This research project investigates how the emergence of shrimp diseases impacts shrimp producers and global shrimp production networks. It examines how environmental conditions interact with socio-political factors and development policy to influence the production of the world's most valuable seafood commodity. Shrimp diseases result in dramatic economic losses in regions reliant on aquaculture and create high market volatility in regions that primarily fish for wild shrimp, such as the United States. A better understanding of the socio-political and environmental conditions that drive the problem of disease will strengthen the food production economies of both types of regions, particularly for small-scale producers who are disproportionately affected by disease outbreaks. The project incorporates environmental and contextual factors into commodities research, which has traditionally focused on the role of firms in explaining how commodities like shrimp are produced. The focus on shrimp disease is expected to help improve disease remediation management for shrimp farmers as well as assist the identification and dissemination of effective responses to market volatility for U.S. producers.
Shrimp are produced in two distinct ways: (a) aquaculture (farming) in land-based ponds and (b) traditional wild-capture methods. Most consumers in the global marketplace do not differentiate shrimp produced by these two methods. As a result, the growth of aquaculture has dramatically increased supply and caused a fall in global prices for producers using both methods. This growth has been accompanied by the emergence of diseases in shrimp farms, which have caused significant economic loss and dramatic price volatility in the global market. Despite decades of research, treatment of most major diseases remains difficult or impossible. The problem is especially severe for many small-scale producers in both the U.S. and Asia, who are impacted by the general fall in prices and lack the knowledge or resources to effectively respond to disease losses or market volatility. This project addresses these issues by asking what structural and socioeconomic drivers lead to the emergence of disease in certain areas, how disease impacts producers at local levels, and how small-scale producers adapt and respond to disease. The research methods combine analysis of contextual historical and economic data with interviews with shrimp producers and local traders in field sites in North Carolina and Aceh, Indonesia. This approach addresses the "black box" problem of commodities research, in which the consumer side of commodity exchanges are well understood, but the social and environmental conditions of production at the local level are not. Interviews draw on the investigator's connections with producer groups in both regions to better understand production relationships, livelihood strategies, and policy impacts, with an emphasis on how they shape and are shaped by the emergence of disease.
