Top federal agriculture officials visited Maine this week to evaluate whether crop insurance can be expanded to protect the state’s multimillion dollar lobster industry.
The visit by U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Richard Fordyce and Risk Management Agency Administrator Pat Swanson comes as the agency increasingly looks to integrate seafood producers into traditional agricultural safety nets.
Federal crop insurance allows farmers to buy government-subsidized policies that pay out in weeks to months after natural disasters or market drops cause severe revenue losses. In contrast, lobstermen rely on federal fishery disaster declarations that can take three to five years to distribute aid, which industry analysts call far too slow for small operators.
“We are a small-boat, owner-operated fishery made up of thousands of independent businesses, so programs designed for agriculture or other food-producing sectors will not necessarily translate neatly to lobster,” said Patrice McCarron, director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.
However, McCarron called the visit “an important first step” toward determining whether existing USDA programs can be adapted or new approaches developed to better support Maine lobstermen in their role as food producers for the world.
During a dockside roundtable in Stonington on Tuesday, industry leaders emphasized that lobstermen face severe market swings and price crashes rather than physical catch loss alone. Fordyce, a corn and soybean farmer from Missouri, noted that lobstermen favored revenue protection over simple yield guarantees.
“Just talking with the lobstermen, I think they were probably more inclined to try to find a product or try to find a path forward that would be more supportive of total revenue,” Fordyce said. “I was quite surprised by the data that’s available as far as supporting catch numbers.”
Last year’s lobster catch was valued at $461.4 million — 7.5% below the 10-year average, and, when adjusted for inflation, 20% down from 2024, state data shows.
Curt Brown, president of Bold Coast Seafood in Prospect Harbor, hosted the delegation and highlighted the shared reality between ocean and land harvesters.
“I was struck by how many of the same challenges we face in seafood are also challenges that farmers across the country face every day,” Brown said. “There is a lot we can learn from each other.”
Seafood industry consultant Noah Oppenheim said bringing Midwest agricultural leaders to coastal Maine provided crucial perspective, especially the similarities between the rural fishing communities in Maine and the rural farming communities in the Midwest.
While the visit was focused on ways to manage the industry’s risks, representatives also used the time to drive home other ways the agency can help water-based food producers like they support land-based farmers, including equal access to loan, grant, purchasing and marketing programs.
“The agency seems wide open to focus on all of this at once,” Oppenheim said. “Congress knows this is a bipartisan feel-good issue. We need to be eating more domestic seafood. It’s the right thing to do to have seafood be an equal part of our food system.”
Oppenheim said opportunities for fishermen have expanded since the USDA created its Office of Seafood in April. One of its top priorities is to find ways for fishermen to tap into the same federal programs and safety nets as the nation’s potato and dairy farmers.
Addressing expectations regarding a timeline, Fordyce cautioned that any official expansion must ultimately be approved by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation board. However, because local advocates have worked on the issue for several years, he said “a lot of that preliminary work has been kind of done.”
While a full rollout for lobster insurance remains down the road, Fordyce emphasized that establishing direct working relationships between Washington officials and Maine coastal leaders was the immediate, vital outcome of the trip.
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Penny Overton can be reached at poverton@pressherald.com.