Catfish

Let's start from the beginning. Vietnam represents an important market for U.S. soybeans.  U.S. soybean and soybean meal exports to Vietnam totaled nearly $100 million in 2008 and are on the rise. U.S. exports of soybean meal climbed from just 17,469 metric tons in 2004 to almost 115,000 metric tons in 2008, a 558% increase.

Let's start from the beginning. Vietnam represents an important market for U.S. soybeans.  U.S. soybean and soybean meal exports to Vietnam totaled nearly $100 million in 2008 and are on the rise. U.S. exports of soybean meal climbed from just 17,469 metric tons in 2004 to almost 115,000 metric tons in 2008, a 558% increase.

In case you didn't know anti-competition lobbyists representing American catfish farmers are working hard to have a Vietnamese fish called pangasius banned from this country and that spells trouble for Montana cattlemen. Despite the fact that pangasius has been safely imported for years and has caused a grand total of zero illnesses, the bottom-feeding special interest lobby has cooked up a food safety scare story and is shopping it to USDA and anyone in Washington who will listen.

At the same time the Obama Administration is working to curb the influence of narrow special interests, American catfish producers are busy telling fish tales to Congress to get their competition regulated out of existence. They've dreamt up a faux food safety scare and they're shopping it to any reporter or regulator who will listen. It's a piece of fiction that's fat with anecdotal exaggerations and thin on facts. But this isn't the first time the anti-competition catfish lobby has stooped to these types of tactics.