The 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for American consumers recommend eating at least 8 oz of seafood per week, for a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet, to support a healthy dietary pattern. Almost 90 percent of Americans fall short of meeting the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommendation for seafood consumption. Still, when looking at consumption rates by region, data confirms that the Midwest is missing the mark by a long shot. The Midwest had the lowest seafood consumption rate (12.9 g/day) in the national, when compared to the Northeast (23.9 g/day), South (17.6 g/day), and West (20 g/day). There is a relatively small but diverse aquaculture industry in the north central region of United States, with a portion of these businesses looking to sell their food fish products locally or regional. Several pieces of information including the average seafood consumption rate; data collected from farmer interviews, focus groups, and consumer preference studies; as well as changes in Choice of Seafood and Emerging Opportunities, all point to a need for consumer facing programming, to come along efforts to grow the aquaculture food fish sector on a regional and national level.
The Eat Midwest Fish project is an extension outreach program that first completed needs assessments, worked with farmers to tell the story of sustainable aquaculture in the Midwest, and developed consumer facing educational resources for the general public. The deliverables include digital products for consumers to explore cooking local seafood at home, and information that raises awareness of regional farmed aquaculture species.
Phase 1 & 2 highlights of the Eat Midwest Fish project: