New report shows the USDA’s grant offerings don’t sufficiently cover marine and aquatic food initiatives

A recent report by the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT) provides an assessment of ways to make U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant funding more accessible to the seafood sector.

“Alaska’s fishermen harvest some of the healthiest and highest quality food on the planet and supply 60 percent of our country’s seafood production. Yet, our fishing organizations have struggled to secure USDA grant funding for a variety of projects despite being aligned with the USDA’s goals. Seafood is generally a square peg in a round hole when it comes to USDA funding opportunities,” said Linda Behnken, a commercial fisherman, board president of the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, and MFCN policy council co-chair.

The report highlighted the barriers and opportunities for increasing the seafood sector’s access to USDA grant programs and what changes in policy are needed to make the USDA more seafood-friendly. ASFT partnered with the University of Maine’s Social Oceans Lab research team to look into USDA’s recent grant funding through several core USDA agencies, collect information and feedback from previous USDA grant recipients in the seafood sector, and interview small-boat fishermen. From this research, ASFT has developed a set of recommendations for amending the USDA’s programs to better serve the small-boat fishing and seafood sectors.

Right now, discussions are taking place on Capitol Hill about the next Farm Bill reauthorization. Here are ASFT’s priority recommendations for making USDA programs more accessible to the seafood sector:

• More support and technical assistance for the seafood sector. More staffing support and technical assistance at the USDA, as well as from outside organizations already familiar with the seafood sector (e.g. support organizations such as the Local Catch Network) would help make USDA grant programs more approachable for the seafood sector and help seafood applicants submit more competitive proposals.
• Increase coordination and collaboration between USDA and NOAA. There is no single federal agency that oversees the entire domestic seafood supply chain. Instead, it is divided between the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association (NOAA), which manages U.S. seafood harvest, and the USDA, which is involved in the remainder of the supply chain. As a result, the seafood sector has often been left out of federal policies and programs available to land-based food producers and there has been less research and resources focused on increasing seafood market competitiveness.
• Increase eligibility for the seafood sector and clearer communications around eligibility across USDA grant programs. One of the best things that the USDA can do to support the seafood sector is review and update its USDA grant programs to ensure that it is being inclusive and relevant to the seafood sector and to explicitly call out seafood/seafood producers alongside farmers and ranchers in its requests for proposals and other funding communications. The USDA could make its funding more accessible to the seafood sector by providing a grant opportunity that specifically targets the seafood sector and have USDA staff/reviewers familiar and well-versed in seafood businesses and supply chains.
• Establish grant funding set asides for wild-capture fisheries. According to Stoll’s USDA funding research, nearly 80% of the USDA’s 0.52% of seafood funding went to aquaculture. Aquaculture represents 28% of total seafood production in the United States (by value), but received 78% of the seafood-related grants that USDA awarded between 2018 and 2023. To help create a more level playing field within the seafood sector and ensure equitable investment in both aquaculture and wild-capture fisheries, USDA grant programs available to the seafood sector should provide set asides for wild-capture fisheries. There is precedent for the USDA to have set-aside funds for target groups based on different criteria (e.g., geography, gender, minority, beginning farmer), including Agricultural Marketing Service’s Commodity Procurement Small Business Set-Asides.

You can read the entire report here and learn more about USDA funding for the seafood sector here.

With the Farm Bill up for reauthorization, now is the time for the seafood industry and seafood lovers to support these recommendations for including “fish in the Farm Bill,” and to let Congress and the administration know about the tremendous benefits of investing in our country’s seafood industry and fishing communities.

Top photo by Natalie Gildersleeve