[MedicalConspiracies] Armed services are urged to stock kitchens with Gulf seafood | NOLA.com

READER COMMENT:

The government wants sell all the contaminated seafood to our military. Your
government in action again. I wonder if these politicians are going to eat
this same seafood? NO!
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http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/12/armed_services_are_urged_to_st.html

Armed services are urged to stock kitchens with Gulf seafood
Published: Tuesday, December 07, 2010, 7:00 AM
 Jonathan Tilove
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Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who doubles as President Barack Obama's point man
on Gulf Coast oil spill recovery, is pressing America's armed services to
consume as much Gulf seafood as possible.

View full sizeBrett Duke, The Times-Picayune archiveU.S. Commerce Secretary
Gary Locke gets a closer look at some shrimp while touring the Lafitte
Frozen Foods Corporation with plant manager Errol Voisin, right, on Aug. 16.
Navy Capt. Beci Brenton said Monday that Mabus has talked with Secretary of
Defense Robert Gates and the secretaries of the Air Force and Army, and his
staff has talked to the Defense Commissary Agency, which operates a
worldwide chain of stores for military personnel, making the point "that we
should be buying Gulf Coast seafood."

In a meeting Monday with Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana
Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, Mabus reaffirmed his commitment to
using the tools at his disposal to help the Gulf seafood industry recover
from the damage the BP oil spill has done in reality and perception. The
board is gearing up for a large-scale national marketing campaign, with $30
million in BP money and millions more in federal dollars, to reassure
restaurants and markets across the country that Gulf seafood is safe.

"He expressed what we wanted to hear: He is in favor of the federal
government buying seafood from the Gulf," said Smith, who said he would like
to see Gulf seafood as the choice throughout the public domain, "whether
it's the military or prison systems or school systems."

Smith met with Mabus as a representative of the Gulf Coast Ready 4 Takeoff
Coalition, an alliance of businesses and government entities from Louisiana,
Mississippi, Alabama and Florida working for economic recovery in the Gulf.
Smith was joined at the meeting by Mayor Sam Jones of Mobile, Ala., and
Mayor-elect Ashton Hayward of Pensacola, Fla.

View full sizeChuck Cook, The Associated PressU.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus,
left, listens to Gov. Bobby Jindal at a news conference in Buras on Aug. 5.
BP is giving the Louisiana marketing board $30 million to spend over the
next three years to promote Gulf seafood, and Smith said a request for
proposals from agencies that would craft the marketing campaign will be
going out shortly. The Louisiana board also will be getting a share of the
$15 million the Commerce Department has given to the Gulf State Marine
Fisheries Commission to divide among the Louisiana board and its sister
groups in the other Gulf states, including Texas.

Ralph Hode, fisheries disaster recovery coordinator for the commission, said
the money will be used for direct marketing, web-based marketing, supporting
testing efforts in the states to ensure the quality and safety of the
seafood, and helping fishers to have their products certified by the Marine
Stewardship Council as coming from a sustainable fishery. That last can be
an invaluable marketing tool. Wal-mart, for example, plans to buy all of its
wild-caught fresh and frozen fish from MSC-certified fisheries beginning
next year.

Smith said the industry is facing a kind of chicken-and-egg -- or perhaps
fish-and-roe -- conundrum in getting back on its feet after the trauma of
the BP spill.

"It's a combination," Smith said. "You've got people who aren't wanting
(Gulf seafood) in other parts of the country, and that's throwing the market
a little sideways, and then fishermen sensing that and wondering if they are
going to have a place to sell to."

While the number of fishers back in the water has risen in the past month,
Smith said only 40 percent to 50 percent of the fleet is back on the job,
which he blamed on the uncertainties surrounding the claims process being
administered by Kenneth Feinberg, and continuing market concerns among
fishers.

Then, with less supply, Smith said, some demand goes unmet and buyers look
elsewhere, perhaps not to return for some time to come, if ever.

"We lose continuity of supply in the marketplace," and, as a result, Smith
said, "we lose our market share across the country."

Smith said that while unprecedented levels of testing of seafood post-spill
have proved its safety, "I think we are going to have to test for along time
to constantly reassure the consumer that the seafood is safe."

The still unanswerable question is the long-term effect of the oil spilled
and the dispersants used to break it up, effects that might not show up for
years. "We don't know that answer and I don't think there's a scientist that
could give you a definitive answer," Smith said.

On his way into the Russell Senate Office Building Monday, Smith passed -- 
and took some photos on his phone -- of protesters, one with a placard
reading, "Hold Chinese Accountable for Toxic Drywall."

It struck a chord with Smith.

"Our biggest challenge aside from hurricanes and oil spills has been
imports," he said, particularly from places like China, which, he said, from
children's toys to drywall to fish-farms, puts no premium on safety.

Jonathan Tilove can be reached at jtilove@timespicayune.com or 202.383.7827.




Related topics: louisiana seafood, oil spill gulf of mexico 2010, ray mabus


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