Saving Seafood

Office of Seafood shifts from launch to strategy as outreach expands

August 25, 2026 — More than three months after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the creation of its Office of Seafood, officials say the focus has shifted from launching the office to building what they described as an “America First Seafood Strategy” while identifying ways existing USDA programs can better serve commercial fishermen and seafood producers.

Since Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the office in April, USDA has been meeting with industry while conducting an internal review of agency programs that could be available to the industry, according to Mike Illenberg, acting director of the Office of Seafood.

“USDA has been meeting with and gathering feedback from fishermen, aquaculturists, processors, policymakers and other stakeholders to inform the development of the America First Seafood Strategy,” Illenberg told National Fisherman.

The office was established to follow up on President Donald Trump’s April 2025 executive order “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness,” with the goal of bringing seafood more fully into USDA’s food policy and rural development programs.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

US House passes agriculture appropriations bill with more funding for Office of Seafood

June 10, 2026 — Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives included another year’s worth of money for the new Office of Seafood within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a fiscal year 2027 appropriations bill funding the department, along with other seafood provisions.

The bill includes several of the priorities and stipulations outlined in the fiscal year 2026 agriculture appropriations legislation, which was passed by Congress in November 2025 following a multi-week shutdown of the federal government.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NORTH CAROLINA: U.S. agriculture secretary talks labor costs with Craven County farmers

June 2, 2026 — The U.S. secretary of agriculture and the acting secretary of labor visited Craven County today to speak with farmers about their concerns.

Officials held a roundtable at David Parker Farms, where local farmers raised concerns about labor costs.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins said multiple factors affect labor costs.

“Farm economy is struggling. The cost of inputs obviously skyrocketed under the last administration, and they were coming down. The Iranian conflict has caused a short blip in the increase, but this blip is coming during planting season, which is not ideal, so making sure we understand that, but also building for the long term,” Rollins said.

Read the full article at WITN