research_paper

Crayfish form an intrinsic part of Louisianan culture and identity. After all, in the United States, the crustaceans are grown, trapped and eaten primarily in the bayou country. However, crayfish are a remarkably diverse species, inhabiting many different environments around the world, and it should come as no surprise that crayfish are held in high esteem in other nations. Swedes and Britons, for example, have trapped and eaten crayfish for centuries. Australians boast of their redclaw crayfish, which can reach a weight of 8 pounds. Yet only China has had any success in grabbing a section of the U.S. market. How did China muscle into this seemingly all-American food sector, and what are the consequences of deteriorating local cuisine?

Benthic janitors, icons of Cajun culture

Crayfish first appeared near what is now the South Pole 285 million years ago, as the Paleozoic era drew to a close. Since then, this hardy crustacean evolved into over 500 species ranging from Scandinavia to New Zealand. A vital member of any freshwater ecosystem, crayfish serve as a food source for predators and a means of getting rid of detritus. For example, the species Orconectes rusticus of the eastern Appalachia will eat anything from Italian roast beef to smelly menhaden. In turn, if the crayfish strays too far from its burrow, it could fall prey to a raccoon, catfish, smallmouth bass or many other animals.

Humans have probably eaten these decapods for hundreds of thousands of years, but they only became culturally significant a few hundred years ago in Britain and France. In fact, the name crayfish has its origins in the Old French word crevis (Davidson 224). Sweden also holds high regard for the crustaceans. They celebrate the end of the crayfish season (and the beginning of the winter) with moonlit crayfish parties called krebfests. Germans enjoy crayfish sauce on salmon pastry. Spaniards eat White-Clawed Crayfish; Russians and Turks raise Long-Clawed Crayfish. Jamaican and South African locals have popularized grilled crayfish as an entr�e for tourists (Ingle 27-38). The Cajun culture of southern Louisiana reveres the �crawdad� as its most famous icon. In fact, the words crawfish and crawdad are U.S. inventions, coined in the 19th century and used west of the Mississippi River today (Davidson 224).

How did a creature whose name and cuisine originated in France become so rooted in certain American traditions? One explanation is that Cajun culture is a microcosm of American ethnic diversity. �Creole cooking is that of a melting pot but not the general American melting pot,� write Waverly Root and Richard De Rochemont in Eating in America. �It is a mixture of French, African, Indian and Spanish cuisines�[that became the nation�s] first gastronomic statement� (281). The authors continue to define Cajun culture, using the fish chowder bouillabaisse as an analogy for Louisiana society. �Somehow the magic of the bayou country has cast a spell over the disparate components [of the chowder] contributed by the distinct ethnic groups which lived there, blending them into a cuisine of distinctive character� (283). One of the American South�s best-known folksong, �The Crawdad Song� originated with Afro-American pickers. It begins with:

You get a line and I�ll get a pole, honey.
You get a line and I�ll get a pole, babe.
You get a line and I�ll get a pole,
I�ll meet you down at the crawdad hole,
Honey, oh sweet, sweet babe of mine.

The bayou country shares with America a diverse, independent and robust nature. And what symbol of the bayou country is better known than its crayfish?

Enter China

New Orleans restaurants feature crayfish dishes to meet tourists� expectations. The tourists want crayfish because New Orleans is known for its crayfish�after all, the bayou country teems with the crustaceans. Yet these tourists would be unpleasantly surprised to learn that 86 percent of the crayfish consumed in the U.S. (of which the majority are eaten in Louisiana) came from China before the U.S. imposed strict tariffs in 1998.

Chinese crayfish�called �small dragon shrimp� in Asia�appeared in Louisiana only two decades ago, and began to grab a sizable section of the U.S. market in the early 1990s. Yet China quickly dominated the crayfish processing industry�quite a feat considering the transportation considerations of moving so much food as well as the uniquely American tradition of crayfish in Louisiana.

Besides the location and species of crayfish being raised, Chinese exports were not fundamentally different from domestic produce. Nearly all of the crayfish exported from China originated in the Jiangsu Province (U.S. International Trade Commission VII-1) on China�s east coast along the Yangtze River. This part of China is intertwined with estuaries, rivers and lakes�very good crayfish habitat and quite similar ecologically to the bayou country in Louisiana. Although some Cajuns with discerning appetites complained of a tougher, rubbery texture in the Chinese crayfish, chefs often substituted imports for native crayfish and none of their patrons noticed (Economist 35). �The imported tail meat is packaged almost identically to domestic fresh tail meat just to compete head-to-head� (U.S. International Trade Commission I-4).

