US government will buy $ 50 million in fish feed
The money included in the federal stimulus package is intended to help keep afloat an aquaculture industry already struggling from foreign competition after feed prices jumped 50 percent last year, reports The Associated Press; It could provide algae to feed clam and oyster larvae along the Pacific coast, fill the bellies of tilapia in Arizona and feed catfish, trout and gamefish in the Midwest and South. Supporters say it will help keep fish farms going in tough times and preserve jobs in areas that have been hit by the recession and lack other industries.
The push for the fish rescue started with producers in Arkansas and the South. The aquaculture industry was worth $1.4 billion in sales in 2007, the most recent year for which the U.S. Department of Agriculture has figures. Catfish account for one-third of those sales, and the leading producers are Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas.
Many fish farmers live in poor areas and are struggling with a "double whammy" of higher feed and electricity costs and increased foreign competition, said Mike Freeze, vice president of the Pine Bluff, Ark.-based National Aquaculture Association. He and his partner saw feed prices jump about 50 percent in one year. They employ about 25 people, raising hybrid striped bass, grass carp, minnows and other species at the 1,300-acre Keo Fish Farms southeast of Little Rock, Ark.
Commercial fish eat a variety of things, but some of the main ingredients are corn, wheat, soybeans and fish meal -- which is ground- up fish such as anchovy or herring. Soaring prices for corn and other commodities caused a spike in fish food prices last year from which farmers are still recovering.
