Hightower Lowdown

"Giant shrimp" is said to be an oxymoron, but it's also moronic that we've let shrimp become a giant problem in our world.

Welcome to the costly consequences of a globalized food supply. Shrimp is the most popular seafood in the U.S., and we have both top-quality shrimp and excellent shrimpers in America's coastal waters. Yet, unbeknownst to average consumers, 80% of the shrimp we buy is imported, mostly from Asian nations.

The rationale of the import industry (including such big marketers as Wal-Mart) is it is much cheaper to get the product from Asia. But shrimp is not cheap at the retail level because middlemen are skimming off the savings.

And there are other costs. Start with the excessive carbon footprint created by shipping these crustaceans in refrigerated containers across the Pacific. Add in the damage to local fishing communities when the Wal-Marts abandon American producers.

Nor is our surge in imports a boon to Asian people. A recent report on workers in Southeast Asian shrimp- processing factories uncovered child labor, sexual abuse, debt bondage, forced overtime, and nonpayment of wages, describing some of the factories as "little short of medieval."

Meanwhile, as seafood imports have soared, Washington has refused to fix the inspection system. Less than one percent of shrimp entering our ports are even looked at, and only about a fifth of those are inspected. When a batch is tested, a common finding is that it's contaminated with veterinary drugs, including cancer-causing nitrofurans.