Have they, and we as a nation, learned nothing from this disaster? Here are some questions to ask ourselves now. Can we be assured that an oil spill of this magnitude will never happen again? Is there a fail-proof method way of extracting oil from deep water wells?

I was born in New Orleans. My family moved, along with much of their community, to Los Angeles when I was a child, but New Orleans and Louisiana stays in your blood; once it gets hold of you, it never lets go. My father made almost yearly visits there throughout his life. One of my grandmother’s last requests before she died, was to visit New Orleans. Now my mother, who is in her 80’s, is for asking the same thing.

On a summer trip to New Orleans, when I was a teenager, and old enough to begin noticing these things, I marveled at the low price of shrimp in the local grocery stores. My Uncle JuJune (yes, we have colorful names) responded “hell, they’ll just give ‘em away if you drive a pick up truck down to the Gulf, they got so much of it.” Unfortunately, they are not quite so plentiful now.

While over a third of all the seafood consumed in this country comes from the Gulf, there have been problems. Residual chemical fertilizers, used in the corn and wheat fields of the heartland, wash down the Mississippi River causing algae blooms resulting in huge dead zones in the Gulf. Still, the commercial fishing industry in the state accounts for over 300 million dollars of the state’s economy. In the past couple of years, Gulf Coast oysters have picked up the slack in the oyster market, as there have been problems with Chesapeake Bay oysters. And, as most any Southerner will tell you, Gulf shrimp and oysters have a sweet, delicate flavor unique to the area, because of the microorganisms in the Gulf they eat.

The coastline of Louisiana makes up 40-45% of all wetlands in the lower 48 states, and they have historically offered a natural buffer to the hurricanes that hit the region. They are also home to a vast array of wildlife.

It’s been badly damaged from heavy equipment trucked down to the Gulf, as well as rising ocean waters.

There are only a few industries in the towns and villages along the Louisiana coastline: fishing, tourism (which is largely a subsection of fishing), and of course, oil. Drive a bit further north to New Orleans, and it doesn’t get much better.

On a visit there five months after Hurricane Katrina hit, I met a young college aged couple with whom I shared dinner at a French Quarter restaurant. The young man was from Chauvin, a village near the Gulf where most of the men worked on oil rigs. His date was a New Orleans native. We talked late into the night touching on, among other things, whether they felt they could stay in Louisiana. There was a palpable sadness in the air, as the young woman concluded she could not. She is not alone. This past fall, a young cousin of mine chose to move to Los Angeles to begin her career after graduating from college. When I asked her why, she stated “there’s just nothing down there for me.”

I often find myself passionately defending New Orleans, against those who wonder why anyone would want to live there, so here goes:

Southern Louisiana is home to a vibrant culture, one of lively music, a wonderful cuisine (arguably the first major regional one in this country), a deeply rooted religious tradition, with its own language and customs; and one that values family and community above anything. One of, if not the most unique, in a country increasingly plagued with a commercial culture of “sameness.”

It’s a gift to history buffs, writers, musicians, and food lovers. Southern Louisiana has given much more to this nation than this nation has given back. The nation would never have been built without the port of New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi. It was the major port of entry and highway leading into the heartland of this continent since the beginning of Europeans’ settling here, before there was a railroad, before there was an interstate highway system, and it remains an important port today.

Andrew Jackson understood that, as did the British who remained encamped at the mouth of Lake Bourne, even after a treaty was signed ending the War of 1812. Realizing how vital New Orleans was to our emerging nation, Jackson continued a fierce fight to beat back garrisons of British soldiers. His victory there catapulted him to the Presidency.

So I would offer one final question we need to ask ourselves now. Are we willing to continue sacrificing this vital area to further sate our gluttony for oil?

“Friends don’t let friends eat imported shrimp.” As a homegrown New Orleanian who grew up on a steady diet of the freshest, local seafood from the nearby waters of Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico, this has long been my mantra.

The culinary culture of New Orleans has become increasingly threatened by the flood of cheap, imported shrimp. Yes, even here it’s necessary to ask where the shrimp came from, despite the fact that we are blessed with two shrimp seasons making freshly caught shrimp available virtually year round.

In late spring, sweet, brown shrimp are trawled from our inland waters. Known as “Louisiana Gold”, brown shrimp inspired the classic dish, Shrimp Creole, that perfect marriage of Creole tomatoes and shrimp bound together by a dark roux. In fall and winter, the larger white shrimp that grace our tables throughout the holiday season appear, often enrobed with remoulade sauce.

Marketumbrella.org, the non-profit that founded the Crescent City Farmers Market in New Orleans has long been aware of the plight of Louisiana shrimpers, who are a vital part of our market. In 2003 the White Boot Brigade was formed, named for the signature white rubber boots worn aboard shrimp boats. Wearing their white boots, shrimpers appeared at art markets and other community gatherings with ice chests brimming with freshly caught shrimp. Thousands of pounds of shrimp were quickly sold at prices that were economical for the shopper and fantastic for the shrimper, who realized profits often ten times over what was being offered at the dock.

