Photo: Melanie Brown after being interviewed by Willie's Roadhouse on Sirius XM

Hello Niaz,

This September the NAMA crew joined our sister org, the National Family Farm Coalition in Saratoga Springs, NY for the annual farmers’ gathering and music festival, Farm Aid. Farm Aid was started in 1985 by Willie Nelson as a way to raise money for family farmers who were dealing with decreasing land values and increasing interest rates, forcing many small farms into bankruptcy. Since then, small- and medium-scale food producers have continued to face increasing corporate consolidation without meaningful support from the federal agencies they rely on. I could feel the weight of decades of fighting for their livelihoods throughout the weekend. 

This is a heaviness that is shared with small- and medium-scale seafood producers as well. As many of you are all too familiar with, our coastal communities face the same challenges that farming communities do when it comes to corporate power, rising barriers to entry, and ever-decreasing profit margins. NAMA and NFFC have been drawing these connections between food producers on land and at sea in a way that fosters community between fishers and farmers — two groups where community is everything. 

This year at Farm Aid, we were able to build the narrative around food producers by connecting some fishers with reporters who were at the festival. NAMA Board Member Melanie Brown, a Native Alaskan who fishes for salmon out of Bristol Bay, was interviewed alongside Jeff Bednar, a farmer with NFFC, Profound Foods, and the Farmers and Ranchers Freedom Alliance (FARFA) by Willie’s Roadhouse channel on Sirius XM Radio. This interview was broadcast live and will be re-broadcast around Thanksgiving / National Day of Mourning. In her interview, Melanie was able to share her experiences as a small-scale fisher and relate them to the struggles that family farmers have been facing for decades.  

There is no shortage of heavy conversations when it comes to fighting for our food sovereignty, local food systems, and rural and coastal communities against a backdrop of structural oppression, corporate greed, and ecological collapse. That is why events like Farm Aid, where food producers can come together to relax, share joy, and enjoy good music, are so vital to the movement. Sharing that space with people who have been fighting so hard for so long was a powerful reminder of why this work is so important. 

This was my first Farm Aid and being there solidified to me that this is the work I want to be doing and these are the communities I want to be supporting. I’m only 26 and I still have a lot of questions about what my life will look like, but one thing that I do feel certain of is that the collective movement we are all building together is crucial to the health of our rural and coastal communities, and it is something that I want to be a part of.

With gratitude, 

Casey Willson

Photo: Power the Farmers sign being painted at the Rural Vermont booth at Farm Aid

In This Issue

The Louisiana Shrimp Festival

Block Corporate Salmon

Don't Cage Our Oceans

New England Young Fishermen's Alliance

Slow Fish in Charleston, SC

Food Economics Webinar with Niaz

Calls for Mutual Aid

The first Louisiana Shrimp Festival (LSF) will be held on Sunday, October 20th, from 11 AM to 7 PM at The Broadside, located on Broad Street in New Orleans’ Mid-City neighborhood.

The Louisiana Shrimp Festival/Shrimp Aid aims to raise awareness about the challenges faced by our local shrimp and fishing industries while creating new economic opportunities for our coastal fishing communities and the broader regional seafood sector. With an urgent call to action of SOS: Save our Shrimpers, the festival will feature award-winning musical artists, food booths from top New Orleans restaurants and pop-ups, and a variety of youth activities, ensuring a fun and family-friendly experience typical of Louisiana festivals. You can learn more about the festivities here.

The BCS team is still hard at work fighting against the use of Genetically Engineered Salmon. Here are some great resources for how to get involved!

• Sign on to the petition
• For chefs, here specifically is a pledge to not use GE salmon
• Stay up to date on the campaign here!

DSPA

The Domestic Seafood Production Act gained a new Co-Sponsor in September! Representative Bonamici from Oregon joined the bill to help fight against offshore finfish farming. You can read the press release here and send a letter through the action alert here. 

DCO2 members Katies Harris (FVOA) and Mia Glover (IOC and WAVES) and Chelsea Lees (WAVES) made their support of DSPA known in two Op-Eds! Katie’s was recently published in The Seattle Times (paywall) while Mia and Chelsea published theirs in The Daily Camera. 

Other ways you can help to stop Industrial Finfish Farming

• Ask the UN FAO to EXCLUDE Carnivorous Fish Farming from Sustainable Aquaculture Policy by signing this petition. 
• Sign on to a letter asking President Joe Biden to revoke a Trump-era executive order that accelerates permitting of offshore finfish farms.
• Become a coalition member of Don't Cage Our Oceans to oppose industrial net pen fish farms.

This summer, as part of their 9-month Deckhand to Captain Training Program, our trainees visited the University of New Hampshire's Center for Sustainable Seafood Systems. They toured the Coastal Marine Lab and the UNH Aquafort in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This trip was an excellent opportunity to emphasize the importance of collaborative research and diversifying their fishing businesses. They also learned about various project opportunities with the NH Sea Grant.

Photo Credit: New England Young Fisheremen's Alliance

Join An Economy of Our Own for our Full-Bodied Food Economics Zoom of Our Own on Monday, September 30, 2024, 7:30-9:00 PM EST. 

Corporate and monopoly domination by a few HUGE conglomerates lobby for subsidies and tax breaks to add to their profits while squeezing farmers made into low-paid employees and customers facing prices rising faster than paychecks. Leading the conversation is Jules Salinas, Executive Director of Women, Food and Agricultural Network, an organization that connects women landowners, farmers, and producers to change the way we do food business, honoring the Earth, our farmers and workers, and communities we love.

Also joining us is Niaz Dorry of the National Family Farm Coalition and North American Marine Alliance. Niaz recently won a James Beard award for her work advocating for policies that can transform food systems away from big-business control to locally-led operations steeped in values like fair prices, racial justice, and the right to live in vibrant and healthy communities.

Our network leaders Travis Dardar and Justin Solet, both Indigenous Houma Nation shrimp fishermen and environmental justice organizers, have been working hard over the last few weeks to provide Hurricane Francine relief in Southwest Louisiana. You can support them at Fishermen Involved in Sustaining our Heritage (FISH). Recently, while Travis and his wife Nicole were helping with recovery efforts, their home tragically caught fire. You can help them in this time of need by contributing to their fundraiser. 

If you are looking to contribute to Hurricane Helene recovery, we encourage you to check out Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, a grassroots network based on the principles of solidarity, mutual aid, and autonomous direct action (Venmo: @MutualAidDisasterRelief / PayPal: MutualAidDisasterRelief@gmail.com).

If you love our work then tell the world! Stories about us from people like you will help us make an even bigger impact in our community. GreatNonprofits – the #1 source of nonprofit stories and feedback – is honoring highly regarded nonprofits with their 2024 Top-Rated List. Won’t you help us raise visibility for our work by posting a brief story of your experience with us? All content will be visible to potential donors and volunteers. It’s easy and only takes 3 minutes! Go here to get started!

Have you always wanted a NAMA hoodie? Now’s your chance! We’ve got hoodies, aprons, and onesies for the littlest fishes among our movement! Our merch is made in the US by Worx Printing Co-op, a worker-owned union coop and printed with water-based, organic, toxin-free, vegan ink. They’re PVC free, contain no phthalates and are safe for babies!