Homegrown Aquaculture Helps Soybean Farmers and Small Town Economies Too

By Rep. Collin Peterson, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture

Aquaculture is extremely important in my home state of Minnesota because it not only provides a new revenue stream as farms adjust and adapt to a challenging farm economy, but more importantly because it creates a new market for the nearly 7.5 million acres of soybeans Minnesota farmers grow. As export demand in places like China and elsewhere becomes more and more uncertain as a result of the trade war, increasing the demand for high-quality soybean meal to provide protein for domestically raised fish, shrimp, and other seafood is a valuable opportunity for our farmers when they need it most.

The ingenuity and innovation of domestic aquaculture operations in Minnesota and nationwide is helping to drive economic development in our small towns, too. In rural communities in my state and others, emerging aquaculture companies have generated good-paying jobs and revitalized old farm infrastructure. Then, the gourmet-quality seafood those operations produce helps boost local restaurants, grocery stores, and direct-to-consumer businesses.

Americans are eating more seafood today than they have in a decade, yet the U.S. imports almost 90 percent of the seafood we eat. That shortfall has driven the U.S. seafood trade deficit to more than $16 billion dollars in recent years, and placed the supply of seafood at risk of disruptions beyond our control. Supporting our domestic aquaculture industry, as well as the farmers that feed it, helps ensure our consumers that they have a quality source of aquaculture products close to home. 

To help encourage the growth of this new market, I’ve been the lead sponsor of the Advancing Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture Act, or AQUAA, in the last two Congresses with Representative Steven Palazzo of Mississippi. His state has been a pioneer in American aquaculture since the advent of the domestic catfish industry in the 1970s, and my state is at the cusp of innovation in the industry today, raising all manner of high-demand seafood more than a thousand miles from the nearest ocean.

The AQUAA Act streamlines the federal permitting process to promote the expansion of domestic aquaculture operations. The bill will establish clear and simple regulations fish farmers can follow as they grow their business and with it the competitiveness of the American seafood industry. By doing this, the AQUAA Act will increase demand for field crops, create jobs, and reduce our dependence on foreign seafood imports.

Congressman Collin Peterson has represented the 7th Congressional District of Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1991. He chairs the House Committee on Agriculture.