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The regulatory burden has increased costs of production for many farms. Measuring those costs due to regulations will help to address these regulatory issues.

Dr. Carole Engle and Dr. Jonathan van Senten are conducting a national trout survey to measure the costs of production of the regulatory burden on our industry. This study is supported by the U.S. Trout Farmers Association, the Western Regional Aquaculture Center, and USDA-APHIS.

Carole and Jonathan did a similar study on the U.S. baitfish/sportfish industry. Those results are being used by the industry to work on ways to streamline regulations and to reduce their costs. At least one fish farmer has used those project results in a dispute with a regulatory agency with a decision that was favorable for the fish farmer, and aquaculture producers in Wisconsin have used these results in a regulatory reform effort through their state legislature. For examples of the type of information produced, please see the infographics available at:  http://arec.vaes.vt.edu/ arec/virginia-seafood/research/regulatory-costs-for-us-baitfish-and-sportfish.html.

Your participation is needed!

The data will be important to our industry, but to be credible, we must have a good response rate from our industry. Carole and Jonathan will keep your individual farm data entirely confidential; no one else will see your individual farm data and the questionnaire itself will be destroyed after the study is completed. They will provide a signed confidentiality agreement related to your data. All individual farm data will be averaged across all farms so that no data from any one farm can be identified.

You will be contacted by either Jonathan or Carole in the coming weeks to see if you prefer to fill out the survey yourself, by telephone, or by in-person interview. Please take the time to provide the information that is needed, knowing that the information from your farm will be kept entirely confidential.

For any questions, please contact Jonathan van Senten directly at jonat86@vt.edu or 954-297-7940 or Carole Engle at cengle8523@gmail.com, telephone 870-489-4259.