WASHINGTON — A proposed rule to require USDA inspections of catfish enjoys wide support, according to an analysis by the Catfish Farmers of America.
The group says 84 percent of the publicments on the rule endorse a broad definition of the species covered by the inspection regimen mandated in the 2008 Farm Bill.
But the National Fisheries Institute, which represents catfish importers, says the quantity ofments isn’t enough to trump the serious arguments against the rule.
“A special interest lobbying group can make the same false argument 84 percent of the time and it doesn’t make it right,” NFI spokesman Gavin Gibbons said today.
The Agriculture Department held two days of publicment, in Washington, D.C., and in Stoneville, Miss., last month on whether the department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service should inspect all domestic and imported species of the order Siluriformes or only one family in that order, Ictaluridae, which would exclude the panigasius fish from Vietnam and other Asian countries. All Silurif