crawfish

When Kelsey Barnard Clark won the sixteenth season of "Top Chef," set in Kentucky, she clinched victory with a dish that defied fine dining expectations: cornbread and buttermilk with crawfish, boiled peanuts, cucumber and watermelon.

“My parents think I’m on my camping trip. Plus I love beignets and po’boys and gumbo and pralines. Not crawfish though. I can’t eat anything that has eyes.”

“We are so excited,” James Clesi said as he dished out cajun crawfish dirty rice.

And while Louisianans are still buying and selling crawfish, a staple in Gulf Coast seafood boils and a part of Louisiana’s “way of life,” the crisis can be felt across the state.

Adlar Stelly is 42 years old, which means it is fair to say that he has been involved in farming crawfish in Louisiana for just shy of 42 years.