Shrimp - The Human Cost

Social Impacts on Coastal communities:

While farmed shrimp may be more affordable for American consumers, the costs have proved devastating for the people who live near shrimp farms.

In Asia and Latin America, there has been a groundswell of social discontent about the insurgence of shrimp farms. There have been violent confrontations, instances of harassment and even murder of local people who have attempted to defend their lives and livelihoods against encroachment by shrimp farms.

Sometimes fierce competition erupts between peasant farmers and entrepreneurial shrimp farmers for quality land and coastal access. Traditional fishers are hard hit by the arrival of shrimp farms. Alternatives for employment and food are few.

"I say to those who eat shrimp - and only the rich people from industrialized countries eat shrimp - I say that they are eating at the same time the blood, sweat and livelihood of the poor people of the Third World," said India's Shri Banke Behary Das, member of the People's Alliance Against the Shrimp Industry.

Read more:

Ripped out at the Roots - The destruction of Mangrove forests
Don't Be 'Shellfish' - What Greenpeace is doing and what you can do
Shrimp facts and Figures
Photo Gallery