A few years ago, a similar dispute arose between the Phillips Foods Inc. and smaller companies on Maryland�s eastern shore. Phillips was processing cheap crabmeat from the Philippines and marketing it as though the meat was from native Blue Crabs. Claiming the �freshest-tasting Maryland-style seafood products available,� Phillips sells about 400,000 pounds of crabmeat for $50 million (Phillips Food). It is coincidental that both Louisiana crayfish and Maryland Blue Crabs squared off against foreign copies. �For the Cajuns of South Louisiana as for the watermen of the Chesapeake Bay, the abundance of a kind of shellfish�crawfish and crabs, respectively�becomes a powerful symbol of regional culture,� write Linda Brown and Kay Mussell in Ethnic and Regional Foodways in the United States. They add that locals �identify in these food items a special pride since they are they are the only ones who know how to prepare and eat them �correctly�� (9).

What gave Chinese crayfish exporters an edge over the domestic industry? The explanation lies in two fundamental differences between the U.S. and China�economic structure and environmental conditions and limitations. Chinese labor is cheaper and environmental standards are more relaxed than in the U.S. In this age of �product over process� economics (Buttel 361), the bottom line receives top priority.

Because of China�s communist government, neither labor nor utilities, such as electricity, had market-determined costs. Because both are essential to a crayfish processing enterprise, exported tail meat had no exact monetary value (Department of Commerce 41353). Chinese crayfish are also bigger on average than Louisiana crayfish and thus the labor needed to produce a pound of imported meat is substantially less than what is needed to produce the same weight�but higher number�of U.S. produced crayfish.

China�s membership in the WTO brings with it an agreement to establish a market economy within 15 years that the U.S. can recognize (Wolff). �In a non-market economy, prices and costs are not reliable for application of the WTO�s antidumping provisions,� argued Alan Wolff of the Dewey Ballantine International Trade Law Group on January 28, 2000, nearly two years before China joins the international organization.

Before talks got serious about China joining the WTO, however, exporters could ship frozen processed crayfish into Louisiana and bordering states and sell them for less than what U.S. producers could match, even though domestic processors got their product from their backyard. From 1994 to 1996, �Chinese tail meat consistently undersold the domestic tail meat by margins exceeding 20 percent. In addition, prices of the Chinese frozen tail meat were at all times below those for domestic tail meat� (U.S. International Trade Commission 21). Here, labor was the chief determinant of cost. Processing companies must employ many workers to peel and clean the crayfish tails, and U.S. peelers command much higher pay than their Chinese counterparts.

In addition, Chinese processing companies could buy energy cheaply because of loose regulation of natural resources. For example, �coal and electricity are significant inputs used in the production of crawfish tail meat�[and these] significant material inputs are not based on market-determined prices� (Department of Commerce 41352).

Not only did China produce crayfish under highly compromised environmental standards, but also the crayfish themselves may have been polluted. Because the crustaceans eat such a variety of food and can tolerate very poor water quality, they absorb pollutants that can be passed on to human consumers. �Reports dealing with the environment of China state that over one quarter of the freshwater systems are considered to be highly polluted, and that the environmental policies in place are not strictly enforced,� according to a study. It further determined that �processed Chinese crayfish present an increased risk of mercury poisoning� (Schuler 31).

Because the crayfish could only be sold peeled and frozen, small Chinese farmers could not get in on the export market without selling to one of the eight or so giant processing / exporting companies (U.S. International Trade Commission, VII-1). Until the U.S tariff, China was selling at cut-rate cost both environmental and human resources in order to gain an advantage on a market thousands of miles away.

In 1997 the U.S. International Trade Commission held an investigation to determine if processed crayfish from China were being �dumped� at unfairly low prices into the U.S. The Commission concluded that the �domestic industry producing crawfish tail meat is materially injured by reason of LTFV [less than fair value] imports from China.� The U.S. enacted a tariff and Louisianans celebrated.

Also, in a few weeks, WTO adjustments will begin to take effect and China has agreed to limit subsidies for agricultural production to 8.5% of the farm output�s value (WTO). For the time being, China�s influence has receded from Cajun culture. Yet was China�s foray into the bayou country unique? Or will the increasingly global nature of the food industry render local food production for a local food culture obsolete?

