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« Senior ex-official speaks on FDA's failure to get benzene out of soft drinks | Main | U.K. Environment Agency names top 100 eco-heroes »
Organic farmed fish a contradiction in terms
Can fish really be “organic?” Well, that depends how the USDA shapes that definition in the coming years. Currently the agency has no standards for what qualifies a fish as organic and it seems they are moving towards guidelines that favor aquaculture—the factory farming of the sea—rather than wild caught fish.
This debate—between fishermen, fish farmers, and regulators is baffling since the organic movement is centered around food produced more safely for both those who eat it, and for the environment from which it comes. Most fish farms--it has been reported--put a heavy strain on the environment through unnatural concentration of
feces and uneaten feed. As for the quality of the fish, farmed salmon for example, can retain 16 times the dioxin-like PCBs found in their wild-caught counterparts.
According to Food & Water Watch, open-ocean fish farms require a minimum of three pounds of wild fish—caught and ground up--for every one pound of fish they send to market. With 90% of all wild fish populations scheduled to collapse by 2048, is it wise for the USDA to endorse as “organic” a practice which speeds up the depletion of our wild fisheries?
NY Times: Free or Farmed, When Is a Fish Really Organic? (28 Nov 06)
Food & Water Watch: Top 10 Problems with Offshore Fish Farming
Food & Water Watch: Aquaculture Drags Down Fish - and Jobs with It
« Senior ex-official speaks on FDA's failure to get benzene out of soft drinks |
many critics of aqua-culture complain about the weight of food in and fish out. but how is that ratio for wild fish?
if aquaculture fish contains elevated levels of PCBs it is not a flaw of the aquaculture but whatever process (or mishap) made the PCB end up in the water course in the first place.
Why not use aquaculture as a means to combat eutrophication? Compare with the aquaculture in New Delhi. In stead of a very expensive sewage system the shit is used as food for fish that are sold making it a source of income.
There shouldn't be any oxymoron in the term organic aquaculture it only must be adapted to the water course it is placed in.
Compare with tiger shrimp farms. They are just completely inorganic when used for producing shrimps for exports because it is just too intensive. Low intensive for making food for local use probably is OK. There is a company in Holland that aim to use warm water from an power plant to grow tiger shrimp in a sustainable manner, although the exact means and methods have not been ironed out yet...
Today, there is strong debate over farmed and wild salmon.
Currently, Trout Unlimited is working on a Pacific Salmon campaign, with one goal of educating Salmon consumers. By signing the Salmon Consumer's Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, consumers are taking steps not only to secure safe, healthy salmon for consuming, but also that the natural environment is protected to ensure safe and healthy salmon. To learn more and sign the Bill of Rights go to
http://www.whywild.org