Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used President Donald Trump’s rally in Fort Myers, Florida, on Friday to announce a new “U.S. Caught Seafood” label meant to help shoppers pick out fish and shrimp brought in by American fishermen, according to Reuters and WINK News.
“President Trump is rebuilding the infrastructure, he’s reopening the markets for our commercial fishermen, and today, he’s announcing a label for all American-made seafood that says it’s American-made,” Kennedy told the crowd at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Alico Arena, in remarks posted on X by the White House’s Rapid Response account.
.@SecKennedy: "President Trump is rebuilding the infrastructure, he's reopening the markets for our commercial fishermen — and today, he's announcing a label for all American-made seafood that says it's American-made." 🦞 pic.twitter.com/DxXDTPNDDW
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 23, 2026
What the label means
The label proposed by the Food and Drug Administration is voluntary, the White House said in a statement cited by Reuters. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a post on X that the designation is for “seafood caught by American commercial fishermen on U.S.-flagged vessels operating under U.S. fisheries management.” The Hill reported that the White House said the FDA began offering the label Friday.
The administration also launched a new federal website, Seafood.gov, with information for U.S. fishermen and consumers about federal seafood programs, according to Reuters and The Hill.
“Foreign products should not be allowed to undercut American seafood businesses,” the USDA said in a separate post on X, urging shoppers to look for the label at the market.
Kennedy takes aim at foreign shrimp
Kennedy argued that American fishermen are held to the world’s toughest environmental and sustainability rules which he said puts them at a disadvantage against foreign competitors, WINK News reported. He singled out shrimp farming in Vietnam and Cambodia.
“They fence off a mangrove swamp, they poison the fish in it, they grow shrimp. They can do that for five seasons, and all the mangroves are dead,” Kennedy said, according to WINK News. “The shrimp are so loaded with antibiotics and disinfectants that no European country will take them.” He added, per The Hill, “No European country will take them, so they ship them all over here.”
Imports dominate the market. An estimated 80 percent of the fish Americans ate in 2023 was imported, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data cited by The Hill.
Shrimpers say it’s overdue
Local shrimpers welcomed the move. Christine Gala, a Fort Myers Beach shrimper whose family grew up in the trade, told WINK News that a label is “long overdue” and that only 3 to 5 percent of the shrimp sold in the U.S. is domestic. She said cheap imports have pushed local prices back to 1990s levels even as fuel and supply costs keep climbing, and that Southwest Florida’s shrimping fleet is still recovering from Hurricane Ian.
“We want them to have to do the same thing we do, abide by the same rules, and that isn’t happening,” Gala told the station, calling for “truth in labeling.”
Fishing groups farther north also cheered. The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association called the label a “major win” for Americans in a statement on X, The Hill reported. “This label gives consumers a simple, recognizable way to identify American-caught seafood while supporting our domestic fishing, processing, and retail industries,” the group’s director of advocacy, Jason Joyce, said, according to The Hill.
The announcement came as Trump campaigned in Fort Myers for Republicans on the Florida ballot ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, Reuters reported. For coastal towns that have watched their docks empty out, the message from the stage was simple: buy American, and the administration will make it easier to know what that means.
Sources
Sources cited
- https://x.com/USDA/status/2113743418186936358
- https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/us-introduce-label-american-made-200804952.html
- https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6169656-trump-rfk-unveil-us-seafood-label/
- https://www.winknews.com/news/trump-rfk-jr-push-american-seafood-label-to-help-swfl-shrimpers/article_08b57678-a419-4e14-95a4-09eec48c7e68.html
Sources
- Original post: Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) on X, Oct 23, 2026
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