Fishing for Gold: The Story of Alabama's Catfish Industry. By Karni R. Perez. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2006. xv+263 pp. Bibliographical references, index. Paper $22.95.

Over the past forty years, the channel catfish became increasingly associated with the American South's popular culture, particularly in areas related to foodways and recreation. The species' ascendancy from its demure standing in the region's folk culture to its more sweeping acceptance as a dietary staple is broadly attributable to the rise in southern states-principally Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Georgia-of catfish farming. It is a largely untold story, one rooted in agricultural areas seeking to economically diversify amidst the challenges confronting rural communities in post-World War II America.

Relying principally on oral testimony, Kami Perez tells the Alabama chapter of this regional fisheries history through the personal experiences of farmers, processors, merchants, fisheries scientists, and government officials who shepherded the industry from its infancy in the early 1960s through its subsequent economic and environmental accommodation. The strength of Perez's experience-based approach to the topic is its capacity to convey, with striking ethnographic detail, the motivation displayed and circumstances encountered by the industry's various participants. Initially seen as a supplementary income source for rural landholders whose soil held sufficient clay for pond construction, catfish farming attracted some who were interested in developing hatcheries for fingerling production while others simply wanted to maintain growout ponds for family use, fee-fishing, or to supply local food markets. Regardless of the depth of one's involvement, Perez conveys that all were caught up in the sweep of improving pond construction and management, handling and processing eggs, fingerlings, and mature stock, and promoting appropriate options for marketing and consumption.

As Alabama's catfish industry grew, it was able to retain a family-business orientation, but it was also increasingly affected by large institutional structures in the state and some whose influence went well beyond its borders. In the industry's early years, catfish farmers worked primarily among themselves in learning what types of environmental context and fish cultural approach could support egg production and cultivation, feeding patterns, and healthy growth. These developments, along with greater capital investment, led to far more extensive relations between catfish farmers and Auburn University's Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture, the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, and feed companies such as Ralston-Purina, to say nothing of other investors and state programs that wanted to capitalize on the industry's volume production and gradual orientation to value-added markets. The ecological reach of Alabama's catfish industry grew exponentially as operations fell within the grip of corporations such as ConAgra and Hormel, and, in terms of government actions, its results figured in U.S. Agency for International Development and Peace Corps plans for exporting viable fish cultural schemes to developing nations.

The strength of Perez's work is its detailed documentation of a grass-roots enterprise and the manner in which state and federal government assistance, university research, and relations with nationally prominent corporations bolstered its fortunes. Indeed, it is doubtful if Perez's scrupulous accounting of these relations-particularly the problems and successes they present-could have been so vividly reconstructed without the book's heavy reliance on oral history. Readers will find the environmental implications of these relations compelling, but the book lacks an analytical framework for assessing them. Important environmental issues such as water quality, fish health, and fish waste are raised, but primarily in the context of improving fish production and financial profit. With little analysis of broad environmental impact, particularly the shadow cast by agribusiness on this industry, this book adheres to a straightforward narrative of the industry and leaves significant assessments for future researchers. To its credit, Fishing for Gold is among the first efforts to substantially document the history of catfish farming in the United States, and provides valuable information for subsequent research that will more fully explore the industry's environmental legacy.