Next year’s Stoa league policy topic, to be announced this week, will be federal reform for agriculture, infrastructure, or intellectual property. All three have been past debate topics. I added oysters to this post title because I like oysters, and because…
Oyster Gatherers of Cancale by John Singer Sargent
Oyster aquaculture is agriculture and, along with shrimp, clams, mussels, and scallops, provide mineral-rich and protein-dense food essential for malnourished and metabolically unhealthy Americans. (“Only 12 percent of American adults are metabolically healthy...”)
Coastal fish farms (aquaculture) are blamed for water pollution and endangering wild fisheries. But oysters, scallops, clams, and mussels filter nutrients from waters polluted by fish farms and agricultural runoff. These filter-feeders convert excess nutrients into tasty mineral-rich protein.
America’s early history was thick with oysters. Trillions of them. From New York City and the Hudson river, across America’s eastern, southern, and western coasts, oysters thrived. And they could again with modest coastal policy reforms. Consider this recent Florida success story: Turtle Bay reef restoration aims to reverse decades of damage (WINK, May 19, 2026):
A massive pile of oyster shells is being planted into the water to create an oyster reef, with each oyster filtering about 50 gallons of water a day. Out on the water, restoration has a rhythm. Scoop, lift, dump, then wait for nature to take it from there. A closer look reveals what happens once these recycled oyster shells settle in. Jimmy Michaels with Coastal Conservation Association says they become prime real estate for marine life.
Sunlight powers agriculture as well as aquaculture, when clean water, nutrients, and microbes are available. Much more on oysters, aquaculture and agriculture in past Economic Thinking posts.
He points out that colonial America lacked the transportation infrastructure to deliver foods from faraway lands: “If it was around, you ate it.” What was around were legumes, produce and anything that could be foraged or hunted. In the mid-Atlantic, seafood was especially popular, reflecting the abundance of the Delaware River, which was then, says Staib, “pristine and teeming with fish.”…
George Washington was exceedingly fond of dining on seafood. For nearly 40 years, the three fisheries he operated along the ten-mile Potomac shoreline that bordered Mount Vernon processed more than a million fish annually. Among the items on the plantation’s menu were crabmeat casseroles, oyster gumbos and salmon mousse.
Atlantic Cod: Cod was a cornerstone of both the colonial economy and the daily diet. It was easily caught, split, salted, and stored. Colonists consumed massive quantities of it year-round, and it was famously traded to the Caribbean and Europe.
Shellfish as Poverty Food: While modern Americans revere shellfish as a delicacy, colonists initially scorned them. In the 1600s, lobsters and clams washed ashore in massive piles. Lobsters were fed to servants, prisoners, and slaves, to the point where indentured servants in Massachusetts famously won contract clauses capping how often they could be forced to eat them.
From presentations on reforming intellectual property (the NSDA policy topic for 2024-25), two videos: Intellectual Property Policy…: Part one and Part Two.
The Central Role of Infrastructure in the American Economy Agriculture, of course, requires both water and transportation infrastructure (railroad, barges/ships, ports/rivers/canals, roads and highways). Maybe reforming federal infrastructure policies is too large a topic, encompassing the electrical grid and fossil fuel pipelines
Federal infrastructure policy is undergoing aggressive reform, shifting its focus from massive capital injection toward broad permitting deregulation, supply chain resiliency, and long-term Highway Trust Fund solvency. The movement is driven by a critical need to accelerate energy grid, AI-driven tech, and transportation projects.
The Permitting Institute serves as a central resource and leading advocate for accelerating investment in rebuilding, expanding, and modernizing America’s aging infrastructure while preserving our environmental, cultural, and historic resources.
We are a big-tent coalition championing a non-partisan, common-sense approach to the project permitting process that rises above the current quagmire of inaction, legal injunctions, and political posturing. We’re erasing the lines in the sand that have long divided stakeholders and building bridges to a common ground that seizes on opportunities to deliver billions in new projects and stronger, healthier communities across all infrastructure sectors.
We believe the permitting process should be faster than it is today without sacrificing meaningful public engagement or the quality of the decisions made. The costs of delays and indecision are simply too high, undermining new infrastructure initiatives in the Administration, Congress, states, cities, counties, Tribal Nations, and local communities across America. There is a better way.
