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GUEST: Adrianna Natsoulas, Marine Campaign Coordinator with Food and Water Watch

Shrimp is the number one choice of seafood in the US. Americans eat on average, three and a half pounds of shrimp a year, surpassing even tuna. Contrary to what we might think, most shrimp is not caught in the Gulf of Mexico, rather they are farmed in man-made ponds, off the coast of Thailand, Vietnam, Ecuador, and other tropical countries. A new report by Food and Water Watch focuses on the health risks of such industrialized shrimp production and consumption. The report is called Suspicious Shrimp, and it concludes that eating imported shrimp may cause neurological damage from ingesting pesticides, an allergic response to penicillin residues or an infection by an antibiotic-resistant pathogen. This comes as a result of contamination from the untreated sewage that pollutes the water used by shrimp facilities, and from more than a dozen types of pesticides and antibiotics applied to the ponds to control disease and parasites. According to Executive Director Wenonah Hauter, “Popcorn shrimp at an all-you-can-eat buffet may seem like a bargain, but industrially produced shrimp comes with costs to our health, our environment and our communities.”

For more information, visit www.shrimpactivist.org and www.foodandwaterwatch.org.

Download the entire report, Suspicious Shrimp here: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/fish/pubs/suspicious-shrimp/download?id=pdf