This question, posed by consumers in restaurants and food markets across the country, has become a ubiquitous catchphrase. It even served as the subject of the very first sketch on IFC’s uber-hipster comedy series “Portlandia.” The bit focused on a cloying couple so concerned with the premortem welfare of the chicken offered on a bistro’s menu that they ditched dinner to ride out to the farm and check the bird’s paperwork.
The local-food movement has gained steam in recent years, particularly in small, younger-skewing cities such as Portland, Oregon and my hometown of Portland, Maine. But it is spreading across the nation too. As the movement gains supporters, including First Lady Michelle Obama, Americans are more frequently asking about the source and quality of their food. This is a relatively simple question to answer when it comes to farm-raised protein sources such as beef, pork, and the pampered pullet of “Portlandia.” Seafood, however, is an entirely different animal.
Fortunately, as the first lady has taken her healthy eating message to the masses, her husband has been working to shore up the nation’s seafood tracking systems. During a March 15 appearance at Seafood Expo North America in Boston, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, and the U.S. Department of State released an action plan outlining how the recommendations of the 19-agency Presidential Task Force on Combatting IUU Fishing and Seafood Fraud will be implemented. In short, President Barack Obama is giving seafood lovers a much clearer picture of what eventually makes it onto their plates.
The actions initiated by this plan fall into two separate categories: addressing illegal, unregulated, and unreported, or IUU, fishing—which primarily happens among foreign fleets and in international waters—and increasing consumers’ ability to trace all aspects of their fish from bait to plate. This particularly applies to roughly 90 percent of the seafood imported from foreign vessels and processing facilities.
Read the full story at the Center for American Progress>>
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