KPLU Local News
(2010-08-20)
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photo: treehugger.com
(KPLU) -
Canada has proposed standards for certifying farmed salmon as "organic." The aquaculture industry says it's a natural extension of the existing organic labeling for chicken, beef and other meat. But critics say net-cage salmon farms are anything but green.
Shoppers pay a premium for meat labeled "organic" because they believe it's easier on the planet, plus it's been certified to have been raised without pesticides, antibiotics or other chemicals.
Under the draft standards being considered in Canada, farmed salmon could be treated with those chemicals and still be sold as organic.
But Catherine Stewart - with the Vancouver-based Living Oceans Society - says the objections go deeper than that.
"Even if you tinker with the production methods on the farm," she says, "the continued use of net cages has major environmental consequences that we feel doesn't fit with the whole ethos of organic production."
Stewart points to studies that have implicated salmon farms in water pollution, parasite outbreaks and other problems that may be contributing to the decline of wild salmon.
Industry groups say they'd only support strict organic standards that would maintain consumer confidence in the organic label.
Canadian authorities are taking comments on the draft proposal until the end of this month.
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