"oil spill" news and stories

Gulf seafood is still suffering from a lingering black eye. So much so, that earlier this month, 30 members of Congress sent a letter to President Obama urging him to disclose more information on the federal government's seafood safety work.

"Louisiana is suffering from a serious perception problem regarding its seafood, despite the fact that the fish we harvest is consistently being proven to be safe by several federal and state testing agencies," said Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board.

As recently as December, the seafood board's survey found that 71 percent of consumers still indicated a level of concern about the safety of consuming Gulf seafood.

In their letter to the President, congressional members write: "This lack of public confidence results not from a shortage of government data, but from an ineffectiveness in reporting this complex information to the American public."

"Seafood coming out of the Gulf of Mexico is one of the most tested food products in the world, and the results consistently prove that Gulf seafood is entirely safe to eat," Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana told Slashfood.

Politicians aren't the only ones beating that drum.

Moms, you can stop invoking those starving children in Africa -- a recent study has provided a whole new way to guilt trip your kids into cleaning their plate.

More than 25 percent of available food in the U.S. is thrown away every year, estimates the USDA. But when you figure that all that food had to be produced, processed and transported, it's not just leftover chicken parmesan we're wasting, it's energy -- and a lot of it.

Researches at the University of Texas–Austin calculate the cost of our annual food waste to be roughly equivalent to 360 million barrels of oil. That's about 2 percent of the energy that the country uses each year, which doesn't sound too bad, until you consider that it's enough to power the entire U.S. for a week, as AOL News points out.

The big question: Is Gulf seafood safe? There seems to be many layers to this answer.

On the one hand, 35% of the Gulf waters have been deemed tainted and therefore have been closed to fishing, as last reported by The New York Times. This means that 65% of the waters are still open, and this area, officials say, is where the testing for food safety is being done; no tainted seafood has entered the market. So unless your purveyor illegally dove into red-taped waters to catch your dinner, trust that it's already gone through extensive testing.

But to the bigger question -- is the Gulf safe? Can its waters bounce back, its market survive? There's no telling yet how the spill will affect the Gulf's entire ecosystem, especially as the spill has yet to be capped, and the oil has affected different species in different ways. Oysters, the Times notes, can't move through oil and have been crippled against the spill, as evidenced by the last shucking of P&J's Oyster House.

• They sell seashells by the seashore -- the shore in Sheepshead Bay, that is.
• Looking for clams? We've got your back.
• Meanwhile, the seafood industry in the gulf is reeling from the oil spill.
• Hungry Girl is on tour -- and she's saying what she really thinks about diet foods.
• At Má Pêche, the newest member of the Momofuku family, you can get "a punishing meal, deeply satisfying and utterly over the top." But you can't get dessert.

Nearing the third month into the Gulf oil spill (count 'em, 85 days), we couldn't be more frustrated: If you're like us, you lie awake at night, wondering what will cap that damn thing; you may have even considered driving down to scrub a flock of oily pelicans, if only to get the images out of your head. And while this is likely not an option for most of you -- no matter how hard you beg your boss to fund a charity trip -- by the end of this month, all you'll have to do is drink.

In connection with the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, New Orleans-beloved Abita beer has announced a special brew for relief and restoration efforts: SOS -- A Charitable Pilsner.

The golden-hued, 22-oz 7% ABV is an unfiltered Weizen Pils described as having a "sweet malt flavor with a pleasant bitterness and aroma." Now in its final leg of aging, it's slated to be shipped out by the end of July, available wherever Abita beer is sold -- including a to-be released list of participating restaurants.

The bottles will feature hand-drawn shrimp, boats, pelicans and other Gulf coast fishing icons arranged in "SOS," in this case meaning "Save Our Shores."