Have you eaten catfish lately? You better take a look at where it's from and hope it is not from the Mekong River in Vietnam.

This river is the most polluted river in Vietnam. According to this video, in 2009, about 85 million pounds of catfish raised in the Mekong River water ended up at grocery stores and restaurants across the U.S. Only 2% of the catfish were tested by the FDA. The fish that were tested were filled with toxins, carcinogens, chemicals and salmonella - freakin' lovely right?

Sadly, the catfish is just part of the story, only the result of a much larger environmental crisis going on around the Mekong in Vietnam, and likely many other parts of the world that we, in the US, are not paying attention to.

If you want to see a good example of unsustainable development watch this video. There are so many words that come to mind after I watched it, followed first by my own shock and loss for adjectives.

Here are some words that come to mind for me:
- unplanned and unchecked growth
- unsanitary water and sewer systems
- poverty
- toxic soup
- disease, cancer
- boomerang effect
- terrible or absent environmental regulation - and I'm not asking for much here
- chemical dumping 101
- depressing

How on earth can we do something about this? I guess we can start by not eating catfish, which will ensure we have less toxins but will also ensure increased poverty along the Mekong in Vietnam.

Wow. I could ramble on. Would love to hear thoughts from others. I hope you will pass this on, people need to see this for themselves.