Episode 1: Goldilocks and the Three Shrimp

Shrimp is by far the most consumed seafood in America but how it gets to our plate is a pretty strange tale. In this pilot episode we’ll look at the rise of the shrimp in the context of the global fisheries picture. We’ll see how alternatives to traditionally wild caught shrimp have flooded the market and make some bets on the future.

Special Guests


 

Andrea Reusing

Andrea Reusing has many pots on the burners, as it were. She is the chef/owner of Lantern where she collaborates with small farms and producers across North Carolina and is an advocate for food policy change. Andrea is also working to improve children’s access to quality food as founder of Kitchen Patrol, which offers weekly cooking classes. And that’s not all – Andrea serves on the board of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, and in 2011, she published her cookbook, Cooking in the Moment: A Year of Seasonal Recipes, which was named one of the most notable cookbooks of the year by The New York Times. She was the founding chef of The Durham Hotel, home to her rooftop raw bar and American restaurant that was included in Bon Appétit’s 50 Best New Restaurants list.


 

Thomas Hymel

Thomas Hymel is a Marine Agent with many years under his belt working for various parishes on the Louisiana coast. Currently, he is focused on developing direct market opportunities for Louisiana seafood industry participants, and together with his LSU AgCenter/Sea Grant team, has created the Louisiana Direct Seafood Marketing program. The program started simply as a “Fresh Catch” homepage for fishermen to post their latest catches and contact information. This homespun idea revitalized the shrimping industry in Delcambre, allowing shrimpers to grow their direct-to-consumer business selling premium shrimp for a competitive price, and bred success all along the coast. Today, Louisiana Direct Seafood continues to grow and evolve, but the vision remains the same: to build a deeper connection between the sea and our table resulting in an economically sustainable Louisiana seafood industry.


 

Flavio Corsin

Flavio Corsin has spent more than two decades working in responsible aquaculture globally for non-profit, intergovernmental, and for-profit organizations. By day, Flavio is Aqua-Spark’s Director of Partnerships, responsible for driving the development and execution of a robust partner ecosystem that aligns behind a core vision. Flavio has had his hand in all things aquaculture: Flavio has worked for IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative, overseeing their Aquaculture Program. He founded and ran the sustainability arm of the Vietnam association of farmers and fishers (VINAFIS). He has worked as an expert for over 20 international organizations, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). Flavio also holds an M.Sc. in Aquaculture from the University of Stirling and a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of Liverpool.


 

Monica Van Cleeve Talbert

As co-founder and CEO of Plant Based Seafood Co, Monica Van Cleeve knows a thing or two about creating healthy and delicious alternatives to seafood and tackling the sustainability of the oceans and our planet, one plate at a time. Monica has worked hard to create a family-owned company with a passion for seafood experiences that are so close to the real thing, it will blow your mind! Plant Based Seafood Co. and its signature product, vegan “Mind Blown” shrimp, has distribution channels through e-commerce, retail and foodservice both in the US and abroad, and is continually working towards making the seafood experience available to all people anywhere.


Show Notes

The amount of seafood taken from the sea has risen exponentially, including 80-90 million pounds of shellfish per year. Is it possible to continue consuming seafood in good conscience? That’s the question we’ll tackle on Fish Talk. Today, let’s take a look at the most widely consumed seafood – Shrimp.

Paul and Nic speak to us today from the kitchen, where they are cooking up three different types of shrimp to sample: Wild Louisiana shrimp, farmed shrimp from Vietnam and vegan shrimp. Chef Andrea Reusing, of the restaurant Lantern in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, joins them today. Andrea loves shrimp, and as a restaurant owner, finds it extremely difficult not to serve it. She tends to serve it in smaller portions alongside other items such as vegetables or the by-catch caught from the shrimp harvest, rather than a single large portion of only shrimp. She finds adding shrimp to a dish will ensure it sells out that night.

Andrea outlines a few of the major problems with shrimp. First, the by-catch that comes alongside it is exponential. For every pound of shrimp served, there could have been as much as 10 pounds of unnecessary by-catch of other species thrown away. People have become so used to eating farmed shrimp that they find wild caught shrimp to taste too “shrimpy.” There is very little transparency around farmed shrimp and often major damage to the environment.

Louisiana is losing their shrimp nursery at the rate of about one football field of marsh every 100 minutes. We hear from Thomas Hymel, Director of Louisiana Fisheries Forward Education Program. He explains that the majority of Louisiana wild shrimp comes from the Gulf of Mexico. Then, he breaks down the life cycle of shrimp and how they are harvested to reach the seafood market. Louisiana marshes are being lost to various forms of degradation over time, especially in the last 50 years. Thomas advocates for the high quality of wild shrimp, which supports a heritage industry that is part of the fabrication of the local communities.

Next, we hear about shrimp farming from Flavio Corsin, Director of Partnerships at Aqua-Spark. Flavio lived in Vietnam for 14 years working in agriculture and shrimp farming. He breaks down the timeline of shrimp aquaculture, which was considered “The Blue Revolution” in the 1980’s. What was once an artisanal method eventually became the industrial farming method we are familiar with today, warranting pushback from those concerned with the harmful side effects of farmed seafood, including the environmental impacts and more. Farmed shrimp are susceptible to many different diseases, which is why it has a reputation for containing antibiotics.

Finally, we hear from Monica Van Cleve-Talbert, Co-Founder and CEO of The Plant Based Seafood Company. She and her family didn’t set out to create plant-based products. They began with a small seafood shack in the Chesapeake Bay, and they seized an opportunity in 2013 to embrace retail products. Their local fishermen couldn’t supply the volume they needed, forcing them to look elsewhere for supply. Many of these outsourced products were being injected with chemicals without disclosure. Rather than supporting this widely corrupted industry, they opted to create their own products which consumers could trust. When their one plant-based product garnered the most excitement and attention, they committed to the plant-based market. She breaks down the ingredients in the vegan shrimp product and its carbon footprint.

So, how did they all taste? Don’t miss Paul, Nic and Andrea’s final review of the three products as today’s episode draws to a close.

Thank you for listening and see you next time!


Key Ideas:
0:00 – Hosts Paul and Nic introduce the podcast series.
1:17 – Preface for today’s episode.
2:41 – Paul and Nic set the scene for today’s episode, straight from the kitchen.
4:40 – Today’s guest, Andrea Reusing, introduces herself.
6:35 – The problems with shrimp.
10:51 – Paul discusses Louisiana wild shrimp with Thomas Hymel.
22:55 – Paul discusses Vietnamese shrimp farming with Flavio Corsin.
42:45 – Paul discusses Mind Blown Shrimp vegan shrimp with Monica Van Cleve-Talbert.
51:15 – The big taste reveal.


Links:
Paul Greenberg and his books Four Fish and American Catch.
Nic Mink, and the company he co-founded Sitka Salmon Shares.
Andrea Reusing and her restaurant Lantern.
Thomas Hymel and Louisiana Fisheries Forward.
Flavio Corsin and Aqua Spark.
Monica Van Cleve-Talbert and her company The Plant Based Seafood Co.


Episode produced by Alana McKeever