Dear friends,

Please join me in welcoming three people to the NAMA team: Andrianna Nastoulas, James Mitchell, and Casey Willson. Together, they make the trio who is moving the Don’t Cage Our Oceans Coalition (DCO2) forward. NAMA is a founding member of DCO2, so when the time came for the project to seek a new home to help match its growth trajectory, it was a no-brainer for us to open our doors. Our deep gratitude to Recirculating Farms for hosting the project till now. 

Using the narrative that a growing world population can only be fed by expanding industrial food production, proponents of factory farms have been pushing their agenda on land for decades holding pigs, chickens, cows, and other animals in confinement while taking over millions of acres of prime farmland to grow grains such as soy to feed these animals in captivity. The past few decades, they have taken this agenda to the sea. Whether it was expanding factory farms raising Atlantic Salmon in captivity on the Pacific side or factory farms raising shrimp in the tropics or even industrial scale seaweed farms raising kelp saying feeding them to cows kept in factory farms will lower the amount of methane in their burp or farts … these projects are poised to become tomorrow’s problems without solving today’s. Shouldn’t surprise us that companies like Cargill are pushing such agendas as they are looking for the next market for their soybeans.. 

As an organization committed to protecting our ocean commons, the first thing that caught our attention about aquaculture was how without boundaries it can quickly privatize the ocean by leasing out rights to those who want to grow finfish, seaweed, shrimp, and other species just like leasing our ocean to oil, gas, and mineral mining companies want to extract the wealth that lies below the waves. Then we learned more about how the animals are treated, what they are fed, and where the “products” go, to name a few. 

We are often asked the question: is there any fish/seaweed farming we can say yes to? The answer to that is YES! But first we have three questions of our own:

What’s the scale of operation - The scale of any farming operation needs to be in harmony with the environment within which it’s proposed.

Who owns it - Multinational corporations prospecting for the next place to ensure their profits should not be the ones running the farm.

What’s the purpose - The purpose must be to feed the communities within which the farms are placed rather than feeding the global economies of scale.

To learn more about where we stand, please check out our Aquaculture Values Project, FoodPrint of Farmed Seafood, FoodPrint of Wild Seafood, and our Sustainable Seafood Guide.

Over the coming months you will hear more from our DCO2 team. Our fight against factory farms at sea is just beginning, so please stay tuned. 

Onward,

Niaz Dorry

Coordinating Director

Don’t Cage Our Oceans (DCO2) is a coalition made of a diverse array of groups and businesses with a healthy diversity of skills, regional representation, and focus. DCO2’s mission is to stop the development of offshore finfish farming in the United States through federal law, policies, and coalition building, while uplifting values-based sea-food systems led by local communities. Learn more about DCO2,what they’ve been up to, their values, vision, and how to join by visiting their website!

Check out this video from More Perfect Union - How American Fishermen Lost The Right To Fish. The video dives into how the Catch Share system has consolidated fisheries around the country, promoting the growth of armchair fishermen and sea lords, while putting small-scale fishermen out of business. In fisheries that use Catch Shares, most fishermen have been forced to exit the industry. The Center for Investigative Reporting has linked Catch Shares to the loss of thousands of fisheries jobs. The small percentage of fishermen that remain are barely making ends meet, and as a result, often have to rent or sell their quota to multinational seafood companies and private equity firms. When that happens, we see stories like that of Blue Harvest play out – a big company shutters and files for bankruptcy, leaving a wake of fishermen and fishworkers out of jobs, and millions in unpaid debt to local businesses. Dive into the video to see how this is playing out in the Gulf.

Food from land and water converged in powerful ways at Farm Aid 2023! NAMA showed up with a delegation of more than 30 people from fishing communities, including folks from the South Atlantic, the Gulf, New England, and the Pacific Northwest. 

We were thrilled the Block Corporate Salmon team joined, to call attention to the world's principal facility growing genetically engineered salmon, which was located just about an hour's drive from this year's festival, in Noblesville, IN. Block Corporate Salmon held a press conference at the facility, which is owned and operated by the biotech company AquaBounty. The conference included speakers representing fishing, farming, and Indigenous communities, as well as a whistleblower who used to work at the Noblesville plant and collaborated with Block Corporate Salmon on the AquaBounty Exposed report.

Following the press conference, we helped host a Salmon bake and BBQ, featuring fish harvested by Randy Settler, a Yakama Tribal fisherman, from tribal waters in the Columbia River, which flows from British Columbia through Washington and Oregon. Carl Wassilie, a Yup'ik biologist and organizer with Block Corporate Salmon, was our lead chef. It was a beautiful, illuminating, and healing way to end a day that started on a more somber note, at Aquabounty's salmon factory. Breaking bread and eating fish with one another reminded us of the ways we hope to produce and share food — grounded in community love and collective values. 

On Farm Aid Eve, NAMA Coordinating Director, and NFFC Executive Director Niaz Dorry was recognized by Farm Aid for her longtime advocacy and leadership with a Spirit of Farm Aid Award! These awards are given to those who promote the organization’s mission and values through contribution of their time and talent on behalf of America’s family farmers and fishers. (Photo: Suzanne Cordeiro for Farm Aid)

Before the big concert on Saturday, NAMA and Block Corporate Salmon hosted an interactive exhibit at the festival's HOMEGROWN village. With our giant inflatable Salmon blessing us from above, we screenprinted #ProtectWildSalmon designs onto scrap fabric, and talked to new friends about why we're calling for chefs and consumers to boycott AquaBounty, and to instead uplift Native-led solutions to the Salmon crisis, such as dam removal and habitat restoration.

After all that, we gathered to enjoy the big concert together! One of the best things about Farm Aid is getting to see our community let loose and have much-deserved fun. As our friend Shorlette Ammons says, the beauty of Farm Aid is that it treats our farmers, fishers, and food producers as the VIPs that they are.

Slow Fish North America hosted a successful series of Rising Tide events in New Orleans in mid-November. First, in partnership with Dillard University’s Slow Food Chapter, a Chefs Camp that brought chefs from across the city together with fishermen from southern perishes. Together, they talked about sustainable seafood sourcing in a honest, engaged, and productive conversation. The following day, Slow Fish hosted a KNOW FISH Dinner at Porgy’s Seafood Market where local chefs and fishermen shared their stories with seafood eaters representing a wide range of folks from different cultural and professional backgrounds. Learn more about the Slow Fish North America Rising Tide program here.

Looking for a couple of dinner ideas? Watch this episode of Emeril Cooks featuring Lance Nacio and Anna Marie Shrimp! Watch the episode for free here.