Gov. John Bel Edwards has requested an emergency declaration for disaster relief for Louisiana shrimpers amid a flood of foreign shrimp that has driven dockside prices to below $1 per pound.
Edwards made the request in late August at the behest of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, which penned a letter to the governor in August seeking the declaration, the first step in securing disaster relief funding for shrimpers from the federal government.
Read MoreMost people aren't thinking about crawfish season yet, but the cycle of producing crawfish for those springtime boils is already underway.
Mike Frugé, co-owner of Frugé Aquafarms in Acadia Parish has been preparing his fields for the early crawfish season. He introduced the seed crawfish in May to the rice crop he planted in March or April.
Read MoreDo you know what other countries, that import food to the United States, do to their seafood? It's GROSS! That's why this Louisiana Congressman is pushing to protect/support the Louisiana seafood industry.
Read MoreWhile crawfish season begins in January, drought conditions could have an impact on the state’s $230 million dollar crawfish industry. LSU AgCenter Area Agent for crawfish production Todd Fontenot says producers are already flushing their fields to reduce cracking.
Read MoreDry conditions in the area are causing major problems for Louisiana’s $230 million dollar crawfish industry. The excessive heat and drought are making it difficult for Louisiana crawfish farmers to maintain their land.
Alan Lawson, a crawfish and rice farmer in Crowley, said it costs him lots of money just to irrigate crops.
Read MoreAfter a long wait, Louisiana's fisheries finally will receive $58 million in federal aid to offset disaster impacts, U.S. Rep. Garret Graves announced.
The Baton Rouge area congressman worked to secure the federal assistance in 2020 after multiple disasters affected the state's fisheries in 2019.
Read MoreLouisiana produces 90% of the United States' crawfish. Most of the farmed crawfish comes from rice fields in one small area of Cajun country. There, the industry is fairly new. In the 1980s, rice farmers experimented with cultivating crawfish in their fields.
Read MoreThe Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission announced the opening dates for the fall inshore shrimp season Aug. 7.
Meanwhile, Louisiana lawmakers have called on Congress to protect the domestic seafood industry as shrimp harvesters face low prices due to large amounts of imported shrimp.
Read MoreCrawfish and rice farming in Louisiana is a lucrative business and can be very rewarding depending on the season. But it come with some risks. In this case the "risk" took the form of a MONSTER alligator!
A video surfaced on Reddit some months ago titled "Farming in Louisiana is tough". In the video, you can see the cage wheel from a crawfish harvesting boat churning through the shallow waters of a crawfish farm.
Read MoreNever, ever, ever, under any circumstances buy crawfish or shrimp or any other seafood for that matter from China. You won't believe what they do to their food!
I've written about this before. I believe it should be illegal to sell crawfish or shrimp from China in Louisiana. I don't care if seafood from Louisiana costs more. It's called quality and now we know it's called safety, but I'll get to that in a minute.
Read MoreJust off the coast of Grand Isle, Ryan Anderson, wearing a pair of black waders, hopped out of a skiff and slowly made his way through rows of floating cages, home to more than 100,000 growing oysters.
Read MoreCongressman Clay Higgins (R-LA) sent a letter to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Troy Miller requesting the remaining antidumping duties that were established under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000 (CDSOA) be distributed to the Louisiana crawfish industry.
Read MoreSeafood distributors and restaurants for years have imported thousands of pounds of live Louisiana crawfish into Colorado for spring celebrations and boils.
But unbeknownst to many of those cooking up the Southern staple, importation and possession of live red swamp crayfish has been illegal for decades in the state because the species is invasive.
Read MoreThe federal government has announced its approval of a disaster declaration over damage to Louisiana fisheries due to three 2020 hurricanes, opening the door to federal aid for commercial fishers.
Read MoreNo matter how you cook it, farm-raised catfish is the largest single product of U.S. aquaculture. The nutritious fish is low in saturated fat and a great source of lean protein. Even better, most of the production takes place here in the Midsouth. According to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, the top four farm-raised catfish producing states are Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas accounting for a combined 96% of the total production.
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