December 27, 2021
Blue Harvest Fisheries, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, is a Northeast seafood processor supplying demersal products for USDA nutrition programs. The company has implemented new security protocols to protect workers during Covid-19. Blue harvest photo.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will buy $ 25 million in Atlantic demersal products for distribution to food banks and other community aid, another round of shopping for the Northeast seafood industry that was historically banned from the USDA’s Section 32 feeding program.
The federal government’s 2020 Covid-19 response included large USDA purchases of seafood such as Alaskan pollock, and New England lawmakers pushed for it with their badly affected fleets. The agency announced another $ 25 million funding round for the Northeast on December 22nd.
“We are pleased that the USDA continues to support the Atlantic fishing industry as we urged them to do after our contributions have been overlooked in state purchases for far too long,” said Massachusetts Sens. Edward J. Markey and Elizabeth Warren, and Representative William Keating and Seth Moulton in a joint statement.
“The ongoing effects of the pandemic warrant ongoing partnerships with the fishing communities that are the cornerstone of our Massachusetts culture and economy, as well as the pantries that feed our communities.”
The Massachusetts delegation pushed for Northeast fish products to be included in food aid as part of $ 9.5 billion that Congress approved for farm producers under the Coronavirus Assistance, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. In May 2020, the USDA’s plan called for $ 20 million in haddock, saithe and redfish for new Section 32 grocery purchases.
