A bill is on its way to the Louisiana House of Representatives that would mandate restaurants display signage disclosing whether their crawfish or shrimp came from a country outside the United States.
House Bill 335 would require restaurants serving imported crawfish or shrimp to inform patrons where the seafood comes from.
It’s something Lousiana farmers say they can get behind.
“People should know where their crawfish is coming from. We get a big influx of Chinese crawfish every year and this would really help our local farmers and our local economy,” said local crawfish farmer Mike Clay.
Even though we might be biased, he says imported crawfish meat isn’t as flavorful as local crawfish. “We feel meat here with some of the fat on it. The meat from China comes washed, there’s no fat on it,” says Clay.
A bill like this has been brought up in Baton Rouge before.
Restaurant owners have fought this change in the past. Farmers hope it something that’ll pass through this legislative session.