Fishing News
Delta Farmers Want Copyright on Catfish
By Elizabeth Becker
Balch, Ark., Jan. 12 � With blue herons circling overhead as fishermen pull in the day's catch, Joey Lowery explains why he is doing battle with the Vietnamese to save his own and other Mississippi Delta catfish farms.
To him, the issue is simple. Vietnam should stop labeling imported basa fish as catfish and thereby end what he calls its unfair piggybacking on an industry built from scratch by farmers here and in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.
"We're not protectionists," said Mr. Lowery, 38, who carved out 55 ponds on a farm he inherited from his father. "I've never been against the Vietnamese selling their fish in this country � I just want them to label them properly and call a spade a spade."
To Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and celebrated prisoner of war in Vietnam, the issue is equally clear. Just when the United States finally reached a trade agreement with its old and bitter enemy, a clutch of Mississippi Delta farmers got Congress to erect an "offensive trade barrier."
"No doubt," Mr. McCain said, "on behalf of several large, wealthy U.S. agribusinesses that will handsomely profit by killing competition from Vietnamese catfish imports."
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