Dear Mr. President, We need your help!

SHRIMP PRICES A CRISES
June 13, 2018
A white red snapper?
June 13, 2018
SHRIMP PRICES A CRISES
June 13, 2018
A white red snapper?
June 13, 2018

It’s been a while since I wrote one of these columns to you, but with all that’s going on with trade right now I thought I would take a chance.

Those who criticize you are often finding trouble with your status as a hands-on president, but I am pretty sure the people in your corner admire and respect you for this. it is one of the reasons why I am addressing you directly.

Mr. President, the shrimp fishermen down here are suffering. They can barely run their boats because the cost is so high compared with the price they are able to get and this is because there is so much shrimp coming from other countries. There are very wealthy people who are getting wealthier every day because of this imported shrimp. They are the brokers and the middle-men and they could give a damn less about people in Louisiana who work their fingers to the bone harvesting shrimp. If you knew them I know you would care about them, because you love hard-working people. Miners, whom you have met and care a great deal for, wrestle ore and coal from the ground while fishermen extract the shrimp, and they are very similar people.


The shrimp are coming from Mexico and China and India and lots of other places. Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia as well. In some of these places children and enslaved laborers are being used, and that’s not something we as Americans support, and certainly something we don’t support in Louisiana. We don’t think you do wither.

Mr. President, we know you can’t fix everything. But we need your help fixing this. Most Americans don’t know much about where their shrimp comes from but more than 90 percent of it is from places they likely wouldn’t think very highly of.

Sen. John Kennedy is coming to see some of the fishermen Friday, at a meeting in Houma, which is where this newspaper is published. He has already tried to get your attention on the shrimp problem but I’m not sure how successful he has been. I know you’re busy, and I certainly don’t speak for the Senator but maybe you can meet with him when he goes back to Washington. I know you respect his opinions, you have said so. I am sure he will be able to give you are very good summary of what he has seen and heard.


It’s not possible to know about everyone, but I have little doubt that the fishermen down here have been as supportive of you as the miners. These coastal Louisiana parishes certainly came out for you in the election. They helped you and now they need you to help them. And this problem with prices is not exclusive to Louisiana alone. There are shrimpers in all the Gulf of Mexico states who are in the same boat one way or another, and in the Carolinas and Atlantic Florida too. Some of the fishermen are telling me you won’t read this. I disagree. I think you will, just like I think if there is anything you can do to help them, you will do. I know there’s a lot on your plate. I think Louisiana shrimp should be as well.

Dear Mr. President, We need your help!Dear Mr. President, We need your help!