Guest Post: Daniel T. Smith on Louisiana’s Political Present and Future (And What We Should Be Asking of Mary Landrieu)

The three most publicized Louisiana issues at the moment that are also national questions are the Road Home Program, the Oil Revenue sharing legislation, and Asian fish cutting in on LA fisheries profits.

I’ll start with the fish because that’s what I know the least about. I read an article in DeadPelican and on Salon about this, and basically it’s what you expect: a lack of protective tariffs and commercial standards is threatening native catfish farmers from losing markets to Vietnamese fisheries.

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061127/BUSINESS/611270313/1003

In Louisiana, we raise real catfish in separated ponds with no environmental problems. In Vietnam, there are fewer safety standards and the fish are raised in netted reservoirs which increases risk of disease and contamination. Moreover, the Asian fish aren’t even truly catfish, though in 2003 there was legislation to require fairness in labeling, so they can’t call a Vietnamese basa a catfish. Even though basa goes for up to a dollar less a pound, aficionados say there’s no comparison between the flavor, but most people eating fried catfish don’tcare what it really is.

As you know the Road Home Program has been generating a lot of flak. People are angry, mostly at Blanco, for crafting the contract behind closed doors with the group ICF International, based in Fairfax. DeadPelican recently reported ICF is getting two new companies to help them out, one from Houma and the other I don’t remember. Here’s a good article summing up the various beefs with Road Home: