Do You Know How Crawfish are Farmed in Louisiana?

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From Oak Grove to Oil City, to right here in Shreveport-Bossier City, folks in Louisiana are upset about the crawfish shortage and the resulting sky-high prices.

Why are crawfish prices so high this year?

Texas Monthly answers that question best, saying 'Mudbugs are going to be more expensive and harder to find this year due to extreme weather in Louisiana, which supplies 90 percent of crawfish in the U.S.' The extreme weather in question just happens to be the insane drought we endured last year and are still dealing with and some pretty substantial freezes.

Having a shortage of crawfish is a tough place to find yourself in when you live in Louisiana. We literally have what we call 'crawfish season' in our neck of the woods and folks take it pretty seriously. In fact, crawfish is such big business in Louisiana that it's projected that Louisiana farmers are expected to lose around $140 million this year. As a result, Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain is urging federal lawmakers to send aid to help the Louisiana crawfish industry. 

So, in the interest of making sure we all get to enjoy some spicy crawfish next year, maybe we should get our hands dirty and take a look at what it takes to farm crawfish. You never know, maybe you'll be inspired to grow your own!