June 11, 2012 — Last week we told you about how sugar growers and food manufacturers were fighting over the farm bill's sugar policies. Now, it's the catfish farmers versus a seafood trade association and agricultural groups clashing over a catfish inspection program.
Catfish farmers say the changes would improve food safety. Critics argue that it's protectionism masquerading as food safety.
The program in question would shift catfish inspection and oversight to the U.S. Department of Agriculture from the Food and Drug Administration. The change was part of the last farm bill and is set to be implemented next year and critics are trying to undo the change in this year's farm bill.
"For U.S. catfish farmers, food safety is our highest priority and we welcome stricter USDA oversight of both our domestic and imported catfish," Butch Wilson, the president of the Catfish Farmers of America, said in an email. "Whether a food safety incident results from domestic or foreign fish, the impact is the same: consumer confidence in all catfish plummets."
The Catfish Farmers of America spent $200,000 on lobbying in 2010 and $320,000 in 2011.
But critics say catfish farmers are supporting the program because it would essentially halt similar imports from Vietnam, which, they warn, could prompt retaliatory trade restrictions on American products.
"This is at heart a trade issue," said Gavin Gibbons, a spokesman for the National Fisheries Institute. "The domestic catfish folks aren't interested in a new regulator. They're actually interested in a new trade barrier."