Over the years, I’ve developed a taste for shrimp. Seems I’m not alone. Accourding to this article in Slate, “the average American ate 4.2 pounds of the curved critters in 2004, up from 2.2 pounds in 1990.”
It’s a marketing phenomenon as well as a biological and economic one. The price of shrimp has fallen in the last 20 years because researchers have found a way to raise shrimp in controlled conditions on farms. Much of the shrimp we eat is imported from farms in Southeast Asia.
But the American shrimpers are fighting back, with a new branding and marketing campaign at a pretty cool website, WildAmericanShrimp.com. It’s designed to educate consumers that there is a quality and taste difference between fresh water and farm-raised shrimp. Of course, I think about Forrest Gump & Bubba when I think about shrimp. And now I’m hungry.
