A longish piece in Gastronomica reflects on the ways life has changed in Plaquemines Parish, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil disaster (I refuse to trivialize it by calling it a "spill"). Unsurprisingly, the reflections are often rueful and the silver linings he finds are limited; as he remarks, "The BP oil spill's cloud is so darkly apocalyptic, literally and figuratively, that it seems to have us all looking willy-nilly for something good to come out of it."
He thinks the key to a long-term revival of the area is allowing the wetlands to reestablish themselves: only thus can the ecosystem recover from overfishing and the entire area become more robust against hurricanes. Opposition by oyster farmers, whose current beds will be cut off from the salt water they require, is likely to be fierce, but a far greater obstacle will be our current fiscal straits: "[T]he necessary awareness is arriving just when America is broke," as one observer put it.
It's a well-written, engrossing article; check it out.
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