Mississippi catfish farmers fight for stricter safety laws

In an industry that’s lost over half of its jobs in the past decade, Mississippi’s catfish farmers have by no means given up to heated competition from abroad.  Rather, the state’s catfish farmers, which produce over half of U.S. farm-raised catfish, labor daily under strict safety inspection laws while fighting to make sure their industry rivals in Asia are held up to the same standards. After an eight-year battle, American catfish farmers rejoiced when the U.S. Department of Agriculture took over the catfish inspection program from the Food and Drug Administration in March to increase food safety of Asian catfish-like species imports, mostly from Vietnam and China. The program was first authorized in the 2008 and 2014 Farm Bills but struggled to receive funding from Congress. It wasn’t implemented until March.