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Tales from Two Deltas: Catfish Fillets, High-Value Foods, and Globalization

Abstract This article examines two places of catfish production, the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam and the Mississippi River Delta of the United States, and uses the concept of globalization to illustrate how these distant places have been brought into competition and how this competition is mediated. Bringing these deltas together is a similar commitment to an economic development strategy that is based on catfish production, a desire to gain access to wealthy consumers who are willing to purchase this high-value food item, and processing and transportation technologies that allow this perishable product to be made more “durable” and to be shipped great distances. Mediating this relationship are consumers’ preferences, product labeling, and the U.S. state. This case study illustrates the heterogeneous outcomes of globalization as these deltas are brought into a relationship that, in some ways, is closer than their absolute distance may indicate. The “backlash” forces, such as nontariff trade barriers, nationalism, and a still-powerful state (as both a regulator and consumer), characterize these globalizations.