Sarah Parsons
Forget cheeseburgers and French fries—the new American meal of choice is shrimp. American shrimp consumption has increased by more than 300 percent since 1980 [PDF]. Jumbo-sized bags of the crustaceans fill supermarket freezers from New York City to Norfolk, Arkansas. Shrimp used to only appear on the menus of upscale restaurants. Now, chains like Red Lobster, Popeye’s, and Long John Silver’s offer up shrimp dishes for as little as $5.99

Most shrimp consumed in the U.S. doesn’t come from American waters. In fact, about 90 percent of it originates at farms in Thailand, Vietnam, South America, and China. Using aquaculture to mass-produce the crustaceans has dropped prices to all-time lows, but increasing evidence suggests that the savings to consumers are fueled by human rights abuses and environmental disasters at shrimp farms.  Read More

Phatthana was recently accused of human rights abuses disturbing enough to turn even the most die-hard shrimp eaters off their po’ boys: The company allegedly holds Cambodian workers against their will and pays them so little money they can’t even afford to buy food.  Read More

Shrimp farms take their toll on the world’s oceans, too. According to Kennedy Warne, author of the book Let Them Eat Shrimp: The Tragic Disappearance of the Rainforests of the Sea, shrimp farmers regularly feed their crustaceans fish meal made from ground-up fish, a practice that depletes ocean ecosystems of fish stocks. It takes about three pounds of fish protein to make one pound of shrimp—a ratio that does not add up to a sustainable food source.  Read More