafood from Asia in Louisiana. I don't care if seafood from Louisiana costs more. It's called quality and now we know it's called safety, but I'll get to that in a minute.

What is Congressman Graves doing to halt the importation of illegal shrimp?

U.S. Representatives Garret Graves of Louisiana and Kathy Castor from Florida have introduced legislation at the federal level to 'stop unsafe, illegally-produced shrimp from reaching consumers.' According to Congressman Graves, 'Much of the shrimp that floods the U.S. market are foreign, farmed seafood packed with illegal antibiotics or are products of illegal fishing operations. These low-quality and illegally sourced shrimp are sold at artificially low prices, squeezing out American shrimpers who follow all the rules to keep our fisheries—and our health—safe.'

In a release from Graves's office dated August 28, 2023, he says, the Laws Ensuring Safe Shrimp Act, or LESS Act, 'provides funding to the Food and Drug Administration to ensure that shrimp in the United States are free of illegal chemicals, safe for human consumption, and not supplied using illegal fishing practices. The legislation also builds upon Graves’ previously successful efforts to give the United States Department of Agriculture the authority to purchase domestic shrimp to supply our schools, food banks, and disaster relief programs.' You can read H. R. 4547 here.

While I'm all for protecting jobs in Louisiana, and in this instance, specifically, the Louisiana seafood industry, the biggest problem with importing illegal shrimp is with regard to our health. I may be late to the party on this, but have you heard that they actually inject shrimp from Asia with a gel to make them bigger and fresher? I know, the barf factor on this is pretty high, but we deserve to know what we're putting in our bodies. I don't know about you, but I'm going to be reading labels even closer from here on out. They clearly don't adhere to the same standards that we do here in the States.

After all, these guys fooled us for years!