July 29, 2021 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is asking for bids on 320,000 pounds of breaded catfish strips.
Bids are due by 4 August for the catfish, which will be used in the National School Lunch Program and other Federal Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs. The USDA will announce winning suppliers by midnight on 11 August. The suppliers must make deliveries to several U.S. cities in January and February 2022.
July 16, 2021 — The Biden administration announced sweeping protections for Alaska’s Tongass National Forest on Thursday, including an end to large-scale old-growth logging and a proposal to bar road development on more than 9 million acres.
The 16.7 million-acre forest — which once boasted major pulp mills but is now targeted for its fine-grain, centuries-old trees that are coveted for pricey musical instruments, expansive outdoor decks and elegant shingles — has been a political flash point for two decades. While Democrats have sought to scale back logging in the forest over time, the administration’s moves go further than any previous president’s efforts.
July 6, 2021 — The Bering Sea TAC for pollock has been ratcheted back to 1.375 million metric tons — that’s down from last year’s 1.425 million and close to what it was set at in 2019. In the Aleutian Islands harvest area, the quota has been set at 19,000 metric tons, unchanged from last year. For the Gulf of Alaska waters, the TAC fell from the 115,930 metric tons to 113,227 metric tons for 2021.
In May, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the purchase of $159.4 million in domestic seafood and agricultural products. Of that, seafood will account for $70.9 million. Alaska pollock products have always been high on the list of purchases by the USDA for school lunch and other institutional food programs, and pollock contracts in 2021 will tally up to $20 million.
Also in May, data released by the National Fisheries Institute indicated that pollock pulled ahead of tilapia to rank fourth place in domestic seafood consumption. Though shrimp, salmon and canned tuna continue to rank above pollock, NFI noted that consumption of pollock products increased by a quarter pound per capita from 2018 to 2019. Meanwhile, the NFI research conducted for the Seattle-based Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers found that wild Alaska pollock products comprised 86 percent of that national increase from 2018 to 2019.
June 22, 2021 — Mississippi farmers are losing the catfish wars against their foreign competitors with the very weapon they saw as their salvation.
The domestic catfish industry along with representatives like the late U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi lobbied to move oversight of catfish processing from the Food and Drug Administration to the U.S. Department of Agriculture five years ago with the expectation the USDA’s stricter eye would limit the foreign imports that had decimated domestic production throughout the Mississippi Delta.
Instead, imports of siluriformes– the larger category of catfish and catfish-like fish sometimes referred to by their family name “pangasius”– have only increased since the switch to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service in 2016. Meanwhile, domestic prices and production, mainly in Mississippi and other Southern states, have continued to decline.
Almost 65,000 additional tons of catfish were imported in 2019 than in 2015 before the FSIS took over according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service.
The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce lists recent processing volumes at 5 million pounds per month less than in 2015 during FDA oversight. As domestic prices have declined, the average value of imports has grown with the added USDA label.
June 16, 2021 — Personal protective equipment, or PPE, has increased costs to seafood processors during the pandemic but the USDA wants to help cut those costs.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Tuesday additional aid to agricultural producers and businesses as part of the USDA Pandemic Assistance for Producers initiative.
May 27, 2021 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded nearly USD 20.9 million (EUR 17 million) in contracts as it continues to purchase Alaska pollock for use in federal food and nutrition assistance programs.
Two suppliers nabbed the pollock contracts: Seattle, Washington-based Trident Seafood earned USD 15.1 million (EUR 12.4 million) worth of the contract, while Channel Fish Processing in Braintree, Massachusetts, snared nearly USD 5.8 million (EUR 4.8 million).
May 21, 2021 — Pistachios are my favorite nut. I can house a whole bag of those in no time at all. Apparently the American government is into them too, because they’re not buying just a bunch, but a massive amount. During times of crop and product surpluses, the USDA will buy up extra to keep America’s food banks stocked; in 2016, it bought $20 million in cheese. Now, Food & Wine reports, the government is buying up millions of dollars of pistachios, among other delicious bounties.
