MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • August 1, 2021
The Maine lobster – whether we are eating it, wearing it, or decorating with it – has become so synonymous with our state and who we are that it truly deserves the status of cultural and culinary icon. As a food, it is both rustic and gourmet. Maine lobster is a powerful economic driver, funneling about $1 billion into the state’s economy each year. Our love of lobster can be traced to the time when Native Americans harvested lobsters at the shore. Innovations in transportation, along with cultural changes, eventually led to lobster becoming a more desirable and more expensive food. The 20th century brought many more innovations, including the ability to freeze lobster meat. A lot of the lobster’s “iconicness really boils down to marketing because the Maine lobster industry has done a good job of tying the word ‘Maine’ to lobsters in America, even as more and more of the processed lobster meat that’s sold here comes from Canada,” said David Page, author of “Food Americana.”