Shrimp: The Endless Quest for Pink Gold

2. About Shrimp

Shrimp are abundant, easy to catch, and delicious. Whether they’re fried, steamed, boiled in beer, or served with sauces and dips, people love the sweet succulent flavor of shrimp. This is a book about shrimp, people who love to eat shrimp, fishermen who roam the seas catching them, and farmers who grow them in ponds. And it’s a book about a conflict that is as old as humanity itself, hunter-gatherers versus agriculture—or, in this case, “aquaculture.” Farmers have provided such a huge global supply of pond-grown cheap shrimp that low prices have nearly destroyed the fishermen.

All of this human behavior and activity swirl around small but enormously abundant crustaceans with long whiskers, bulbous eyeballs on stalks, ten legs, ...