The National Aquaculture Association has written a public letter urging U.S. lawmakers to oppose a provision in the Farm Bill that would give commercial fishers access to a U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) loan program that currently supports agricultural and aquaculture producers.
The Farm Bill is the main piece of legislation governing U.S. agricultural policy, and the domestic seafood industry has pushed to use it as a vehicle to build support for commercial fishing – and aquaculture – within USDA. One of the industry’s main goals has been to secure access to USDA financing and loan programs, giving commercial fishers equal access to those resources as traditional farmers.
“Our boats are our tractors. The ocean is our field. Our catch is the crop that feeds this nation,” Southeastern Fisheries Association Board Chair Eugene Raffield said at Seafood Expo North America in March. “Farmers and ranchers are recognized as essential food producers. They have access to agricultural programs, labor programs, financing tools, disaster relief, insurance structures, and federal policy support that will help their industries be stable and be competitive throughout the world. But, the men and women who harvest wild American seafood, who work in some of the toughest and most dangerous conditions in this country’s vast oceans are often treated as if we are something separate from food production.”
In September, the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry advanced Senate Republican’s version of the Farm Bill that would change that. The legislation changes the definition of “farmer” and “rancher” to include commercial fishers and the definition of “farm” or “ranch” to include commercial fishing vessels, effectively ensuring commercial fishers can access USDA farm operating loans to cover the costs of buying, operating, and repairing their vessels.
The National Aquaculture Association, however, opposes the change, arguing that it would open up a limited pool of funding to an industry that is substantially different than agricultural and aquaculture producers.
“These loans were designed and are continuously funded to support farmers who cultivate and raise food. Commercial fishing is a fundamentally different economic model,” National Aquaculture Association President Sebastian Belle said in the 13 October letter. “Farmers, including aquaculture farmers, grow a renewable crop that they own and manage from start to finish. Commercial fishermen harvest a wild, public trust resource that they do not own, cultivate, or replenish through their own labor or capital investment. USDA’s loan programs, and associated loan products and risk models, are designed around cultivation, not extraction. Wild-caught fish are not a crop, and a fishing vessel is not a farm.”
The aquaculture group also claimed allowing commercial fishers to use the loan program would only increase the number of hands reaching for a limited amount of funding, stretching already stretched resources even thinner.
“USDA loan programs already face high demand, backlogs, and long wait times,” Belle said. “Adding an entirely new, non-agricultural applicant base would compound these pressures in several ways. Loan officers are not trained to evaluate the collateral, risk, and revenue profiles of commercial fishing operations, and a larger applicant pool would slow processing for the farmers and ranchers these programs were created to serve. Farm operating loans are also finite, and every dollar directed to commercial fishing is a dollar unavailable to farmers, which is particularly critical for aquaculture farmers as aquaculture farms often struggle to obtain commercial capital.”
Instead, the National Aquaculture Association states that increased financial support for the commercial fishing should be focused through NOAA with its own dedicated source of funding.
“Commercial fisheries deserve dedicated tools to address their challenges, delivered through agencies with the expertise to support wild fisheries. U.S. aquaculture producers are an essential component of U.S. seafood production, and folding an extraction-based sector into programs designed to support farmers is not a viable vehicle for supporting American seafood producers. Such efforts undermine U.S. aquaculture farmers who rely on USDA programs,” Belle said.
The association’s letter comes as the likelihood of this version of the Farm Bill becoming law shrinks. While the Senate committee advanced the legislation in September, it’s unlikely Congress will take up the bill before the mid-term elections, and it’s possible the legislation won’t move forward until after a new Congress is sworn in in January. Still, with some Farm Bill programs expiring, lawmakers will feel increased pressure to pass a renewal bill.
