Access to Regional Seafood

By Clem Nilan, General Manager
City Market was honored to be invited to attend the New England Food System Summit held in late March in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

The Summit’s goal was to plan for all New England residents have access to high quality, safe, affordable, and nutritious food grown or harvested by local farmers and fishermen in an ecologically sustainable manner while paying fair wages. The summit assembled stakeholders from throughout our six state New England region.

Many in the audience including myself were excited by a presentation on New England fisheries by Ken La Valley, an assistant UNH professor and Director of Extension for NH Sea Grant.

Professor La Valley presented on the state of today's New England fisheries. Presently only about 20% of fish harvested in New England waters stay in New England. Less than 10% of fish harvested in New Hampshire are sold in New Hampshire. As a result, there is very limited access to local seafood.

Where does our region’s seafood go? New England fishermen typically supply the out-of-state auction market network with their catch. And because New England is exporting the lion’s share of our catch out of the region, we wind up importing a large amount of fish into our region.

This is very similar to what happens to some of the produce grown in Vermont. Another Summit attendee was Mark Curran, co-owner of Black River produce. Mark told me that Whole Foods is shipped a tractor-trailer load of produce from Vermont every week. At the same time Vermont's major grocery chains are importing produce from out-of-state. It makes one wonder, no?

What would it take to keep our fish in our own backyard? Why are New England fish winding up in the auction market? There's a reason. If a fishermen “heads and guts” the catch there is almost no regulatory oversight. But as soon as fishermen begin to fillet or process the fish beyond this, many regulatory agencies get involved and costs skyrocket. The trouble with the auction market is that fish sent here give the fisherman the most minimal return.

Another issue is the 1996 Sustainable Fisheries Act. Professor La Valley explained that stocks are assumed to be overfished unless proven otherwise. The burden of proof falls on the fishing industry.

The good news is that fish stocks are rebounding in many locales in our region. A real challenge is how to market this emerging information. Most of us are still operating under the assumption that New England groundfish stocks have crashed and it is not a sustainable choice to be eating these fish. These notions are reinforced by such groups as the Monterey Bay Aquarium which publishes a seafood buying guide that has issued a red light for purchasing cod.

Professor La Valley suggests that the region needs a more nuanced marketing approach. He goes on to say that in certain situations cod is a good sustainable option, both for the sustainability of the species and for the economics of our region. A total ban on fishing for cod in areas where they are rebounding doesn't make any sense and is counterproductive to bringing the New England seafood industry back on its feet.

Professor La Valley promised to send us resources on how to make these choices more clear for both our seafood purchaser and for our member-shoppers, as many Co-op members (including myself) would prefer some clarification when trying to make sustainable fish choices. Clear and simple buying guidelines for Co-op members would be a nice step forward toward securing New England’s food independence.

Stay tuned.