Shrimp farming isn't such hard work, but I'm worrying a lot more. Following the path of many other Asian nations, the Thai government has aggressively pursued growth and foreign exchange. It has seized upon the high demand for seafood in developed countries by offering tax breaks and other incentives to companies to develop shrimp farming. The leftover sludge after shrimp are harvested is a difficult environmental problem, but many farmers don't realize it. Large mounds of pond sludge fill the air with a stench resembling that of raw sewage.
Many farmers rinse out the sludge and pump it into canals that lead to the sea.
With farmed shrimp as its most important product, Thailand became the world's top seafood exporter in 1994. Investment from several companies, foreign and domestic, has transformed hundreds of miles of Thai coastline into a zone dedicated almost exclusively to shrimp farming. On the coastal highway north of Songkla, a major fishing port, Buddhist temples, dusty shacks, snack bars and lazy, palm-shaded beaches quickly give way to a gray patchwork of shrimp ponds stretching as far as the eye can see. Rectangular, with narrow strips of mud dividing them, either filled or emptied and awaiting another crop, the ponds are connected by rickety networks of blue plastic piping that carries fresh water in and waste water out. Spinning water wheels connected to electric generators keep the water circulating and oxygenated.