As the fleet struggled to rebuild following the 2005 storm, the White Boot Brigade reached out across the United States where some of the nation’s most renowned chefs were eager to buy fresh, head on shrimp direct from the boat. With the support of marketumbrella.org, the shrimpers stormed New York City and found a friend in NBC’s Al Roker, who welcomed them and praised their efforts on the Today Show. Food Network hosted a “Shrimp Cocktail” event where Chef Emeril Lagasse demonstrated the fine points of cooking “Louisiana Gold” shrimp to fellow master chefs, Daniel Boulud and Floyd Cardoz. Famed New York restaurateur Danny Meyer jumped in, featuring wild caught Louisiana shrimp in his award winning restaurants, Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Café and Eleven Madison Park. Alice Waters began to serve wild caught Louisiana shrimp at Chez Panisse, making a special exception to her usually fanatically local menu as she recognized the threat to the Louisiana shrimper. FISH restaurant in Sausilito and other West Coast chefs and restaurants jumped aboard, buying directly from White Boot Brigade shrimpers. In this win-win situation, the shrimper gets a fair price and the chef and ultimately the customer gets a fresher product, all while saving an industry.

This year, only 1/3 of the 15,000 pre-Katrina commercial shrimpers were back in the water when the slump in the American economy dealt a blow to our seafood industry that could sound the death knoll for the local shrimping industry. Viewing shrimp as a luxury item, Americans ate less of them while shrimpers experienced an unusual bounty of spring brown shrimp. Unsold product was frozen and stored. The supply and demand factor at the opening of the 2009 white shrimp season resulted in a 10-year low price of 50 cents a pound at the docks. Shrimpers marched on the Louisiana State Capitol in protest. Many simply dry docked their boats and walked away.

How can you make a difference? Always ask about the origins of the shrimp before ordering in a restaurant or buying from your seafood market. Just like America’s great chefs, you can buy directly from the boat too! As little as fifteen pounds of shrimp can be delivered directly to your door. Eating fresh caught, wild shrimp is the most delicious way I can imagine of saving a culinary culture!

Up until a few years ago I was part of the problem, and didn’t even know it.  I was blindly buying shrimp for my restaurant and personal consumption without paying attention to its origin.  I was oblivious to how shrimp was caught and transported.  And I couldn’t tell you the advantages of wild caught vs. farmed sources.

Now I look back on those days of Shrimp Naiveté with dismay. In general, I’m not an absolutist.  For example, 45% or the vegetables I currently buy at my cafe are local (pretty good for still being winter), and most are organic.  But not everything.  But when it comes to shrimp, I have drawn a firm line in the sand – keeping farmed and imported shrimp firmly on the other side of my door.

Shrimp were only recently thought to be an inexhaustible supply of protein, a miracle food that would feed the world.  I learned from an excellent article in Orion magazine by Jim Carrier that “shrimp have been around since Gondwana. Their tracks are found alongside dinosaurs’, which explains their astounding diversity—more than two thousand species in every body of water in the world.”

They have relatively complex life histories for such diminutive creatures and scientists have only recently been able to untangle the intricacies of their life cycle. This knowledge opened up the doors to shrimp farming operations. These have quickly spread around the world and facilitated shrimp in becoming the most-eaten seafood item in the United States.

While shrimp farming sounds good on paper, in practice it is riddled with problems. Primarily, the problems come from the high concentrations of shrimp that are farmed in one area. This high-concentration scenario makes these shrimp farms equivalent to aquatic Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), with many of the same problems as their terrestrial cousins: 1) toxic levels of concentrated waste, 2) problems with infection leading to the administration of antibiotics, antifungals, and other chemicals, 3) destruction of the surrounding habitat to produce or collect adequate food supplies, and 4) the direct destruction of fragile mangrove swamps and other coastal areas for farms. While many of these issues have been addressed by certain shrimp operators, as a rule the farms are incredibly destructive. Wild shrimp are a much better bet.

We commonly eat a handful of different wild shrimp species here in the United States. There are two major wild populations: a Warm Water group of species in the Gulf of Mexico and the South Atlantic coast, and a completely separate Cold Water group of species that live off the Oregon and Washington coastline.

The environmental issues with shrimp fisheries fall into five categories, as analyzed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program.  These are:

1) Inherent Vulnerability (low or fragile populations, perhaps due to habitat loss)

2) Status of Stocks (have they been over-fished)

3) Nature of Bycatch (what other species are caught alongside the shrimp in the nets)

4) Habitat and Ecosystem Effects (does the shrimp fishing destroy the ocean floor?)

5) Management Effectiveness (are we doing everything that we can to protect the species?)

Each different species and population of shrimp has a unique combination of the above factors. For example, the Gulf and Atlantic shrimp are rated as “High Concern” in the Bycatch category, “Moderate Concern” in the Habitat and Ecosystem Effects category, and low concern for the other three. The Seafood Watch summarizes these shrimp as a “Good Alternative” overall.

In contrast, the there are many species of Cold Water shrimp (but not all) that are rated “Low Concern” in all five categories, and the population overall is therefore rated as a “Best Choice” for shrimp eaters.

In particular, Oregon shrimp represent the top of the shrimp pile for a number of reasons. But these shrimp are obviously targeted for people on the West Coast. If you’re living farther East or South, it may indeed make sense to buy from Gulf and Atlantic populations. In particular, buy from reputable operations who respect the ocean and try to minimize the impact of their bycatch.

If this sounds a little confusing, I admit that it is – and even this discussion of the issues is greatly simplified. There is no “one simple answer” that solves the shrimp conundrum. But one thing is for certain – in the future we’re going to have to pay more for, and take more care as we purchase, these tasty little creatures from the sea.

Photo: Pocket Farmer