Regional cuisine and international economics

We live in an age in which local culture can increasingly be imported in the form of a cheap, low profile substitute. For decades Maryland�s quiet, hardworking watermen survived the weather, declining crab populations and state-imposed harvest limits. But the Asian invasion might finally put an end to their way of life. "In this industry, there's culture, there's emotions involved in crabbing and the Chesapeake Bay, and any politician that overlooks that is treading on dangerous territory," said lobbyist James Taylor as quoted by the Washington Post (Lyndsey Layton, 4). Yet until local crabbers� organizations landed their frustrations on the front page of the Washington Post two years ago, the issue was largely a political squabble between two Maryland economic interests (Phillips Foods has its headquarters in Baltimore). Likewise, Louisiana crayfishers had to get the federal government to carry out an investigation of the Chinese importers before their situation improved. Enacting a tariff takes time, and once in place, locals must still fight to stay in business. For example, Chinese exporters avoided the U.S. tariff by shipping their frozen crayfish tails through Singapore. �Two strangely similar packages of frozen crayfish appeared on Louisiana shelves, marked with identical colours and logos. The only difference: one bore a label from China, the other from Singapore,� reported the Economist �Now the state government has impounded 14,000 pounds of supposed Singapore crayfish, and suspects that far more has trickled into the country� (31).

In both cases of foreign invasion of a regional cuisine, locals have defended their food culture with a zeal that transcends purely economic interests. Foodways can be used as a �ticket to understand the power sustaining the continuity of ethnicity and region as matrices for the membership of individuals in groups,� write Linda Brown and Kay Mussel. In other words, food represents culture. Thus, globalization of the food supply is leading to a loss of cultural diversity.

Who cares?

Certain groups are deeply opposed to food homogeneity and globalization. Most people are indifferent. Others actively promote the trend. Thus a diverse field of actors emerges from around the globe, each with different motives and conceptions of the ideal food supply.

To use the crayfish food-way as an example, Louisiana-based importers support Chinese crayfish for economic reasons. They rationalize their adverse effect on local crayfish trappers, arguing that they help the local restaurants by providing crayfish during the local off-season, and also by selling their product cheaper they save the consumer money.

Restaurant owners welcome the cheaper crayfish to better compete with other eateries, although often feel they are betraying local tradition. Although many would rather remain loyal to Louisiana, "your chef's job is at stake," said one restaurant owner (Economist 35).

Local politicians weigh the economic benefits and political fallout of supporting one business over another (for example, the trappers over the importers). Federal office holders take into account U.S. trade relations with China and how any decision regarding the issue will help or hurt them in the next election.

Louisiana�s importing industry lost to the local processors and must do business with a 110 percent point-of-entry price tariff. Bayou country crayfish trappers and farmers owe the victory to groups like the Louisiana Crawfish Coalition. Maryland watermen have not been so lucky. They face a local importer with much more political clout. Phillips Foods operates several restaurants in Maryland and D.C. and sells Philippine crab meat all over the country. Governor Parris Glendening (D) has made protection of the Chesapeake Bay�s ecological health and the region�s cultural history (such as the lifestyle of the watermen) a signature issue throughout his two terms in office. However, he could not ignore Phillips� contribution to the state economy and when a decision of whether or not to regulate the importer arose, he chose to protect it. "We also have people in Maryland who are very involved in importing crab meat,� said Glendening's spokesman, Michael Morrill, as quoted in the Washington Post. �The governor didn't think it was appropriate to choose one Maryland interest over another Maryland interest" (2).

Besides individuals and groups who have an economic relationship with crayfish, others see the crustaceans as a purely cultural symbol. The meager tail meat and the huge effort required to extract it puts crayfish in the same food category as crabs, lobsters and artichokes�expensive or time-consuming enough that they mark a special occasion when eaten. Once crayfish became available and cheap throughout the entire year (the Chinese season ends when the Louisiana season begins, and vice versa), did the annual crayfish festivals held in Louisiana at the end of the season lose energy? Fruit from Chile appears fresh in grocery stores at the onset of the northern hemisphere�s winter, yet these grapes, tomatoes and other foods have little cultural value in specific cuisines.

�Foodways are interaction,� write Linda Brown and Kay Mussell, �encoding a highly ritualized, though often taken-for-granted, set of behaviors� (7). No one, except those whose lives depend upon their crop or catch, imagines globalization will affect their food supply until it does. Many locals and visitors believe regional cuisine will remain untouched by changing economic and political realities.

What next?

Laura Raynolds writes in Agrarian Livelihoods in the Caribbean that importers and exporters �both embody changing economic conditions and seek to navigate profitably, and potentially alter, shifting agro-food relations� (124).

Chinese crayfish may or may not play a role in Cajun Cuisine in the future, but for now, Louisiana farmers and trappers at least have a tariff. Curious to see what sort of crayfish food-way has developed in my home state, I visited my local grocery store and asked the fish seller if the crayfish were from Louisiana.

�No,� he said.
�Are imported from China?�
�Nope, we get �em from Spain.