Commercial Seafood Harvesters Critical to California Food Security

Al & Friends preparing local black cod meals, donated by the Monterey Bay Community Seafood Program for distribution to community members in need of a healthy meal. Monterey, November 2021.

This article was first published in the 2020 California Food Policy Council Report, October 2021.

By Sherry Flumerfelt, Executive Director, Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust, and Melanie Wong, Chair, Central Coast Healthy Food Access Committee, Nutrition and Fitness Collaborative of the Central Coast

CAFPC’s member councils partnered with local fishers and community organizations to capture more than $600,000 in grants to benefit the fishing community and the food insecure.

• Del Norte and Tribal Lands Community Food Council and Humboldt Food Policy Council teamed up with the Yurok Food Sovereignty Initiative to launch the North Coast Fresh from the Sea Program, building new business capacity and serving as the catalyst to establish viable local markets for fishermen.

• The Sacramento Food Policy Council and Family Meal Sacramento supplied chef-prepared, ready-to-eat seafood meals to vulnerable populations and filled the gaps in school lunch distributions.

• San Luis Obispo Food System Coalition member, Slow Money SLO, connected local fishers, seafood markets, 40 Prado and ECHO homeless shelters, Meals That Connect, and the SLO Food Bank for the Catch for Hunger Relief program.

• The Food, Agriculture and Nutrition Network of Solano, Marin Food Policy Council, and Innovative Health Solutions collaborated to donate seafood caught in Bolinas, Bodega Bay, and Monterey Bay to 30 nonprofit organizations in the North Bay.

• The Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative, a member of the Marin Food Policy Council, disbursed local seafood to community-based pantries in Sonoma and Marin counties. vNFCCC member, the Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust worked with small scale distributors to supply local seafood to the Food Bank for Monterey County, Pajaro Valley Loaves and Fishes, Meals on Wheels of the Monterey Peninsula, Al & Friends, and six local restaurants participating in the California Great Plates Delivered Program. Close to 20,000 seafood meals were donated in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties in the first six months.

COVID-19 dramatically impacted the seafood supply chain, including those who harvest, prepare, package and distribute seafood. International markets collapsed, adversely affecting fishers who depend on exports such as sablefish and squid. Buyers and processors had to close or consolidate plants due to decreased demand and for employee safety. Restaurants shut their doors or operated at a reduced capacity— and with 70% of seafood in the United States consumed at food service establishments, this market loss was devastating to the fishing industry. Many fishing boats were left tied up at the docks.

At the same time, food insecurity skyrocketed. Across the country, our nation’s food banks served 55% more people in need in 2020 than the previous year. At the Food Bank for Monterey County, local demand for donated food quadrupled. Meals on Wheels of the Monterey Peninsula ramped up from providing 700 hot meals per day to 1,200. Finding healthy proteins for clients became increasingly difficult for food relief programs.

To address these challenges, a new and creative program began to emerge both in California and at ports across the country. Catch Together, a project of Multiplier, started awarding grants to community fishing organizations providing direct financial relief to fishers and fish-workers to supply food banks and families in need with healthful U. S. caught seafood. The goal was to replace lost seafood markets while helping address rising food insecurity.

The Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust (MBFT) is one of the nonprofit organizations that received Catch Together funding to launch the Monterey Bay Community Seafood Program. MBFT, via the Nutrition and Fitness Collaborative of the Central Coast (NFCCC), also connected Catch Together with fellow California Food Policy Council (CAFPC) members. Several food policy councils quickly ramped up seafood donation programs throughout the state (see sidebar).

These donation programs have proven to support local economies, reduce pressure on food relief programs, and feed vulnerable community members while building lasting relationships among seafood businesses and local food relief agencies. For example, as a direct result of these programs, Meals on Wheels of the Monterey Peninsula has committed to purchase seafood directly from local seafood businesses.

The programs also illustrate the often understated importance of California seafood to food security. Seafood and commercial fishers are often excluded from conversations about food systems. Fortunately, we are starting to see a shift, as the vital role seafood can play in nutrition and food security gains wider recognition.

The NFCCC has long been interested in engaging with local fishers as fundamental contributors to the Central Coast regional food economy. Our pandemic-driven collaboration has been an opportunity to learn from each other, work together on food security, and begin to integrate local seafood and the fishing communities into the long-term plan of creating a prosperous and resilient regional food system. To sustain our fisheries as a food resource and encourage local employment in the commercial fishing industry, the NFCCC has added marine conservation issues and policies that impact the livelihoods of seafood harvesters to our legislative agenda to urge public investment in fishing infrastructure. To increase access to local seafood and ensure continued availability of California harvested seafood, we support:

  • Working waterfronts and essential Federal and State investment in fishing port infrastructure (e.g., public hoists, ice machines, gear storage, and refrigeration and freezer facilities). For example, we support AB125—The Equitable Economic Recovery, Healthy Food Access, Climate Resilient Farms and Worker Protection Bond Act—to fund the State Coastal Conservancy to provide grants and expenditures for “fishing facilities and related infrastructure.”

  • Expansion of direct sales opportunities that make local seafood more readily available, such as the AB831 amendments to section 114378.1 of the California Retail Code, signed by Governor Newson on August 31, 2021, that allow fishers at fishermen’s markets to sell seafood in a more customer-friendly form.

  • Procurement of local seafood by anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals, and prisons (e.g., Bay2Tray).

  • Expansion of USDA purchases of domestic seafood for food assistance programs.

Sage Wright of Ocean2Table delivering local rockfish to Chef Soerke Peters of Mezzaluna Pasteria to prepare meals for the Great Plates Delivered program.

There are two other developments on the horizon that will impact California’s seafood industry: wind energy and 30x30. Both are in the scoping stages, highly controversial, and too early for CAFPC to take a position.

Potential wind power development projects have been designated in Federal waters on the outer continental shelf offshore California: Humboldt Wind Energy Area, Offshore Morro Bay, California, East and West Extensions, and Vandenberg Offshore Wind Energy Projects. As noted in the linked correspondence from the Pacific Fishery Management Council commenting on each proposal, the nominated project areas are located within Essential Fish Habitats of species important to the food supply that California’s fishing fleet has sacrificed so much to restore.

Governor Newsom’s Executive Order N-82-20, issued October 7, 2020, declared “the goal of the State to conserve at least 30 percent of California’s land and coastal waters by 2030”. There are concerns in the fishing industry that 30x30 could push seafood harvesters out of the most productive fishing grounds, while undermining existing conservation and management programs. Yet, to date, many engaged stakeholders have described the California Natural Resources Agency’s “Pathways to 30x30” public process as rushed and blocking meaningful, equitable community input.

As collective action organizations, we believe in stakeholder involvement and community-led engagement to ground the crafting of sound policy and to ensure public accountability. Fishers are on the water every day, they are the first to see changes, they know more than anyone what regulations work or don’t work, and they have an intimate knowledge of the ocean. We call upon our fellow food policy councils to stand with local communities to ensure that all affected parties, including commercial and recreational fishing stakeholders voices, are included in shaping 30x30 actions.

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