NYT article - Oyster farmers, and attempts at self-regulation (regarding the potential for food poisoning).
May 27, 2001
Gulf Coast Oyster Farmers Try Self-Regulation
By GREG WINTER
In the days before his trip to New Orleans last
March, Michael Laird could not stop talking
about oysters. It had been a long time since
Mr. Laird, a professor at the University of
Wisconsin at Whitewater, had splurged on the
squishy delight of oysters, and he could barely
wait to slurp down more. The very idea made
his students cringe, but Mr. Laird paid them no
mind. Only a select few understood the allure.
As soon as he returned, though, Mr. Laird had
to call in sick. Within two days, what had felt
like the flu had become bad enough to put him in
intensive care. His blood pressure fell. One by
one, his organs shut down. Mr. Laird died a day
later.
"It happened so quickly that everybody was just
numb," said Ronald Crabb, the chairman of the
business law and finance department where Mr.
Laird had taught.
The oysters, it turned out, had played host to
another Gulf Coast specialty, a marine organism
called Vibrio vulnificus. The same shallow,
warm inlets that make the Gulf of Mexico so
perfect for growing sweet and plump oysters
also provide the ideal breeding ground for the
deadly bacteria.
The Vibrio bacterium kills nearly half of the
people it infects, giving it the highest mortality
rate of any foodborne illness. Almost all the
cases stem from eating raw oysters from the
handful of states that span the Gulf Coast like a
crescent: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana,
Mississippi and Texas.
The Food and Drug Administration estimates
that 12 million to 30 million Americans who
suffer from a range of illnesses, including
diabetes, AIDS and liver disease, are susceptible
to infection by the bacteria. Yet because only a
tiny percentage of them get sick and fewer than
20 people a year die from eating raw oysters,
the industry has managed to stave off strict
regulation, using political connections that
spread as far and wide as a Louisiana bayou.
Now, though, the same industry leaders who
once railed against tight restrictions are
embracing them. Less than a decade after
enlisting a cadre of Southern senators and
representatives to foil similar efforts by
regulators, some of the industry's most
prominent businesses are backing a plan that
could cost them millions of dollars — or even
shut them down for several months each year.
No longer are they arguing that the threat, while
admittedly dire on some occasions, is too small
to justify regulations that would constrict the
industry.
"The industry has matured," said Mike Voisin,
the owner of Motivatit Seafood in Houma, La.,
and the co- chairman of the Gulf Oyster Industry Council, a trade group. "We don't just
run to our congressman anymore."
Only about $40 million worth of oysters, a third of the nation's harvest, is pulled out of
the Gulf of Mexico every year. But small as the Gulf Coast oyster industry is, its change
of heart helps explain why food companies of every kind are picking up the banner of
food safety — not out of a sudden surge of altruism but because of the economic pitfalls
of selling a risky product.
Since Vibrio vulnificus first became well known a decade ago, the price of Gulf Coast
oysters has dropped nearly 30 percent, as demand has all but dried up in markets like
Chicago and New York.
That free fall occurred even as oyster harvests from the Gulf diminished, according to
data from Louisiana State University, challenging the axiom that a dip in supply sends
prices soaring. "It really is terrible for marketing when somebody dies eating your
product," said Sam D. Slavich, a fourth-generation oyster farmer. "A lot of oyster
harvesters have given up."
Oyster farmers have another incentive: a threat from regulators in California, one of the
industry's biggest markets, to restrict raw oysters in the summer, when the Gulf of
Mexico gets bath-water warm and the bacteria flourish.
Last year, after four Californians died from eating Gulf Coast oysters, state health
officials warned consumers not to eat any raw oysters from those waters. It is possible
to treat an infected person, but only if the illness is caught in its initial stages and then
only with large doses of antibiotics.
Given that few doctors around the country are even familiar with the disease, California
health officials said that they would consider an outright ban unless businesses quickly
brought down the illness rate by switching to production methods that kill lingering
bacteria shortly after the oysters have been harvested.
"That, of course, is an inspiration that they have to have," said Stuart E. Richardson,
head of food and drugs for the California Department of Health Services.
Industry officials said that keeping customers safe has always been a concern — though
education, not regulation, has been their preferred route. But because warning signs in
restaurants and leaflets describing who is at risk have done little to prevent deaths,
industry officials said that they were open to trying something more constraining.
In a proposal that is being considered by the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference,
the group of state agencies that regulates the nation's shellfish, the Gulf states will have
to cut illnesses by 60 percent in the next seven years. The states will largely get to
choose how they bring down the illness rate. But if they do not succeed, the industry
may be required to adopt expensive pasteurization techniques like high-pressure pumps
and hot-water baths, or simply stop gathering oysters from May through September,
when the risk of infection is highest, a move harvesters have long opposed.
The plan still needs official approval from the states and its chances for that are unclear.
Some regulators and health officials find it too aggressive and ambitious, even though the
industry would shoulder most of the cost. Prices of the huge steel tanks necessary to kill
bacteria with heat or pressure start around $250,000. That number can climb to more
than $1 million, a considerable amount for the small family businesses that have
traditionally been the cornerstone of the industry.
Even if the plan passes, some health advocates contend that it allows too much time
before any of the restrictions take effect. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a
consumer group, has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to require immediate
pasteurization of all raw oysters from the gulf, a prospect that many in the industry are
not ready to accept quite yet.
In fact, a growing fear that the F.D.A. might approve the petition is pushing the industry
toward change of its own design. In past years, industry officials found a sympathetic
ear in their Congressional representatives, who told the agency to back off until
less-controversial approaches like public education had a chance to work.
Now that such measures appear to have failed, industry officials doubt they can garner
enough allies in Congress to block regulatory changes much longer.
"If nothing else seems to be working, I don't think anyone in Congress will stand up and
support us simply because we're their constituents and they like us," said Chris Nelson,
vice president of Bon Secour Fisheries in Bon Secour, Ala., and a member of an industry
trade group. "There's a certain sense of frustration and resignation that we don't have
any other options."
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company |
