US food deficit increasing
It is difficult to describe the reason why a nation like the United States- with its technology and resources available to entrepreneurs of all kinds- is not more self-reliant on a secure source of seafood. A long coastline and numerous lakes, rivers and aquifers all could support a much larger aquaculture industry than what is the case today. Concerns about the privatization of public resources like oceans, as well as million-dollar property owners not wanting any disturbance to their private viewscapes are but some of the reasons discussed as the cause why Americans still seem to prefer to buy seafood bought from Asian fish farms rather than from an increased domestic aquaculture industry.
According to Christina Rexrode, Business Writer for the Associated Press; Overall, America's insatiable desire to chomp on overseas food has been growing. About 16.8 percent of the food that we eat is imported from other countries, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, up from 11.3 percent two decades ago.
In a recent article she also points out the dismal record of the US when it comes to supplying its population with safe, domestically-produced seafood;
Fish importing has risen for another reason. The U.S. isn't building its aquaculture industry, or fish farms, as aggressively as some other countries. Fish farms supply about half the world's seafood demand, including about half of U.S. imports, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But in the U.S., our seafood farms meet less than 10 percent of the country's demand for seafood.
Lorenzo Juarez, deputy director of the NOAA's aquaculture office, says the U.S. has stricter environmental and safety standards for its farms. But that's not to say that the NOAA is opposed to U.S. fish farms. In fact, the agency sees them as the best way to feed an expanding country, especially in light of USDA recommendations that Americans should expand their seafood intake. "The amount of fish that can be had sustainably from the wild fisheries is set," Juarez said. "If we need to increase per-capita consumption, the only way this can happen is through aquaculture."
In other words, there are only so many fish in the sea.