It’s obvious that COVID-19 has mucked up all sorts of farming supply issues, and plenty of Americans are having a hard time getting by. So the USDA is currently making big buys to help those that produce food and those who need it. Last week the Biden administration announced that the USDA would be purchasing $159.4 million worth of seafood, fruits, legumes, and nuts. Of that, $70.9 million will be spent on seafood, the largest government seafood purchase ever.
“The impacts of COVID-19 reverberated from our farms to our oceans,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “U.S. fisheries and the American seafood industry were dealt a heavy blow…. These healthy, nutritious food purchases will benefit food banks and non-profits helping those struggling with food hardship as the Biden Administration works to get the economy back on track for American families.”
May 18, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK):
U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young, all R-Alaska, applauded the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) approval of a Section 32 purchase of up to $159.4 million in domestically produced seafood, fruits, legumes, and nuts for distribution to food assistance programs in Alaska and across the country.
“Whether it is farmers, ranchers, food workers, seafood harvesters or others, the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for Alaska’s farm and food economies, both on land and at sea. These impacts have only exacerbated longstanding disparities in food insecurity, with millions of American households struggling to put enough food on the table. Food banks are busier than ever as families across the U.S. worry about where their next meal will come from,” said the Alaska Congressional Delegation. “This historic purchase of foods to assist our food producers and hungry Americans – including the largest single seafood purchase in the USDA’s history – will have a tremendous impact on the struggling seafood sector, and will also ensure food assistance programs can provide nutritious and healthy food for Americans as we continue to navigate the pandemic. We thank Secretary Vilsack and the Administration for their focus on addressing these dual needs and look forward to continuing to work with the USDA to expand seafood support in their programs in the future.”
Background: These foods are being purchased with Section 32 funds, so named because the funds are authorized by Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act. The Act authorizes a percentage of customs receipts to be transferred to the Secretary of Agriculture to support the prices of surplus domestic commodities and to distribute those commodities through various USDA programs designed to feed hungry Americans. Foods purchased with Section 32 funds are distributed to schools, childcare programs, senior citizens, food banks, victims of disasters, and Indian tribes through programs such as the National School Lunch Program, the Summer Food Service Program, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, and the Emergency Food Assistance Program. The Section 32 purchase announced today will include: Alaska pollock, apricots (canned, dried, and frozen), chickpeas, dry peas, Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic wild-caught shrimp, lentils, navy beans, Pacific pink shrimp, Pacific rockfish fillets, Pacific whiting fillets, pistachios, prepared peaches, and sockeye (red) salmon.
May 14, 2021 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced a first-time purchase of several West Coast seafood products for its food assistance programs. The news is being well received by the regional seafood industry.
Over the past year, the nationwide closure of restaurants has caused a 70 percent drop in the seafood market, according to Lori Steele. She’s executive director for the West Coast Seafood Processors Association, which represents Oregon, Washington, and California.
Now Steele says out of $160 million the USDA is using to buy domestic products, $17 million will go towards seafood commercially harvested on the West Coast.
“The exciting part is they want to purchase all three of the products that we requested: Pink shrimp, rock fish, and whiting,” adds Steele. “$17 million is a really great start to this relationship.”
May 14, 2021 — Last week the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced $92.2 million in competitive grant funding through the 2018 Farm Bill’s Local Agriculture Market Program as part of USDA’s Pandemic Assistance for Producers Initiative.
The Local Agriculture Market Program includes $77 million for the Farmers Market Promotion Program and Local Food Promotion Program. What does this mean for the fishing industry? Both grant programs are open to seafood businesses, tribes, NGOs, and fishing associations who are involved in local, regional, and direct seafood marketing and distribution. This injection of funding represents a major opportunity to strengthen the resilience of our nation’s food system and put domestic seafood on our country’s menu in a meaningful way.
The United States is a major producer of seafood. However, an estimated 71 to 90 percent of the seafood we consume is imported. Our reliance on seafood trade makes our seafood economy vulnerable to socioeconomic, political and environmental shocks. No more apparent has this been than during the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. According to NOAA Fisheries, landings were down by an astonishing 29 percent during the first seven months of the pandemic in the United States. This affects everyone from the fishing crews to captains, dealers, processors, and shoreside communities.